Eligibility:
This hackathon is open to all college students passionate about solid waste management issues in rural India and eager to contribute innovative solutions to these challenges. Participants must be affiliated with institutes enrolled in the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan program. Students may enter in groups of two to four members, excluding the mentor, who should also be affiliated with the same institute.
Deadline:
The application will be open till July 15th 2024.
Guidelines:
The common guidelines for preparing the application are as follows:
Project Relevance: Ensure that your project addresses a significant waste-related issue in rural India, focusing on segregation, collection, and management. Clearly articulate the problem you are addressing and explain its relevance to real-world challenges in rural areas. Substantiate the relevance with data and on-ground validation in the adopted villages. While technology can be beneficial, complex solutions often require technical support and substantial funding, making them impractical for rural contexts. Therefore, design a simple and economically viable technology that can be easily implemented and maintained in these settings.
Scientific Rigor: Emphasize the scientific methodology and rigor of your research. Provide a detailed explanation of your experimental design, data collection methods, and analysis. Demonstrate the scientific principles behind your project and how they contribute to solving the identified waste-related problem. Avoid consolidating a research paper or producing a review paper.
Innovation and Creativity: Showcase the uniqueness and creativity of your project. Highlight any innovative solutions, technologies, or approaches that set your work apart from conventional methods. Illustrate how your project brings a fresh perspective or introduces novel ideas to address the waste-related challenge.
Clear Presentation: Present your findings and conclusions using concise and well-organized language, charts, graphs, and visuals to convey your project’s key aspects. Ensure that your application is easy to understand for both experts and non-experts in the field.
Practical Applications: Discuss the practical applications of your project and its potential impact. Articulate how your findings could be implemented in real-world scenarios, emphasizing the sustainability and feasibility of your proposed solutions.
References and Citations: Provide proper references and citations for any external sources or previous research that influenced your project. This demonstrates the depth of your research and places your work within the broader context of existing knowledge.
ABOUT US
IIT Madras holds a multitude of responsibilities at Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, as a Regional Co-ordinating Institute, as a Subject Expert in Solid waste management and as a participating institute with 7 adopted villages. We work in line with the vision of UBA to identify the need of the hour in rural neighborhood and associate the appropriate technologies and implementing participating institutes in this web of life for a better tomorrow.
Prof. Indumathi M Nambi of IIT Madras chairs the sanitation and solid waste management vertical of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan PAN India. at UBA Seg Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, various immersion programs are organized to connect and expose participating institutes to people who are already walking their talk and to build the gaps on how age-old practices can be appended by technology to achieve economical results in shorter duration with circular approach.
Click here to know more about Unnat Bharat Abhiyan: https://unnatbharatabhiyan.gov.in
In patronage to the vision of UBA, the hackathon, UBA SWISH is being organized in collaboration with Sustainability venture studio (SVS) to help translate the ideas into startup through funding and mentorship.
About Sustainability venture studio
The Sustainability Venture Studio (SVS) is an initiative of the School of Sustainability at IIT Madras. The SVS is a dynamic platform that facilitates the transformation of eco-innovative ideas into viable products and startup businesses. This initiative is significant not only for promoting sustainability and circularity but also for fostering entrepreneurial ventures within and beyond the academic landscape.
The SVS comprises two programs, idea to Impact challenge and Carbon Zero Challenge, all tailored to transform ideas into products at scale (TRL 1-6). These programs share a common goal: to uncover eco-innovations and circular solutions, streamlining the lab-to-market transition.
Ideas to Impact Challenge (i2I)
A Pan-India contest for college students and researchers. The contest aims to transform sustainable and eco-innovative ideas into workable lab-scale prototypes. The top 25 teams will receive training and mentoring support, along with funding support of up to INR 50,000. The top 5 teams at the end of the 6-month program will receive a Grand prize of INR 100,000 and a direct entry to the next cohort of the Carbon Zero Challenge. This contest was launched in October 2023 and is supported by the Wipro Foundation. The theme for the inaugural edition is Circularity in Resource Conservation for the domains – Air, Energy, Material/Waste, Soil, and Water.
Carbon Zero Challenge (CZC)
CZC is a Pan-India contest for anyone with a validated proof of concept and looking to scale to pilot and commercialise it. The aim is to transform lab-scale sustainable and eco-innovative prototypes into thriving startups. The top 25 teams will receive advanced training and mentoring support, along with funding support of up to INR 500,000. The top 5 winners will receive a startup seed grant of up to INR 1,000,000. CZC was launched in 2017 and has completed 3 editions. The 4th cohort was soft-launched in October 2023. The first edition (2017-2018) was conducted with support from the U.S. Consulate Chennai, and Polaris (a Virtusa company). The second edition (2018-2019) was fully supported by Virtusa. The third edition of the contest was relaunched in August 2022 after the 2020 pandemic. CZC 3.0 edition was supported by Thales Group and Aquamap-Centre for water management. Thales Group will be supporting the 4th edition as well. The theme for CZC 4.0 is Circularity in Resource Conservation. It focuses on circularity and innovative solutions for managing major resources in the domains – air, Energy, Material/Waste, Soil, and Water.
Timeline
Selection Procedure
Review Process: All submitted applications will undergo a preliminary screening process followed by review by three subject matter experts.
Selection Criteria: Projects will be evaluated based on their overall relevance to rural India, including scientific, environmental, and societal impacts. The jury will assess:
- Innovation
- Societal and environmental impact
- Economic viability
- Practicality and scalability
After Selection: The top 25 teams will be shortlisted by experts. These teams will showcase their projects at IIT-Madras, where the top three teams will receive the UBA SWISH Award. These top-performing teams will be prioritized to advance to the “Idea to Impact Challenge” to translate their ideas into prototypes.
Contact Us
+91 73583 11248
ubasegsolidwastemanagement@gmail.com
