IoT Sensor Board Based National Hackathon by IIT Madras & Sony India Open For Registration

People across India can now participate in the National hackathon called ‘SAMVEDAN 2021 – Sensing Solutions for Bharat’. Registrations for this Grand Challenge Competition ha been opened on July 1st, 2021. It is open to all Indian nationals residing in India.  Jointly organised by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation (IITM-PTF) and Sony India Software Centre.  The participants can use the Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation’s SPRESENSE™ Board for this challenge. IITM-PTF is a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) for Sensor, Networking, Actuators, and Control Systems (SNACS) area supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).

Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary DST, Government of India, invited participation from all over the country.  “The future is all about a tight convergence of physical systems with communication, computing, information and data gathering, machine sensing, autonomous decisions and actions and control. Thus sensors of all sorts will play a vital role in the Cyber-Physical Systems.” He said.

A team with maximum of three members can register for the hackathon. It will be held in three phases — quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals.  75 ideas will be selected for the quarter-finals, and  25 best ideas out of them will be further chosen for the semi-finals.

There will be seven finalists. The best teams will win prizes worth 3 Lakhs. The winners will also be eligible for an entrepreneurial support scheme by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation. Besides, each quarter finalist will be provided with a SPRESENSETM board free of cost by Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation through IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation.

“IITM-PTF is committed not only to identify innovative solutions and talents across the country in the area of sensor-based solutions but also to provide a platform to successful start-ups that could solve societal problems of national importance. SAMVEDAN is one of the platforms to enable this. IITM-PTF plans to offer Entrepreneur-In-Residence scholarship for the top team for a year which will enable them to nurture it into a start-up.” Said Event Coordinator Prof. V. Kamakoti, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras.

Masayuki Toriumi, Managing Director, Sony India Software Centre, said, “We are very pleased to be able to contribute to India’s problems and challenges by using Sony’s leading-edge technology, India’s excellent software engineering resources, and the ecosystem involving the public and private sectors. I hope that more and more people will take advantage of this unique opportunity to participate in the project and come up with innovative ideas that will represent Amazing India.”