National-level hackathon in Puducherry draws talent from across country

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A national-level AI hackathon hosted by Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College (SMVEC) drew implicit    2,500 participants from institutions crossed  the country.

A national-level AI hackathon hosted by Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College (SMVEC) drew implicit 2,500 participants from institutions crossed the country. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A national-level hackathon hosted by Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College (SMVEC) drew implicit 2,500 participants from institutions crossed the country.

A property enactment said the ‘AI IGNITE’, billed arsenic India’s archetypal nationalist agentic AI hackathon, connected the taxable “Igniting Excellence”, attracted implicit 1,000 registerant teams. After a rigorous screening process, 130 teams were shortlisted, retired of which 106 teams, comprising 395 students actively participated successful the last 36-hour hackathon held connected the SMVEC campus.

The hackathon simulated a real-world level to promote students to design, develop, and deploy innovative solutions utilizing Agentic Artificial Intelligence, bridging the spread betwixt world learning and manufacture expectations.

To guarantee manufacture relevance and prime evaluation, 8 eminent manufacture experts were invited arsenic judges. The shortlisted apical 8 teams presented their projects straight earlier the manufacture experts. This unsocial vulnerability enabled students to person adept feedback and manufacture insights, and respective promising teams were rewarded with internship opportunities, further strengthening industry–academia collaboration, the SMVEC said.

Senthil Ranganathan, CEO / President – Athena Technology Inc., who was the main guest, distributed prizes to the winners. The archetypal prize carried a currency grant of ₹1,00,000, the 2nd prize ₹50,000, and 3rd prize ₹25,000. Besides, 5 teams were awarded consolation prizes of ₹10,000 each.

In his address, Mr. Ranganathan offered an industry-insider’s position connected the improvement of exertion — from the Y2K epoch and automation to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

He highlighted that AI was chiseled from erstwhile technological waves owed to its continuous learning and predictive capabilities, which were transforming industries, specified arsenic manufacturing, healthcare, and operations. He elaborated connected the relation of AI agents and multi-agent systems successful solving circumstantial problems and enabling scalable solutions.

He encouraged students to leverage AI to lick real-world problems, go aboriginal entrepreneurs, and physique globally impactful solutions portion moving from India. He was of the presumption that AI would not regenerate jobs, but alternatively amplify quality imaginable erstwhile utilized with creativity, captious thinking, and affectional intelligence.

In his statesmanlike address, D. Rajarajan, Pro Chancellor, Takshashila University spoke of however Agentic AI has fundamentally transformed creativity and innovation. He noted that dissimilar earlier times, wherever gathering a bundle institution required ample teams and important funding, contiguous a azygous idiosyncratic with a wide vision, a laptop, and effectual connection skills tin physique impactful solutions utilizing AI agents.

He exhorted students to clasp AI arsenic a productivity enhancer alternatively than fearing it, and urged them to go visionary engineers who orchestrate solutions alternatively of simply executing tasks.

Earlier, V. S. K. Venkatachalapathy, Director-cum- Principal, SMVEC inaugurated the event. Vaishnavi Rajarajan, Trustee of Sri Manakula Vinayagar Educational Trust and J. Madhusudanan, Professor and Head, Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, SMVEC, besides spoke.

Published - January 29, 2026 08:08 p.m. IST

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