Coders InSing, a team from BITS Pilani, recently participated in the Singapore-India Hackathon, held at IIT Madras in September, and won the Encouragement Prize of 2000 Singaporean dollars. The team—consisting of two BITS Goa students, a BITS Pilani student, and three Singaporean students—worked on a project that analysed patterns in online searches about diseases in the country and predicted where diseases would break out next. Rohit Bharadwaj, the team member from the Pilani campus, spoke to the EPC to provide an idea of his team’s project and the competition in general.
The Singapore-India Hackathon is a fast-paced, 36-hour competition in which teams attempt to develop creative and innovative solutions in the fields of science and technology. It is a joint initiative by the MHRD Innovation Cell (MIC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore. Every year, students from Singapore and India participate in this prestigious competition.
The preliminary round of the Singapore-India Hackathon consisted of an online test, with questions on topics ranging from object-oriented programming to machine learning. Shortlisted candidates were called for personal interviews in the next round. Rohit Bharadwaj, Samarth Jain (BITS Goa), and Gargi Balasubramaniam (BITS Goa) were selected after the second round. Along with three doctoral candidates from Singapore, the three BITSians formed the team “Coders InSing”.
In the final round, Coders InSing worked on a project on epidemiology analysis. The team conducted statistical surveys on the spread of diseases in the country. They used time-series data available on Google Trends and prepared a heat map of the country. Time-series data can be analysed to predict future patterns. The competition was an enriching experience for Rohit—his team members provided him with valuable insights into solving data science problems.
Rohit, a third-year student who has also worked on the SU App and participated in other hackathons, spoke about improving the innovation culture on campus. He believes that coding skills give people an opportunity to solve real-life problems, while competitive coding helps one develop an algorithmic approach to problem-solving. He feels that knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning can improve the start-up culture and give students exciting topics to pursue.