The annual Tech Challenge 5.0 organised by Capgemini, to identify the best programmers and tech enthusiasts from across the country, witnessed more than 1,35,000 registered participants this year, of which 36 per cent were women. This shows a marked increase of 22 per cent from last year.
On the final day, the top 55 finalists competed in a live hackathon held at Capgemini’s Pune Hinjewadi campus. The jury panel comprised Ashwin Yardi, COO, Capgemini in India; A B Ravi, editor-special projects, CNBC-TV18; Dr Vahida Z. Attar, head-Dept of Computer Engineering & IT, College of Engineering Pune, Pune; Girish Wardadkar, head, Sogeti India and Sarika Naik, chief marketing officer & chairperson – diversity & inclusion for Capgemini in India.
The hackathon this year was won by Team Juggernauts, comprising Adithya AN, Meetkumar Patel, Rajesh Kumar Sundaramurthy, Sandeep Kogge, Suvajit Majumdar and Tejaswini Khambe. The six of them together had created a proof-of-concept of an application called ‘KUDAConnect,’ for effective garbage disposal and waste recycling. The winners will receive a prize money of INR 3 lakhs and will qualify for the final round of interviews for potential employment opportunities at Capgemini.
The theme for the final challenge this year was ‘environment sustainability’. The finalists were required to develop proofs-of-concept for solutions to either reduce carbon emissions, improve urban planning or to manage waste.
The winning solution, KUDAConnect, proposes an Android platform to connect government authorities, local agencies as well as citizens and other stakeholder to ensure a seamless garbage disposal and waste management process for the community. The solution can be made more user-friendly by integrating Deep Learning and can also be integrated with Google Maps so that common garbage disposal locations in nearest to the user can be identified, ensuring efficiency.
In 2017, the Tech Challenge finalists were given a social challenge where contestants had to create prototypes to solve the problem of missing children in India. The prototype was later converted into a real app called ReUnite, which is soon going live in the Android store.
“We are overwhelmed by the huge success of the 5th edition of Tech Challenge. This year, we witnessed record participation with an increase of over 40% in registrations, compared to the last season’s challenge,” said Ashwin Yardi, chief industrialisation and automation officer, and chief operating officer of Capgemini in India. “We believe that Tech Challenge has become one of the most popular engagement platforms that promotes innovation and connects tech enthusiasts from across India to exchange ideas and contribute positively to building a better society. I would like to congratulate all the winners.”
This hackathon aims to orient young techies to the skills needed in the age of digital disruption and provide them with the opportunity to solve real-world business and social challenges with the help of emerging technologies.
