SHILLONG: In its bid to make Shillong a clean and attractive city, the State Government has now launched the first ever Hackathon in the state.
Speaking to media persons here on Friday, Senior Tech. Director, NIC Timothy Dkhar, said that under the Hackathon, ideas and corresponding solutions were being solicited from interested citizens, to resolve the given problem statements as submitted by the various departments/agencies.
NIC Information officer Timothy Dkhar speaking to media persons on “Hackathon 2017 for Clean and Liveable Shillong” at NIC conference hall on Friday. Photo Sanjib Bhattacharjee.
Citizens may register as a team in the cleanshillong.nic.in portal. The ideas will then be evaluated by a multidisciplinary jury, and will be adjudged according to creativity, practicality, social impact, innovation and tools for developing the product/prototype. So far, five teams have responded to participate in the event
The solution could range from a Web based solution/Mobile App/IoT/Machine Learning/etc.
Registration has been opened and the last date for registration is August 31 and the top three solutions will be presented with cash awards of Rs. 50,000, Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 15,000 respectively which will be given on the 2nd Oct. 2017.
He said that the Government and the line departments would look into the solution of the participants to see if its implementable
The Hackathon assumes significance as the idea was initiated by Supervisory Committee headed by the Chief Secretary with members from all stakeholders, to actively monitor, improve and maintain the cleanliness in Shillong city, which is in line with the court intervention.
As waste management in the Shillong Urban agglomeration is currently being handled by multiple public agencies including traditional local institutions, the solutions arising out of Hackathon would bring about a coordinated effort and to streamline the management of waste.