Winners of DST Geospatial Hackathon 2023

Hyderabad, June 2, 2023: CIE (Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship), one of India's largest and oldest academic incubators, fostering deep-fetch early-stage startups at IIIT (International Institute of Information Technology)-Hyderabad, a leading research university in the country hosted recently the final event of the Geospatial Hackathon in Collaboration with DST (Department of Science and Technology), SOI (Survey of India) and Microsoft.

 
The four winners were selected.  The final 4 winners-built solutions including Weather Forecast API services, efficient Geographical Text Analysis etc. The hackathon attracted over 500 applications, of whom 70 were selected for the final round.
 

The winners of the challenge are Faizan Khan (A high-resolution, dynamic and accurate weather forecast API ), Dhanashri Patil (App, that will measure the UN SDG Goals via Geospatial data), Ambarish Ganguly (The socio-economic data that would be consolidated with geospatial data as well as tabular data), VSS Kiran (GeoAI entity recognition model to extract a predefined set of entities from raw text and generate thematic maps).

The DST Geospatial Hackathon offers the winners a POC(Proof of Concept) to work with Survey of India, Tech Support from IIITH and Azure credits from Microsoft. Also, the opportunities to participate and present at industry events.

The 4 winners were selected post a national campaign that attracted applications from a large number of startups/research teams and students applying. CIE IIIT-H launched the hackathon earlier this year on 14 January 2023.

The Geospatial Hackathon had two challenges: A Startup Challenge to promote the use of geospatial technologies in solving real-world problems. The second one was the Research Challenge, which was specific to real-time geospatial problem statements given by DST (Survey of India). The challenges were open to students, innovators, researchers, working professionals and startups.

The top 5 in each challenge are Team Sac (a model that learns segmentation features effectively through a diverse set of satellite images using deep learning), Team Technosync (Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology that enables the creation of a decentralized and secure digital record of transactions), Pyare Lal ( point cloud segmentation using deep learning is to utilize the RandlaNet architecture), Garudylatics (GeoAI model which is capable of real-time identification and classification of road cracks), CommutLink (contactless solutions to identify violations in the use of cycle lanes, capture evidence of violation), and The Saviour (Precision agriculture, Environmental monitoring, Building a community for farmers).

The Finale Event of the DST Geospatial Hackathon was held for all the winners and the top 5, which was joined by the DST, SOI, Microsoft and IIIT-Hyderabad Teams.

Prof. Ramesh Loganathan, COO at CIE-IIITH said “Very happy that IIITH got the opportunity to drive this unique challenge hackathon to get solutions from both research and startups. Such initiatives are much needed to seed and nurture innovations coming from research”.

DN Pathak, Director at Survey (Air) & Delhi Geo-spatial Data Centre, Survey of India said “The Geospatial Hackathon not only showcased the power of geospatial technology but also exemplified the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Participants showcased remarkable problem-solving abilities throughout the hackathon and utilized geospatial data to uncover valuable insights. The creative solutions developed during the event highlighted the potential of geospatial technology to transform industries, improve decision-making, and create sustainable solutions for a better future”

Sanjay Dhingra, Director at Public Sector, Microsoft said “The Great Collaboration between Microsoft, IIITH, DST and SOI has created an incredible journey, a hackathon dedicated to Geospatial Technology. We are excited to carry this momentum forward inspiring others and making a long-lasting impact in the world of Geospatial technology".

The winners of the DST Geospatial Hackathon, Startup Challenge are
Tensor Dynamics A high-resolution, dynamic and accurate weather forecast API providing weather data at multiple spatiotemporal scales designed to serve the needs of the Power industry.

Morai Solutions The solution is to develop an App that will measure the UN SDG Goals via Geospatial data. For Eg, in the case of hospitals (UN SDG Goal 3 - Healthcare), it will display the spatial distribution of Hospitals in a given area and per population density. A progress tracker will measure the SDG Goal progress every year.

The winners of the DST Geospatial Hackathon, Research Challenge are:
Ambarish Ganguly The solution would be to develop the Socio-Economic Hub for India. The socio-economic data would be consolidated with geospatial data as well as tabular data.

Garudalytics Pvt Ltd Developed a GeoAI entity recognition model to extract a predefined set of entities from raw text and generate thematic maps.

The Top 5 of the DST Geospatial Hackathon, Startup Challenge are
Tensor Dynamics A high-resolution, dynamic and accurate weather forecast API providing weather data at multiple spatiotemporal scales designed to serve the needs of the Power industry.

Morai Solutions The solution is to develop an App that will measure the UN SDG Goals via Geospatial data. For Eg, in the case of hospitals (UN SDG Goal 3 - Healthcare), it will display the spatial distribution of Hospitals in a given area and per population density. A progress tracker will measure the SDG Goal progress every year.

Garudylatics Pvt Ltd GeoAI model which is capable of real-time identification and classification of road cracks, potholes and other features on archived and live video feeds. It analyzes their spatial density and severity and presents the information on a dashboard.

CommutLink Develop contactless solutions to identify violations in the use of cycle lanes, capture evidence of violation (infringement by other vehicles for movement or stopping) and alert the same to concerned authorities for enforcement.