In an attempt to identify and promote applications relevant to India in the 5G realm, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has launched a 5G Hackathon, in association with a number of government academia and industry stakeholders.
According to a press release, to shortlist India-focussed cutting-edge ideas that can be converted into workable 5G products and solutions, the Hackathon will be spread across three phases.
The first phase began earlier this week. The programme will culminate in a grand felicitation ceremony at the India Mobile Congress on 16 October 2020.
Winners of the various phases will share a total prize pool of INR 2.5 crores (around US$ 346,707). They will also get the opportunity to scale up and implement their 5G applications to make them market-ready with the support of the DoT, Ministry of Electronics and IT, and several leading industry players.
5G technology is a quantum leap over 4G in terms of speed, peak data rate, latency, spectrum efficiency, and connection density. The most distinct feature is its applications in different economic verticals, the release stated.
The 5G Hackathon will convert innovating ideas into products and solutions in different verticals and develop India-specific use cases.
Various phases of the Hackathon broadly include:
- the preliminary submission of ideas
- the selection of 100 best ideas
- mentorship and support from the Hackathon partners
- the development of solutions/products
- the selection and testing of 30 best solutions/products on 5G trial network
- the felicitation of the three best ideas during the India Mobile Congress.
Participants can develop 5G solutions from across ten categories including, among others, healthcare; education and governance; agri-tech and livestock; the environment; public safety and disaster management; smart cities and infrastructure; cybersecurity; banking, finance and insurance; logistics and transportation; multimedia and broadcasting.
The 5G Hackathon is open to developers, students, start-ups, SMEs, academic institutions, and registered companies in India. Stakeholders can participate as individuals or as a team to present use cases for the 5G network in the context of India.
A jury comprising of academicians, industry leaders, and subject experts from around the country will facilitate the assessment and shortlisting of submissions.
Last year, a hackathon was organised by India’s policy commission, NITI Aayog. The hackathon sourced sustainable, innovative, and technologically-enabled solutions to address challenges in the development space.
As OpenGov reported earlier, the objective was to promote awareness and develop solutions that deliver efficient computing to address the infrastructure challenges, while not compromising on the privacy of data for training AI algorithms.
Another hackathon, the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2019¸ was organised by the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad on its campus. The event provided students with a platform to use technology to solve problems faced in everyday life, inculcate a culture of product innovation, and develop a problem-solving mindset.
It was an open innovation model to identify new and disruptive technology innovations to solve the challenges faced in the country. The SIH nodal centre at IIT-Hyderabad included nine teams from all over India consisting of six team members, each with two mentors.
