Smart India Hackathon 2020 (SIH) 4th edition is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mind-set of problem-solving. SIH 2020 is the World’s Biggest Hackathon and Open Innovation model, which is an initiative by Ministry of Human Resource Development. SIH gives an opportunity to the students to work on the problems of Ministries, Industries and departments and come up with solutions. Few hundreds of problem statements submitted by various wings of ministry and industries are available on the SIH site. The best solutions for the problems will have nationwide recognition and visibility which will ultimately end up in either starting a venture or getting hired by the industries. This year the SIH idea submission process has been revised and it was mandated to conduct an internal hackathon at institute level and nominate 7 teams (5 software and 2 hardware) for SIH 2020.
In continuation of the above, a call for participation for the internal hackathon was circulated by mailto the faculty and students on 17th December 2019 with a link for google form. A total of 52 teams (30 software and 22 hardware) registered for the internal hackathon. An evaluation of the problem statements and ideas and mentoring of the 52 teams were scheduled on 7th and 10th Jan 2020. Mr. DoraiThodla met all the teams and guided them accordingly for the internal hackathon participation. After the evaluation, the date for the internal hackathon was fixed as 20th Jan 2020.
The internal hackathon for both software and hardware concurrently held at F14 and S13 seminar halls.The registered teams were asked to display their prototypes/demos and software ready by 9.00 am at F14 for software and S13 for hardware versions. A panel of Jury comprising of industry experts was invited for the evaluation of the projects. The jury members are as follows
| S.No | Name | Organization | Jury |
| 1 | Ms. AnanthiRajiah, Cyber Security Researcher and Software Developer | HTC | Hardware |
| 2 | Mr. Shriji, CTO | DIYA Labs | Hardware |
| 3 | Mr. Ravi Venkataramani, CEO | Exterpremedia Services | Software |
| 4 | Mr. J. ArasuShanker, CTO | Eshakthi | Software |
| 5 | Mr. Surya Parthasarathy, Associate Technical Director | GAVS Technologies | Software |
| 6 | Mr. RajkumarSivasubramainan, Associate Director | Virtusa | Software |
The Jury members were briefed on the objectives of the event and rubrics for shortlisting the teams for the recommendations. The Jury was split into two panels one for software and onefor hardware and started interacting with the teams and evaluated the prototypes displays by 10.30 am. The evaluation went till 3.45 pm for software and 4.00 pm for hardware versions. Based on the selection criteria scores, the following teams were shortlisted and recommended by the panel members for the nomination of teams by the institute for SIH 2020 participation.
Shortlisted teams
Software edition
| S.No | Team Name | Team Leader | Faculty Mentor |
| 1 | Prometheus | Mohammed Thariq.J | Dr.R. Dhanalakshmi |
| 2 | Hexagous | Syed Saifullah | Dr. A. Balaji |
| 3 | Miracle | Ram Sankar R | Dr. M. Krishnamurthy |
| 4 | Code Green | Hari Krishnan | Ms. A. Anju |
| 5 | Casids | Chetan | Dr. Deepa Jose |
Hardware edition
| S.No | Team Name | Team Leader | Faculty Mentor |
| 1 | Head honchos | Pelluru Sai Sushma | Mr. M. Vignesh |
| 2 | Rakshith | Suraj D | Ms. Jeetha Varghese |
The department of ECE and IETE organized group discussion contest for the welfare of students to improve the communication skill and to know pros and cons of “Social Media in Today’s World”. The contest was held for the 2nd& 3rdyear students with topic “Social Media in Today’s World”, on 03 Feb 2020 at F06 (Optical and Microwave Lab), between 2.00 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.. Dr. KavithaBalamurugan, Professor & Head/ECE, inaugurated the contest. Fourteen students participated in the event and shared their knowledge on Social Media. Dr. Agnes Nirmala J, Assistant Professor/S&H, KCG College of Technology judged the participants, and shared the points that the participants missed to convey. Mr. R. Dinesh Kumar of 2ndyear A section won the first prize, Mr. Achyu N of 2ndyear A section won the second prize and Mr. D. Shri Vaidya Raghavan of 3rdyear B section worn the third prize. Dr. Jose Anand, Associate Professor/ECE, & IETE Student Forum (ISF) Co-ordinatororganized the event.
Founder’s Memorial Day 2020
Completing successfully its twentieth year of service in the field of technical education, with a great sense of pride, KCG College of Technology observed the Memorial Day of the Founder Chairman Dr KCG Verghese on 14th February, 2020.
The solemn occasion witnessed the presence of Chairperson Dr Elizabeth Verghese, Director and CEO Dr Anand Jacob Verghese, Director Dr Annie Jacob, Director Dr Aby Sam, Director Mr Ashok Verghese, Director Dr Susan Marthandan, Principals, Deans, Heads, faculty and students from all units of Hindustan Group of Institution. Well wishers of the Hindustan Group and family members were also present. Mr A John Louis IAS, District Collector Chengalpattu, Mr JCD Prabhakar, Ex-MLA Villivakkam Constituency, Rev. Dr S Xavier Alphonse, Director Indian Centre for Research and Development of Community Education were the special invitees.
Dr Annie Jacob, Director, KCG College of Technology welcomed the gathering and observed that consistent success enjoyed by KCG College was due to the enlightened guidance of the management, accomplished and supportive faculty, hard working students and the abundant grace of Lord Almighty. Dr G. Prabhakar Principal, KCG College of Technology introduced the Chief Guest and highlighted the reasons behind naming the multipurpose auditorium after the former President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam.
The chief guest Mr A John Louis inaugurated APJ Abdul Kalam Multipurpose Auditorium and in his address referred to hard work and perseverance, the qualities that helped Dr Verghese attain success. Mr JCD Prabhakar recounted the philanthropic services of Dr Verghese under the banner of YMCA and Y’s Men International. Rev. Dr S Xavier Alphonse highlighted the accomplishments of Dr Verghese and said that it is fitting to observe the Memorial Day in the auditorium named after Dr Kalam as they both shared similar attributes and interests.
Dr Susan Marthandan, Director, Hindustan College of Arts and Science announced that under the aegis of Dr KCG Verghese Charitable Trust, Rs 20 lakhs will be donated for constructing a separate block with smart classrooms in Government School, Kelambakkam. The Headmaster of the school received a token of the commitment from the Chairperson.
A beautiful Souvenir detailing the myriad achievements of KCG College of Technology and documenting its growth from 1998 was released. All those who were involved in the successful completion of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam auditorium were also appreciated.
Dr Anand Jacob Verghese proposed the Vote of Thanks. He said the inauguration of the impressive auditorium with its indoor sports facilities reflected the late Dr KCG Verghese vision that the students should have the latest sports facilities. He thanked all the guests and members of the Hindustan Group, faculty and students for coming to pay their respect to the great educationist and visionary Dr KCG Verghese.
Sapling Plantation on Founder’s Memorial Day on 14th February 2020
Three sapotta saplings were planted during the Founder’s Memorial Day on 14th February 2020 at KCG College of Technology by the Chief Guests.
An Intradepartmental Mini Project Challenge was organized on 28th Feb 2020, and witnessed a massive response from students of all programmes. More than 400 students participated in the Challenge, displaying 144 innovative projects, reflecting an impressive array of path-breaking ideas. It provided students an opportunity to interact with experts from industry and build on their existing knowledge.
CSE
93 students comprised into 31 teams participated in the event and the projects were presented and demonstrated to the judges in Charles Babbage Laboratory. Each team was assigned a mentor and the projects were evaluated based on parameters like technical competency, social relevance, articulation / presentation and business perspective by the following two industry experts: Ms. Priya Damodaran, Senior Technical Lead, HCL Technologies, SEZ, ELCOT, and Ms. Vidhya Boopalan, Technical Manager, HCL – CISCO Offshore Development Centre.
The prize winning projects were “Early Detection of Sepsis”, “E –Commerce platform for selling handicrafts”, and “Bill Prediction”.
IT
Ten teams participated in the event. Projects were presented in the Steve Jobs laboratory. Each team was assigned a mentor and the projects were evaluated based on parameters like technical competency, social relevance, articulation / presentation. The members of the jury panel were Divyapriya V, System Engineer, Mind Tree Pvt Ltd, and Amreen S, System Analyst, IBM.
The prize winning projects were Water Reminder App, AL Based Crop Field Identification Mobile App, and CARE-YOU.
MECH
15 teams participated in the EVENT. Projects were demonstrated in the Sir Isaac Newton Dynamics Lab. The projects were adjudged by Mr. A. Robinson, Manager, CJ Titanium. Three teams were selected based on their Idea generation, Design, working and presentation.
The winning projects were Agribot, Design and Fabrication of Collision Avert System, Design and Fabrication of Hybrid Jet Turbine.
AERO
A preliminary screening of mini project competition was conducted on 25th February 2020.After the review 18 teams were selected for the final exhibition. Screening was done under the presence of project mentors and subject experts. Final Exhibition and review was on 28th February, 9am at Wright brothers Aero Hanger. All the 18 projects were displayed informatively and various department students of first year and second year visited the exhibition.
The final round judgement was made by the following experts Mr. A Mohammed Azurarudeen, Technical illustrator, Boeing India Pvt Ltd Prof. R R Elangovan, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, KCG College of Technology.
The winning projects were Desktop Wind Tunnel, Refrigerating Bottle, Computational Analysis of Grid Fins.
EEE
A total of 22 batches participated in the event. The projects were demonstrated in Nyquist Electronics & Instrumentation Laboratory of EEE Department. The projects were judged by two eminent personalities, one from Industry and one from academia: Ms. C. Karthick, Senior Design Engineer, Schneider Electric, Dr. G. Sambandan, Faculty Advisor, Department of Electrical Sciences.
The winning projects were Solar Powered Pottery Making Assembler, Design and Development of Gate Driver circuit using IR2110, Anomalous Waste Segregation System.
EIE
7 teams took part in the challenge and demonstrated their projects in the CDCE Automation Lab. Each team was assigned a mentor The projects were adjudged by Mr. Suresh Kumar M, Senior Manager, Digital EPCS Pvt Ltd. The winning projects were Emergency Safety for car, Home Automation, Smart Irrigation system.
ECE
30 teams took part in the Mini Project challenge held in the Optical Laboratory. A review was done by the mentors of each project before the final presentation. The projects were adjudged by Mr. Rajadurai Samuel, Senior Technical Lead, HCL Technologies. The winning projects were Water Consumption Monitoring System, Sun Tracking solar Panel, Crop Protection from Animals.
CIVIL
12 teams took part in the challenge and displayed both static and working models. Many of them reflected innovative thinking on part of the students. The projects were adjudged by Mr. Mendu Gopi Parthasarathy, Vice Chairman – Indian Plumbing Association, Managing Director – D & L Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd. The winning projects were Water Filtration using Bio Char, Hydraulic Ram Pump, Piezo Electric Walkway.
Outcome
- It was an opportunity for students to apply their theoretical knowledge which ensured that exponential learning took place. It has instilled in them the ability to learn independently beyond the confines of the curriculum.
- Interaction with industry experts helped them to understand how to scale up their projects.
- This challenge also provided them an opportunity to enhance their communication skills, interpersonal skills, and time management. This in turn has given them more confidence.
The panel Judges were impressed with the work of the students. They gave suggestions to each team on how to improve their research work.
Tree Sapling Plantation – February 2020
EWB-India KCG College of Technology Student Chapter involved in planting tree sapling along the lake side of KCG College of Technology College Road in the Month of February 2020.
