Pre-AI Summit "Hackathon on AI for Social Good"

Update: Shortlisted teams have been notified! Given the high volume of registrations, we will not be able to notify the non-selected teams.

About the Hackathon:

• This is a 24-hour pan-India hackathon conducted as one of the Pre–AI Summit Activities at IIT Ropar, ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
• Hosting Partner: Advitiya (IIT Ropar’s Tech Fest).
• Technical Sponsors: NxtGen and C-DAC. 
• The hackathon is designed to expose student teams to real-world AI problems and accelerate the development of prototype solutions under mentorship from faculty and domain experts
• Participants will work on selected AI-for-social-good themes and build a functional solution where a prototype or MVP is acceptable
• All submissions must include reproducible code and benchmarking

Themes:

• AI for healthcare 
• AI for education
• AI for low-light object detection

Note:

• Detailed problem statements, datasets, evaluation protocol, and input/output formats will be revealed on-site at IIT Ropar
• This information will be shared 1 hour before the hackathon begins to ensure fairness

Eligibility:

• Open to undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students from India graduating in 2027, 2028 and 2029.

Team Size:

• 4 members per team

Registration & Confirmation:

• Registration is open till 23:59 on 30 Jan 2026 (Friday). 

• Teams will be selected based on a screening of participants’ CVs. Any discrepancies or false information will result in disqualification. IIT Ropar reserves the right to make the final decision.

Timing & Venue:

• Reporting time:
  • Registration and inauguration at 9:30 AM on February 6
  • Interaction with Industry experts, lunch and campus visit to follow
• Hackathon duration:
  • Starts at 3:00 PM on February 6
  • Ends at 5:00 PM on February 7
• Attendance requirement:
  • At least one team member must attend registration and inauguration
  • All team members must report by 3:00 PM
• Venue:
  • School of AIDE, IIT Ropar

Stay and Accommodation:
A team can choose one of the following accommodation options: 

1. Non-stay option (Free): No accommodation will be provided. Teams may use toilets at the hackathon venue and showers in the hostels, and store luggage in a common room. 
2. Stay: Accommodation in the hostel hall/dorm will be provided for ₹250 per person per day. Mattress and blanket will be provided. Participants can use the hostel’s washrooms 

Since IIT Ropar’s Tech Fest is scheduled on the same dates, we expect a high number of visitors. In this situation, we won’t be able to provide private stays. If you need private accommodation, you will have to arrange it on your own in Ropar city (approximately 6 km from the IIT Ropar campus).

Compute Support:

• Participants must bring their own laptops
• Teams should be prepared for a quick environment setup
• Access to high-end cloud GPUs will be provided by NxtGen.com  
• GPU access will be through participants’ laptops

Prizes & Certificates:

• Total prize pool: ₹1,05,000
• Winner: ₹25,000
• Runner-up: ₹10,000
• Certificates will be provided to every participant

What You Build & Submit:

• A working solution where a prototype or MVP is acceptable
• A public GitHub repository containing code and documentation
• Results or output files in the format shared at problem release
• Optional demo or application, if applicable, to track bonus

Submission Rules:

• Registration on Unstop is mandatory before the competition starts
• All development must begin only after the hackathon officially starts
• Pre-written code is not allowed, except for:
  • Open-source libraries
  • Framework boilerplates
  • Public APIs
• There will be 5 checkpoint evaluations conducted every 4 hours, followed by a final submission
• A maximum of 2 final submissions is allowed per team across all tracks
• Any plagiarism or copying of existing projects will lead to immediate disqualification
• Judges’ decisions will be final and binding

Special Note for Theme: AI for Education:

• Participants are expected to explore rPPG extraction methods before the hackathon
• During the hackathon, teams may use any 3 out of the following 7 rPPG algorithms:
  • CHROM
  • POS
  • DeepPhys
  • PhysNet
  • EfficientPhys
  • PhysFormer
  • TS-CAN
• Exact task definition and evaluation details will be shared on-site

Additional Information:

• More detailed guidelines are available in the official rulebook shared with participants
• Best wishes to all participating teams