Maker Village Team’s ‘Smart Jacket’ for BSF Bags First Prize in Startup Hackathon

KOCHI:
A smart safety jacket for Border Security personnel that senses imminent attacks on the wearer and communicates the location of the enemy in real time, has won the first prize at a two-day hackathon for product start-ups developing smart solutions for everyday problems.
The prototype safety jacket, was developed by Ajay Sangwan, Rohit T and Vivek Jose from Kochi’s Maker Village electronics incubator under their “Quick response eco-systems for Border Security Forces” project.
Besides the smart jacket, the team also developed an IT-enabled hardware device which can be installed along the borders to detect human presence and alert the control room. According to the developers, the device has passive infrared sensors which measure thermal radiations which help to distinguish between human and other presence.
The two-day ‘Hack2help’ event was jointly hosted by the US Consulate General Chennai and Learning Links Foundation, with the support of Kerala Start up Mission, Maker Village and Science Society of India.
The hackathon, held at the Kerala Technology Innovation Zone, drew participation from 120 students (30 teams) from colleges across Kerala.
Hack2help, which was open to students above 16 years, aimed to spur ideation and innovative thinking among youth to solve real world problems by building smart solutions to issues in education, healthcare, citizen services, agriculture and farming, smart technology, disaster management, clean and green energy.
It focused on idea scouting, problem defining, ideating for solutions and on-the-spot solution development.
A group of students from School of Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology won the second prize for coming up with technology solution to address the problem of dirty public toilets in India. Samir Dayal Singh, Mayank Raj, Abhinav Gautam and Shantanu Garg were the team members.
Jithin M S, Govindan Nampoothiri, Jobin Joseph and Clinz Stephen of Saintgits College of Engineering bagged the third prize for developing a web portal that he
lps farmers sell their products direct to the end customer.
Sivaprasad K, Arshad M P, Manikandan Vijayan and Gokuladas V R of College of Engineering, Cherthala won the fourth prize for their ‘Augmented Reality-based’ dissection tool for learning that eliminates the need for lab dissection of animals.
Around 10 mentors and judges from industry, start-up ecosystem and academia participated and worked with the teams.