Announcing the winners of the SAMVEDAN Grand Challenge Competition in India

The winners of the “SAMVEDAN” Grand Challenge have been announced at the closing ceremony of the competition, which took place on the 22nd of March 2022, at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras). The event was organized by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation and sponsored by Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation Japan and Sony India Software Centre Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore. Sony is the 1st private sector company to collaborate with a Technology Innovation Hub which is supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government Of India, to host a nation-wide hackathon in India.

The theme of the contest was to use the Spresense hardware to develop sensing solutions to problems of social relevance. Seven teams have reached the finals and been awarded, out of a total count of 180 teams across India that enrolled and submitted their proposals since the launching of the contest, in March 2021. After reviewing the ideas, Spresense Developer Kits were provided to 75 semi-finalists to create their Proof-of-Concept (PoC).

The 1st award went to a project that proposed for Spresense to be used for predictive maintenance for 3D printers. The 2nd place was occupied by two teams. Their proposals focused on the early detection of the infected plants in the cotton field, and on using Spresense for augmenting the vision of the visionless while navigating. The third prize was awarded to four teams. Their use cases included Spresense for different purposes, such as remote monitoring of vital environmental parameters of AC coaches in trains, monitoring the sleeping position of infants to avoid SIDS, building a smarter elector validation system for India and an IoT-enabled platform for conducting laboratory experiments remotely.

“The new digital India will see multiple cyber-physical systems based on sensors. This Grand Challenge Competition (GCC) has served as a motivation for many to develop sensing solutions of social relevance to our country. At the same time, the Sony – IITM Pravartak collaboration has provided access to state-of-the-art sensor platforms”, mentioned Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras.