Pune: Innerve 9.0, one of India’s largest student-driven hackathons, concluded successfully at the Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune, reinforcing its position as a hub for innovation and industry-academia collaboration.
Organized by the Open Source Software (OSS) Club of AIT, the event saw an overwhelming participation of 9,500+ students from 2,500+ teams, competing to solve real-world challenges through technological innovation. The Grand Finale, held on February 7–8, featured 31 top teams working intensively for 24 hours to develop groundbreaking solutions across 10 technology verticals.
The ₹12,00,000 prize pool saw Team Luminocity from Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, clinch the top prize of ₹1,25,000. Their team members Vivek Agarwal, Naman Parlecha, Bhuvam M, and Mohit Nagaraj demonstrated exceptional problem-solving skills.
Other winners included:
Second Prize (₹75,000): MIT Academy of Engineering, Alandi Pune (Paras Satpute and Zaki Shahapure)
Third Prize (₹50,000): GH Raisoni College of Engineering & Management, Wagholi Pune (Shahid Shaikh, Arman Kadri, Dolar Jain & Tarun Shikawal)
Ingenious Spark Prize (₹25,000): Dr. DY Patil Institute of Engineering, Management & Research (Team Leader: Aniruddha Narayan)
Visionary Spark Prize (₹15,000): Army Institute of Technology, Pune (Team Leader: Prince)
Industry sponsors Josh Software, Cloudflare, and UdChalo presented unique challenges, leading to solutions such as:
AI-driven fraud detection for scam call prevention (Josh Software)
AI-powered meeting assistant for workflow automation (Cloudflare)
A military-themed offline game (UdChalo)
Each sponsor awarded ₹15,000 for the most innovative solutions. Participants also received goodies and swags from sponsors and AIT.
The Prize Distribution Ceremony, led by Maj Gen KK Chakrabarti, Chairman of AIT, celebrated the innovative and impactful projects of the finalists. In his address, he emphasized that hackathons like Innerve serve as training grounds for real-world problem-solving, fostering the ability to think critically, collaborate effectively, and innovate under pressure. AIT Director Brig Abhay Bhat delivered a vote of thanks.