Udaipur: The College of Technology and Engineering (CTAE), a constituent college of Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology (MPUAT), Udaipur, conducted an internal screening for the Smart India Hackathon 2026 (SIH-2026) on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

The screening was organized by the Department of Electronics Engineering as part of the national-level innovation initiative jointly conducted by the Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi.

Smart India Hackathon provides students with an opportunity to develop software- and hardware-based innovative solutions to real-world challenges identified by various ministries, departments and institutions of the Government of India. CTAE teams have consistently performed well in the competition and have secured notable positions at the national level in both software and hardware domains.

Dr. Navneet Agrawal, SPOC for SIH-2026 at CTAE and head of the Department of Electronics Engineering, said the Government of India has released problem statements under 34 themes, comprising 176 software and 55 hardware categories this year. The challenges have been contributed by organizations and institutions including DRDO, the Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of AYUSH and Qualcomm, covering areas such as disaster management, smart automation, biotech 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. In accordance with the SIH-2026 guidelines, each team presented a PowerPoint presentation outlining its proposed solution to a selected problem statement. The presentations were evaluated by a jury on the prescribed assessment parameters.

The participating teams presented innovative ideas in diverse areas, including agriculture, food and rural management, smart education, urban traffic management systems, blockchain and cybersecurity, fitness and sports, medical biotechnology, health technology, and smart and protective irrigation.

The jury comprised Dr. Navneet Agrawal, professor and head of the Department of Electronics Engineering; Dr. Balram Sharma, assistant professor; Dr. Gaurav Vashishtha; Dr. Shaifali Jain; Dr. Aditya Kachhawa; and Dr. Rashmi Suthar. The jury evaluated all participating teams against the prescribed criteria and selected the outstanding teams for the next stage of the competition.

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

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