On September 8, 2026, Girijananda Chowdhury University (GCU), Assam hosted its Internal Hackathon for the AICTE Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2026. Held at the Department of Computer Science & Engineering on the third floor, the event was organized under the banner of the Programming Club and coordinated by Dr. Adarsh Pradhan, Assistant Professor in the Department of CSE. The competition saw enthusiastic participation from 114 students grouped into 19 teams, representing diverse academic programs including B.Tech (CSE, ECE, and CE), BCA, MCA, B.Sc. Computer Science, and B.Pharm. The primary goal of the event was to identify and shortlist the most promising technological concepts that could represent the University in the upcoming National-Level Competition. The participating teams presented their projects before a panel of subject matter experts comprised of faculty members from the Department of CSE − Ritushree Dutta, Mala Ahmed, Dharitri Sarkar, Gayatri Duwarah, and Manash Pratim Lahkar. They evaluated the projects focusing on evaluation metrics such as the novelty of the idea, technical complexity, format clarity, feasibility, practicability, sustainability, scale of impact, user experience, and the potential for future work progression. During the hackathon, students tackled a wide array of real-world problem statements issued by various ministries and organizations. The selected themes showcased a strong focus on regional and national challenges, such as developing AI-based smart logistics and accessibility intelligence platforms for the North Eastern Region, and creating conversational AI like WeatherGPT for climate information. Other teams worked on strengthening market linkages and price discovery for farmers, developing urban flood nowcasting systems, leveraging satellite imagery for oil spill detection, and brainstorming ideas to boost student fitness activities. The Internal Round concluded with the shortlisting of the top-performing teams, who will now receive further mentoring and preparation before moving forward to represent Girijananda Chowdhury University in the official submission process of SIH 2026. The event reflects the University’s continued dedication to fostering innovation among students and empowering them to make meaningful contributions toward solving real-world problems.
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