Prayagraj: The 24-hour national-level coding competition hackathon ‘U Hack 4.0′ kicked off at United Group of Institutions (UGI), Naini, on Tuesday, bringing young minds from across the country to showcase their coding, innovation and creative skills under one roof.As many as 300 budding engineers from institutions across the country, including IIT Madras, PCCOE Pune, EIR Roorkee, Uttarakhand, BML Munjal University, Haryana, PSIT Kanpur, KIT Varanasi, IIMT Greater Noida, AIMT Lucknow, GLA Mathura, AKGE Ghaziabad, REC Banda, along with the participants from IERT, Prayagraj, PRSU, United University (UU) and UGI, participated in the event. The event aimed to encourage students to develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges within a limited timeframe. Chief guest, Prof AK Mishra, chief academic advisor, UGI, said projects being developed should be focused on sustainable development growth, covering social, economic and environmental needs. He suggested participants work on projects related to 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which aim to eliminate poverty, improve health and education, combat climate change and address hunger-related issues, among others. Senior vice president, UGI, Gaurav Gulati, highlighted the importance of innovation and coding in shaping the future in today’s competitive world. Principal, UIT, Prof Sanjay Srivastava, and Principal, UCER, Dr Swapnil Srivastava, also encouraged participants with their words of wisdom. Event coordinator Ankit Gupta said 257 teams comprising 1000 participants earlier participated in the qualifying round, whereas 66 teams comprising 300 students reached the final round of the event.
