Sona College of Technology Emerge Victorious Three Times in a Row in Smart India Hackathon 2023

The Sona College of Technology student team in Salem achieved the top position in the national competition of the Smart India Hackathon 2023 organized by the Union Ministry of Education. Check details here 

The Sona College of Technology student team in Salem secured the first position in the Union Ministry of Education's Smart India Hackathon 2023 national competition. Their inventive solution targets the pollution arising from construction and demolition waste. This success sets a new record for the Civil Engineering students, marking their third consecutive win of the top position in the Smart India Hackathon.

The Sona College Civil Engineering student team has achieved a hat trick, securing the first prize in the Smart India Hackathon for three consecutive years - 2020, 2022, and 2023. This remarkable accomplishment comes with a cash award of INR 100,000. (There was no hackathon in 2021).

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recommended that the Smart India Hackathon organizers prioritize finding a solution for the 'Effective management of construction and demolition waste.' This challenge garnered significant interest from student teams representing engineering colleges and universities nationwide. Harshini E K, a final year Civil Engineering student and team leader, found this particular Hackathon particularly significant, given her previous participation in the Sona College team that secured the first prize in 2022.

Working continuously for five days, the team developed a solution demonstrating that construction and demolition waste can be sustainably redeployed on a commercial scale. The process involved crushing waste, sieving it into coarse and fine aggregates, and adding it to a molten mixture prepared using empty polypropylene bags used for transporting cement. This molten compound binds the coarse and fine aggregates in paver blocks or bricks.

"In moulding Civil engineering professionals, our focus was traditionally on the technical aspects of designing and building structures. However, with Sona Group's commitment to sustainability, our researchers now actively pursue responsible development, with an eye on protecting the environment and making Planet Earth a better place to live," notes Mr Chocko Valliappa, Vice Chairman of Sona Group of Institutions.

In the 2022 Hackathon, the Sona College team won first prize with a unique solution utilizing Covid Personal Protective Equipment kits in the creation of plastic bricks. The 2023 Hackathon finals were held at the Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator (Forge), Coimbatore.

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