Bhubaneswar, Dec. 12: The Odisha AI Hackathon 2025, an integral part of the Odisha AI Symposium-2025, was conducted across the state in four Regional Nodal Centres with AIC-SOA Foundation at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), SOA Deemed to be University here, hosting the event for central zone.
SOA was designated as the Central Zone Nodal Centre and entrusted with hosting and coordinating the regional hackathon activities for the seven districts of Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Nayagarh.
As part of the initiative, offering of concepts closed on December 5 with 107 ideas submitted while the online concept evaluation round was held on December 7 where 48 shortlisted teams presented their proposals virtually.
Based on merit and innovation, 16 teams were selected for the prototype stage. The prototype demonstration round for Central Zone was held on December 10 at AIC-SOA Foundation with the jury members being Dr. Sheetal Prusty of Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Sameer Patro of Microsoft India Private Ltd, Dr. Kaliprasanna Swain and Dr. Sakuntala Mohapatra, both of Trident Academy of Technology, Bhubanesar.
The jury members engaged with participants and selected the top three teams for advancement to the Odisha AI Symposium.
The selected teams will now present their refined innovations at the Odisha AI Symposium on December 18 joining the winners from the other three Regional Nodal Centres for state level recognition and additional awards.
The hackathon, conducted under the patronage of the Odisha Society of Americas (OSA) and Odisha AI, aligns with the Odisha AI Policy, Odisha Vision and India AI Mission. It aims to strengthen AI awareness, foster student and startup-led innovation and address real world challenges through AI driven solutions across diverse sectors.
In the central zone competition, Team Plasticure, which presented a project on development of Super Clean Post-consumer Recycled (PCR) plastic via AI and Solvent-Assisted Advanced Recycling Technique for Food Grade Application won the first prize of Rs. 12,000. The team members comprised Dr. Jyoti Agarwal, Mr. Aman Patra and Ms. Samhita Sukanya.
Team G1 won the second prize of Rs. 8,000 presenting a project on AI-enabled ‘Not Safe for Work’ content identification for safe internet for kids. Its members were Bhagyashri Valecha, Uday Garg,Mili Gupta and Manish Kumar Tiruwar.
Smart Bloom won the third prize f Rs. 5000 for its project, IoT-driven Automated Pollination System for Vertical Farming. Its members were Ankit Kumar and Avinash Kumar.
The winning teams will receive continued mentoring to prepare for their presentations at the Odisha AI Symposium. AI researchers, practitioners, students and technology enthusiasts are invited to attend the India AI Symposium and witness the finalist teams present their cutting -edge AI innovations. Registration can be made at https://odishaaisummit.org/symposium.
