Kozhikode: The 'Grand Finale' of Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2019, which began at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, (NITC) here on Saturday, was inaugurated by Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar through video-conferencing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Javadekar interacted with the participants through video -conferencing in the evening.
Mr Javadekar said that around two lakh students from across the country had participated in the initial round of the event. Experts from multinational companies will also supervise the students and evaluate their skills.
As many as 29 teams comprising 232 students along with their mentors from various institutions across the country will showcase their coding skills in the programme.
NIT Calicut is one among the 48 nodal centres selected for hosting the event.
NITC director Prof. Shivaji Chakravorty welcomed the gathering at the inaugural function. Kerala Start-up Mission CEO Prof. Saji Gopinath, who is also director, IIITMK, Thiruvananthapuram, was the chief guest. NITC registrar K. Pankajakshan and Dean (students' welfare) Prof. S.D. Madhu Kumar were also present.
AICTE chairman Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe and SIH organising committee co-chair Dr. Anand Deshpande addressed the participants through video-conferencing.
The students at NIT Calicut are working on problems related to security and surveillance, healthcare and biomedical devices, clean water etc.
These have been assigned by MNCs Infosys, Dell EMC, Goldman Sachs and Mathworks.
The 36-hour non-stop coding competition will conclude on Sunday.
