AICTE hackathon to draw ideas from students for national issues

Delivering his address about international benchmarking and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at the Engineers Conclave jointly organised by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras on Friday, AICTE chairman Prof Anil D. Sahasrabudhe said that a number of students have innovative solutions to a variety of problems faced by the country at present. So, in an effort to tap and bring such talent to light, the council had planned to conduct the hackathon. “We are now making a list of problems from industries, government ministries like railways, water resources, health and education. We will put out the list online and students will have two or three months to work out their ideas or solutions to each issue,” Sahasrabudhe explained. Pointing out that students would be shortlisted for the hackathon after two or three rounds, the AICTE chairman said that the 36-hour exercise in January would be conducted in 30 different places across the country.