Bhubaneswar, Aug 6: A six-member team comprising students of the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), faculty of engineering and technology of the SOA Deemed to be University here, has won the Smart India Hackathon (SIH)-2020 contest this year by coming up with solutions to eradicate crime through digital means.

SIH-2020, organised every year by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and billed as the world’s largest Open Innovation Model, was held on-line this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The problem statement was given by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) which required the team to solve issues regarding community oriented policing, also referred to as digital policing, and help improve police-citizen relationship.

The team, christened X-Legion Coders, qualified by first participating in an internal 24-hour long Hackathon, HackerWar 2.0, conducted by SOA in February last and got shortlisted by SIH-2020 for the national event. It subsequently qualified for the 3-day Grand Finale which was held from August 1 to 3.

The team, comprising first and second year students of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT), won the first prize comprising Rs. one lakh. The team members included Ankita Satapathy, Abhinaba Ray, Sourav Bera, Ellora Mehena, Pritam Kar and G.Madhabananda Patra.

The project was jointly guided by faculty members Dr. Satyabrata Maity and Dr. Bharat Jyoti Ranjan Sahoo. Prof. Debahuti Mishra, Head of the department of CSE, guided and encouraged the students to achieve the laurels. Prof. Srikanta Patnaik, Professor in the department, was also involved in the organization of the HackerWar 2.0 in the university.