Hyderabad recently witnessed a Hackathon eve-nt spread over two days, which was attended by over 100 hackers.
Based on IoT (Internet of Things) ecosystem, the theme of the event was “safe and secure planet”.
Twenty four teams, each comprising maximum of four members, were given 48 hours to come up with an idea and present their apps. Only 11 teams could make it to the next round. Of the final 11, two ideas that stood out were Energia and City Pollution Monitoring. The teams received cash prizes of Rs 10,000, and a chance to pitch their ideas to British Parliament.
Energia
Developed by Kshitij Agarwal, a 23-year old student from IIIT-Hyderabad, and his friends, Namra Maheshwari, Lakshya Khublani and Piyush Poddar, Energia helps provide an easy, low-cost way to monitor power usage.
Talking about it, Kshitij says, “With our app we aim to provide an easy, low cost way to monitor power usage and make smarter use of heating, air conditioners and lighting systems in commercial buildings, using the occupants’ real-time location.” He adds, “A lot of energy is wasted in commercial buildings due to unoptimised usage (estimated at about 30-40 per cent of the total usage). Multiply that by the number of buildings, which run into millions. The stark magnitude of the problem we are addressing and the underlying opportunity to conserve better will be apparent.”
Along with his team, Kshitij hopes that the world will make better use of this app in future. He says, “We aim to develop this concept further with the insights we received during this competition.”
City Pollution Monitoring
Developed by 23-year-old Satish V. Madala, who runs a company called Satinos Technologies Pvt Ltd, and his employees, Bharath K. Madala and Vijaya Krishna Nimmagadda, the app, City Pollution Monitoring, helps capture the level of pollutants in the air.
Talking about the application, Satish says, “Imagine a thousand sensors in our city installed to capture air quality and temperature data. With the help from those sensors, our application can seamlessly aggregate the values from the network of sensors and visualise it. And can also check the levels of pollution anywhere in the state (provided there are sensors installed) at a given time.” He adds, “Many industries in the state emit suspended particulate matter that is more than 115 mg per metre cube. This is dangerous for health. May be when you have data, you can go and question them,” he says.
