CHENNAI: Rajalakshmi Engineering College conducted a 36-hour Hack-a-thon recently.
Around 140 teams from across the country took part in this event held by the Department of Information and Technology in association with the Computer Society of India. The students were given problems in sectors of health, agriculture, entertainment, weather forecast and social issues.
There were three mentoring sessions from alumni and industry experts to help the participants narrow down on specifics. “Augmented Reality, Internet of Things ( and mobile applications are some of the tracks which students have preferred to work on,” said Poonkhuzali, HoD, department of information and technology.
Twelve hours into the competition, the team from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering were done with the basic framework of their ‘Smart Irrigation Monitoring System’ project. The rig monitors humidity, temperature and soil moisture which can be read from an application built by the team.
“The idea is to help farmers control irrigation from their mobile phones,” said Manjula S, a member of the team. The rig in addition to letting the farmer monitor multiple parameters from a single application, will also help conserve water.
While the team from Venkateshwara college were fine tuning their rig and adding accessories to the app they created, the home team from Rajalakshmi Engineering College were making inroads in augmented reality in museum tourism. “We want to breathe life into the exhibits at a museum,” said Vignesh C, a team member.
Each exhibit will be fed into the application which will enrich the experience of viewing the piece of history. The winner of the event will win a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and also be recommended for an internship in their field of interest.