Introduction
Since last posted the blog ‘ Smart India Hackathon 2023 | Introduction and details | Idea selection criteria ’, many updates have been made in the tentative dates of the submissions.
Before revising the new dates, let’s first understand the process flow of SIH in short to gain a better understanding.
1.1 Process flow of SIH 2023
1. SIH2023 Software & Hardware Edition: Problem statements submission by Central & State Ministries, Departments, PSUs, Industries & NGOs
2. Submission of Problem Statements (PSs) by Central & State Ministries, PSUs, Industries and NGOs on the SIH portal. Review of Submitted PSs & finalization by concerned committee Publishing finalized PSs
3. Registration of College SPOCs on SIH portal Blocking published PSs by SPOCs of Colleges or Institutes Internal campus hackathon to be conducted in each college or institute by their SPOCs on their blocked PSs
4. College SPOC to be responsible to conduct internal hackathon in the campus
College to finalize total best 30 teams + 5 waitlisted teams (which has been changed now) from the internal hackathon. SPOC to recommend the selected teams for SIH 2023 Software/Hardware edition at SIH portal.
5. Team leaders of the selected teams to be registered at the SIH portal to submit ideas Submission of ideas by selected teams against PSs by college SPOC for the SIH2023 Finale Evaluation of submitted ideas
6. Result Analysis and Result Publication.
The earlier dates as mentioned here for SIH 2023 Senior had the idea submission till 30th September, which now has been exceeded to 30th November.
More 30 days were allotted for the idea submission (i.e the final ppt submission)
1.2 Changes made in the process
Earlier 30 teams per college were to be elected for the finalist of SIH 2023 which is now increased to 100 teams per college.
And the most important change was that teams can submit solutions for more than one problem statements from the list of PSs.
Such a great hope for teams who have 100+ submissions on their problem statements.
1.3 What to do next ?
Although an important point to note is that if the team hasn’t submitted solution to the PS they have been working on and it is reaching the number of submissions to be around 500, then doing the ppt submission should be team’s top most priority.
Why’s that?
Because no problem statement will accept submissions more than 500. Once the limit is reached no more submissions will be accepted and it has reached 500 for some of the PS those were live.
Smart India Hackathon deals with providing students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving.
But what helps you actually win this Codefest?
Picking up the right problem statement is the 1st step. Working on the PS which gets a wink and nod from every member of the team is the one needs to be worked upon.
1.4 The Strategy
After deciding on the expertise and common interests of the members, it’s necessary to also see how common the common interest is!
Since at this point you can go and check on what are the number of submissions on every live problem statement, it wouldn’t be a great idea to choose one with 200+ submissions.
A shortcut to sort down the problem statement list would be to check those with least submissions (at least in 2 digits) and find your interest among them. It will be even a smarter move to work on more than one problem statements to be on a much more safer edge.
Since there are less than 5 days left for the idea submission as per the dates provided, so working in a group among the team would be a better choice if your team hasn’t started working on any ps yet.
During the development process, building on solution to the problem statement, solve, solve, solve! Break the problem into as many chunks as possible and start building from the very basic level of development.
1.5 The Game Changer
After all these levels, the game changer is still the final presentation!!
Presentation skills matter a lot (can’t emphasize more on this)
Engaging your audience and making your solution relatable is very crucial.
If the start of your presentation doesn’t catches the attention of the audience, it might be a disadvantage for you for the entire presentation.
And most importantly, talking about your idea, your innovation and explaining all your brainstormed solution to the evaluators WITHIN THE TIME FRAME (2 mins probably). Practice as much as required but the presentation should be made as flawless as possible.
Conclusion
The bottom line is : SIH brings a lot of challenges and problems but there is always a way out. Embrace the challenges, collaborate with your team members and enjoy every step of the process. Push your limits of learning ability and skill set and be ready to learn many lessons and accept the result.
It’s either winning or learning!
Happy learning :)
By Anushka Tiwari (GDSC BITW Content Lead ‘23)
Links to keep handy