Hyderabad: The International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) on Friday announced the launch of ‘Bak to Campus Tech Challenge’, a programme which aims to bring a unique platform for the private and public sector to discover digital capabilities to help campuses stay nimble during trying times post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given the vaccinations and a general easing of the pandemic, people, employees, and students will soon return to campuses. Smart City Living Lab, at IIIT-H launched the programme to scout for innovations and to bring the private and public sector together with research facilities to work on challenges startups are facing post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the launch event of the competition, lead architect of the Smart City Living Lab, Anuradha Vattem said, “In these post covid times, giving students the confidence to come back to campus is critical. Thus, deploying solutions that ensure a safe and secure environment and demonstrating their efficiency in a live campus would be the right approach. This challenge aims to give participants a platform to ideate, build and test their solutions.”
The winning startups/teams will get a paid POC opportunity in the Smart City campus at IIIT-H. The focus areas for the challenge are not limited to testing and screening for people on campus, automatic cleaning and sanitation, crowd control/monitoring (people, vehicles, queue/ social distancing), remote temperature/health monitoring, air quality to prevent infection(mitigation of covid aerosols on campuses), social distancing and contactless solutions for commerce.
Startups/teams working on the above-mentioned areas in the post prototype stage can apply, and applications for the competition are open till November 3, 2021. Those interested can get more details here.
The Smart City Living Lab began operating in December 2020. The Smart Campus set up along with the data lake for live sensors data is underway. The lab has been organising multiple roundtables and innovation challenges in the areas of water quality & quantity measurement, smart city/building solutions, post-pandemic solutions, etc. in association with smart cities, government, and corporate partners.
Smart City Living Lab, an open-innovation ecosystem has been set up at IIITH, with support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) Government of India, Smart City Mission and Government of Telangana, and the corporate founding partners like Silicon Labs & Intel.
In IIITH, the campus is being transformed into a platform for learning, research, experimentation, and for showcasing new ideas and approaches through the concept of Smart City Living Lab. By connecting startups with those searching for smart city solutions, the program will amplify the transformation of city infrastructure.