ACEi – Hackathon ’25

Aravind-Pondicherry, 3-5 January 2025

The sixth edition of the annual Hackathon, organised by Aravind-Pondicherry, began six months ago with the collection of 120 problem statements from across all the centres. After a detailed review, 36 were shortlisted and consolidated into 28 unique challenges.

The Hackathon brought together an inspiring mix of participants: 79 staff members from Aravind, including Consultants, Fellows, PGs, MLOPs, and Managers from Pondicherry, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tirupati, Chennai, and Coimbatore centres, 44 engineering students from VIT (Vellore & Chennai), IIT Tirupati, and Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, and a few staff children pursuing engineering, who joined as observers.

The panel of judges included Dr. R.D. Ravindran, Prof. Dr. Arulmozhivarman, Dean, Academic Research, VIT Vellore, Prof. Dr. Sebin Sunny, CEO, TCE Technology Business Incubator, TCE Madurai, and Dr. Anand Sivaraman, Founding Director, Remidio.

After 48 hours of non-stop brainstorming and collaboration, all teams presented working prototypes for their respective problem statements. The top 5 projects were recognised with cash prizes. The first and second prizes were awarded to Madurai teams for their innovative Eyemount 360 and Multitome Maker, respectively. The third prize went to the Aravind-Pondicherry team for their Kaleidoscope Camera, the fourth to the Optileap – The Phaco Coach by the Tirupati team, and the fifth to the OG – Outreach Gonioscope innovation by the Pondicherry team. A significant highlight of this year’s event was the exposure visit to VIT-Vellore on 2nd January 2025, where 20 Aravind doctors had the opportunity to explore advanced lab facilities and resources.