Does hearing the word Hackathon, remind you of a hacker wearing a hoodie in the dark, facing his laptop?
Does give you the vibe of tech bros being competitive and obnoxious? Well, you are not the only one who has that opinion.
We at i4C are here to tell you about what Hackathons are really about.
Hackathons are events where several teams of students or professionals get together to solve a particular set of challenges within a short span of time. The answer to these challenges can’t be ideas but proper solutions that are built, usually ending up developing software or an application.
The term ‘Hackathon’ is believed to be coined by Niels Provos of OpenBSD, in 1999, in Calgary, Canada. The event was for two days from June 4-6, 1999, where a group of 10 developers got together. Incidentally Sun Microsystems had a conference 15 days later, challenging developers to write a Java program for their new Palm V, a personal digital assistant.
Since then, hackathons have been a staple in the tech community across the world.
Today in India, thousands of hackathons happen every year. It is hosted by academic, corporate, and government institutions.
i4C is the co-host & organizing partner of the Smart India Hackathon along with the Government of India. Smart India Hackathon is one of the largest hackathons in India. Every year, under 20 themes and 300+ problem statements are introduced. Each problem statement is a hackathon in itself.
The purpose of a Hackathon is to build a working solution (prototype or proof-of-concept) for a particular problem statement. The core ideology of a Hackathon is to build effective and implementable solutions to issues at hand.
Hackathons are not just for the IT industry; they are for all industries. Since, all industries face problems or hindrances, finding solutions to resolve them is important. If solutions are not ready at hand, they need to be constructed.
The true purpose of a hackathon is innovation. Innovative solutions are new only in the beginning but become normal soon. Constantly evolving is what keeps companies and industries alive.
Now, it gets interesting!! Hackathons are not always only for developers. Some hackathons also involve people from design, project management and subject matter experts.
It is not just about coding and creating a solution. A hackathon is to simulate a real-world scenario where the solution built has multiple aspects.
Developers build the software or the solution. Designers make sure the solution is user friendly and inviting. Subject matter experts provide domain knowledge for the solution. Project managers will work on timelines and schedules
For example, if you are building a payment solution, the developers make sure the transactions happen and all transactions are accounted for.
Designers will work on making the payment solution interface user-friendly and a pleasant experience.
Subject matter experts will consult on providing knowledge about payments. Such as, the lifecycle of a transaction, information people should have access to about each transaction and much more.
Finally, the Project Managers, breaks down the whole project into small tasks, assigns resources and timelines for each task and manages them.
Today, hackathons are not just for corporate. Over the years, they have grown into providing prototype or proof-of-concept based solutions for various industries. Now we will talk about hackathons with respect to arrangement and not various themes of hackathons.
Internal hackathons are from the organizations to its employees/ students. These are done to crowd source solutions or encourage solution developing. Since employees in each team will be working much closer, a deeper relationship develops too. Engineers/ engineering students would also get a chance to invest themselves in, other than just work or their studies.
External hackathons are for the public. Anyone can register and participate in these kinds of hackathons. There are external hackathons for both corporate and academia. External hackathons builds community. External corporate hackathons can also be conducted to hire new talent.
i4C co-hosts Smart India Hackathon, which is India’s largest external hackathon. 30000+ teams participate in Smart India Hackathon. i4C ensures the smooth flow of its operations from registration to announcing winners.
Hackathons usually are an in-person event. Teams get together, spend time planning, and build solutions for the hackathon. Venue is booked, food is arranged, people are bustling with energy.
People also attend in-person hackathons to network. The only other time developers or engineering students can network is through conferences. Building relationships in the tech world is important, and in-person hackathons serve it. Hackathons are also great resume. As a student, it shows that you are serious about creative solution building, as a corporate employee it shows that you are willing to learn more or even have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Winners are highly regarded and their fame soars in the tech community. Teams who do not win also learn a lot. Ushering creativity in a small amount of time and channeling it into productive solution is thrilling.
Virtual hackathons are also picking up the pace. They solve the problem of a hackathon being bound by a geographical region, unless the hackathon is for a longer period of time. Networking can be difficult in virtual hackathons.
Hybrid hackathons also exist. This allows participants to travel to the venue or join online and participate.
Hackathons have varying lengths of time. Depending on the difficulty of the problem statement, hackathons can range from 1 day to several months.
Most hackathons range from 24 – 72 hours. They focus mostly on building a solution as soon as possible. These solutions are mostly the core of the software or the prototype.
Smart India Hackathon co-hosted by i4C, goes through for months.
Hackathons are not just mere competitions held for PR purposes. The best and most successful hackathons solutions get funded. Several hackathon winners have gone on to open companies. The entrepreneurial spirit is real.
Companies like Crown Monkey & Farmchain Services Private Limited emerged during the NPCI Blockchain Hackathon hosted by i4C and organized by NPCI. These companies were onboard as vendors to the NPCI for their winning solution.
Razorpay’s founding team showcased their payment gateway solutions during internal hackathons at IIT Roorkee.
AKAC Healthcare Pvt Ltd, the makers of VivaFeet smart wearable socks for people with diabetes had success in Chitkara Innovation Incubator and went on to be a startup.
UrjanovaC Pvt Ltd was founded after winning Avinya’25 and receivied incubator and PSU investment.
Hackathons are designed for problem solving and innovation and i4C understands that.
i4C co-hosts hackathons for both academia and corporate. We host hackathon events for the best of organizations with the highest standards. Our portfolio includes Smart India Hackathon with the cooperation of the Government of India for students, Binance Blockchain Hackathon, ARAI Technovuus Mobility Hackathon, NPCI Blockchain Hackathon, and Pune Agri Hackathon.
learn more about hackathons or contact us if you would like to organize a hackathon.
We will help you out.
