UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, has announced the winners of its fourth edition of D3CODE, a hackathon event for participants in five countries – India, the USA, the UK, Mexico, and Malaysia. The competition witnessed overwhelming participation, with over 7,000 registrations and 800 ideas submitted across locations.
This year’s theme, ‘Scale,’ called for scalable solutions to create a positive impact by addressing issues of social impact such as education, health, poverty, and environmental sustainability. Each country initially held the hackathons, and the winning teams from each nation advanced to compete in the Grand Finale. A rigorous judging process evaluated the entries based on their originality, potential social impact, scalability of the solution, and user experience, among other factors. Each region qualified five winning teams for the final round, from which we selected one global winner and regional winners.
The winning team received $10,000, while regional hackathon winners will win $5000. UST awarded $2400 each to the teams that received honorary mentions. UST will felicitate the global hackathon winner at its annual global technology conference, D3 (Dream, Develop, and Disrupt), in India. Additionally, the winners may qualify for seed funding to help bring their ideas to the market, backed by UST’s extensive expertise and network.
Speaking on this global initiative, Manu Gopinath, Chief Operating Officer, UST, said, “The purpose of D3CODE is to serve as a platform for innovators in technology to showcase their forward-thinking ideas in creating groundbreaking solutions to address real-world problems with scalable solutions. This year’s hackathon focused not just on the technical prowess of the participants but also on cultivating social responsibility and creating meaningful impacts on society. I congratulate all the winners for their outstanding performances. As we continue to push the boundaries of technological advancements, events like D3CODE remind us of the limitless potential of young minds and their role in shaping a better, more sustainable future.”
The following teams were declared winners of the D3CODE Hackathon 2024:
Global Winner: Leon Kipkoech from Florida National University, Miami, Florida, for ‘Dynamic ASL transcription for Video Platforms’.
India Region Winners:
First Prize: Khusbu Rai and Teamfrom Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University New Delhi for ‘Recycle Radar: Turning Waste into Opportunity’.
Second Prize: Akash Jadhav and Team fromSavitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtrafor ‘AI-Driven Crop Disease Prediction and Management System’.
Third Prize: Roshin R and team from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala for ‘Employment Portal and Marketplace for Unorganized Workers and Small-Scale Producers’.
Honorary mention: Omkar Deshpande and Team from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, for ‘Camera-Based Navigation of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)’.
UK Region Winners:
First Prize: Salman Fatahillah and Sainsna Demizike from the University of Birmingham, London, UK for ‘SMS-based AI and Behavioral Science-Informed Messaging for Underserved Communities’.
Mexico Region Winners:
First Prize: Pablo Esteban Murillo Mata and Team from Universidad Tecnológica de León, León, Guanajuato, México for ‘AquaHub’.
Second Prize: Alan Arana Carrillo and Team from Universidad La Salle Bajio for ‘QuantumSim’.
Third Prize: Uriel Mendoza Rodríguez and Team from La Salle Bajío for ‘EcoCity’.
Malaysia Region Winners:
First Prize: Muhammad Shahril Nizam Bin Abdullah and Team from Multimedia University, Kuala Lumpur, for ‘Sentinel AI: Real-Time Violence Detection for Safer Community’.
Second Prize: Muhammad Zul Iman Bin Zul Wizaratain from University Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abddullah, Tasek Gelugor, Penang, for ‘Smart Waste Sorting System with Capacity Monitoring’.
Third Prize: Nawal Izzah Binti Azhar and Team from Universiti teknikal malaysia melaka George Town, Penang for ‘Razzbotics RetroBot: A versatile retrofit kit that transforms any trolley or cart into an autonomous solution’.
D3CODE is one of many exciting events for UST’s D3, a week-long conference with a technology expo. On October 17, 2024, UST’s D3 will take place at the Travancore International Convention Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. It will include a full-day conference featuring renowned speakers and a keynote speech from Krishna Sudheendra, Chief Executive Officer, UST. Other esteemed speakers include Chris Heemskerk, CEO, The Innovation Alliance; T Koshy, MD & CEO, Open Network for Digital Commerce; Dhanniya Venkatasalapathy, Executive Director, Cloud Solutions, Microsoft India; Paul Gladigau, CTO, Equifax; Simon Lister, CIO, Capital One UK; Balaji Narayana, SVP, Technology and Innovation, Chief Technology Officer, CarynHealth; Niranjan Ram, CTO, UST; Andy Morin, Chief Solutions, Architect, UST; Sripathi Jagannathan, Head of Data Engineering, UST.