Udaipur, : An internal screening for the Smart India Hackathon 2026 (SIH-2026) was organised at the Electronics Engineering Department of the College of Technology and Engineering (CTAE), a constituent college of Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology (MPUAT), Udaipur, on September 1.

The hackathon is being organised under the joint initiative of the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi. The initiative challenges students to develop innovative software- and hardware-based solutions to problems identified by various government ministries, departments and institutions.

CTAE teams have consistently performed strongly in the Smart India Hackathon, securing notable positions at the national level in both software and hardware categories.

According to Dr. Navneet Agrawal, SPOC for SIH-2026 at CTAE and Head of the Electronics Engineering Department, the Government of India has released problem statements across 34 themes, comprising 176 software and 55 hardware categories this year. The challenges have been contributed by organisations and institutions including DRDO, the Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of AYUSH and Qualcomm, covering areas such as disaster management, smart automation, biotechnology and health technology, space technology and smart education.

A total of 16 teams from CTAE participated in the internal screening, with six members in each team. As per SIH-2026 guidelines, the teams presented PowerPoint presentations outlining their proposed solutions to selected problem statements. A jury evaluated the presentations on the prescribed criteria.

Students presented innovative solutions in areas including agriculture, food and rural management, smart education, urban traffic management, blockchain and cybersecurity, fitness and sports, medical biotechnology, health technology, and smart and protective irrigation.

The jury comprised Dr. Navneet Agrawal, Professor and Head, Electronics Engineering Department; Dr. Balram Sharma, Assistant Professor; Dr. Gaurav Vashisht; Dr. Shaifali Jain; Dr. Aditya Kachhawa; and Dr. Rashmi Suthar. The jury members assessed the teams according to the stipulated parameters and selected the outstanding teams for the next stage.

MPUAT Vice Chancellor Dr. Pratap Singh and CTAE Dean Dr. Vinod Kumar Yadav congratulated all participating teams and extended their best wishes for success at the national level.

The teams selected through the internal screening will represent CTAE at the national level. Under SIH-2026, winning teams across various themes will be eligible for Government of India awards of up to ₹1 lakh in the respective hardware and software categories.