ISRO to organise hackathon to celebrate first National Space Day on Aug 23

Bengaluru: For the first National Space Day, which will fall on August 23, to commemorate the safe landing of the Vikram Lander near the southern polar region of the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be organising Bharatiya Antariksh Hackathon.

Following the Vikram landing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that “National Space Day” will be celebrated on August 23 every year.

Announcing the hackathon on July 4, chairman of ISRO, S Somanath said 12 problem statements in the areas of geospatial domain, space science, image processing, and AI/ML areas are identified for the hackathon and declared open for undergraduate/ postgraduate/PhD students across the country.

According to him, a team of three to four students can participate and address the challenges with innovative solutions.

Initially, 100 teams will be selected based on their ideation and approach to problem-solving and later 30 teams will be shortlisted by an expert committee for 30 hours Grand Finale at NRSC, Hyderabad on August 13 and 14.

The ISRO chief emphasised that the hackathon is being organised to create application-driven ecosystems and bring in innovation in space-based applications which will benefit both society and the nation.

He also said the innovative ideas generated from this hackathon could evolve into successful business models.

Somanath also mentioned that several pan-India outreach activities and public engagements are being planned as part of the maiden National Space Day celebration.