Smart India Hackathon Experience

I and my team were selected for the Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2019. In this post I will share my experience attending the same, the hurdles we faced and how we won.

About the Smart India Hackathon

Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is a 36 hour hackathon and is organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of the Government of India. It is the world’s biggest hackathon. This year 34000 teams applied against problem statements that were from both public and private sector companies. Out of those 4200 teams were selected, 4 against each problem statement for the grand finale. A total of 48 nodal centers were scattered all across India where selected teams were to compete during the grand finale. Our problem statement was from Hindustan Unilever. We had to design a system that will track and trace their entire supply chain.

Quick rundown of the evaluation process before we begin

The evaluation at the grand finale happened in 4 stages. The first three being normal stages where the judges get an understanding of the idea, critique it and help you build it further. The last being the “power round” where you pitch your final idea to the judges. Every round is taken into account when it comes to scoring, but the power round is essentially the “make or break” for the finale.

Significance of the location of our nodal center

Our nodal center was located in Mumbai which was also the only in that area. Mumbai holds a very special place in our hearts as we had won another hackathon there in January and had the time of our lives the night that followed the win roaming the streets and at Marine Drive. Losing the SIH was not an option.

First evaluation — The first of many heartbreaks

Judges from Hindustan Unilever came in the afternoon to talk to teams and get to know their idea. When they came to our table the were extremely skeptical as to how we were tackling the problem. After the first evaluation, we were heartbroken to see their reaction.

After the evaluation a member from all the teams that were tackling the “Track and Trace” problem statement were invited in a separate room for a session with the judges. From our team I went for the session.

In that session we were told about the HUL supply chain and the kind of volume Hindustan Unilever pushes and that it is simply impossible to scan each product individually. All team representatives asked questions related to their solutions privately and then we went back to our teams.

Second evaluation — The direction is set

After the first evaluation, we started debating and forming ideas as to how we can scan multiple QR codes at once. Multiple solutions came up but Machine Learning came to our rescue and made it feasible.

The judges came in the evening and I told them about our new solution. They were still not convinced. Moreover, they asked us to think more about how this will benefit the corporate and focus less on the tech aspect of it. I challenged the judges that told me that scanning QR codes in bulk is not possible using Machine Learning. I told them it is possible. The judges told me that it would be a very big deal if I was able to achieve this. In my heart or hearts I knew that it was possible. After this, it all hinged on me. The pressure was on.

The silver lining was that our solution was now viable and we had a clear understanding as to what we needed to focus on and what was worthless. Now it was time to burn the midnight oil.
The sun goes down

During the night we all dialed in and got to work. My job was to get the Machine Learning model to work. Collecting images in bulk, cleaning them, labeling them and finally training the model took me the whole night. After the model was trained I fed it a video. We all sat together and saw the model process the video. As the percentage increased so did our nervousness. Everything relied on the model being able to do its job.

After the video was processed, I played it and magic happened. The model worked just like I wanted it to.

But now it was time for our third evaluation and we were all burned out.

Third evaluation — We get it together

After getting next to no sleep. We were all tired, sleepy and burned out. But we had to get it together because the next evaluation was the final one before the “power round”.

The judges came and were surprised, to say the very least, that we had done what they thought was impossible. After evaluating the rest of the idea, they seemed really happy. They advised us to figure out the business side of it and told us that the presentation in the power round matters a lot and is more or less “make or break”.

We immediately got to building the presentation. But the progress was extremely slow. Seeing as more than 4 hours remained, we decided to take a break. After the break we all had accumulated a little bit of energy and we put it all in the presentation.

Now, it was time for me to prepare the pitch.

The unpleasant surprise

I put on my headphones and play white noise at full volume to focus and get in the zone. Just after 5 minutes I begin, a panel of judges comes in. I am totally unprepared and in shock. There was supposed to be atleast 30 minutes before the judges even show face.

I completely butcher the pitch and failed to explain anything properly. The judges leave after someone from the organizing team calls upon them.

We were all devastated and I was heartbroken. I had let my whole team down.

The “second” chance

Sometime after the judges left we were all angry, confused and disappointed all at the same time. Then, we asked a member of the organizing team about the power round and they said that it is yet to happen. The judges that came earlier were just getting to know about the products everybody had built and that it was not evaluative. We had gotten a “second” shot at the power round.

The real power round

For the power round one of the judges was the Vice President of Supply Chain Logistics at Hindustan Unilever, Mr Alok Joshi. Fortunately, I did not know this before the pitch otherwise it would have taken the pressure to another level. I put on my headphones, started the white noise and started to get in the zone.

Judges come in to our table, I shake hands, introduce myself and start the pitch. I aced it. Explained it as it should be all in one go. Judges pose 2 questions and all were answered. The judges seemed impressed. Now all we had to do was wait for the results.

And the winner is…

The closing ceremony began and we anxiously waited for the results. As the winners of the problem statements were being announced, we were waiting for ours. And then finally the moment came, we were declared winners for our problem statement. I was over the moon but contained it as I needed to go on stage and get a photo clicked with the guests along with the cheque and the trophy.