400 Young Innovators from 15 States Compete in North India's Largest University-Led Hackathon at CU

ADGIPS Delhi Tops, CU Secures 2nd Position; Winners to get access to $6 Million Prize Pool Access Chandigarh, India (NewsVoir) To empower young innovators with entrepreneurial skills and transform their ideas into real-world start-ups, Chandigarh University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Cell (CU-IEDC) in collaboration with its Technology Business Incubator (CU-TBI) organized ‘Zero-to-One’ – a nationwide 24-hour MVP Building Hackathon on Thursday to mark World Entrepreneurs’ Day. Attracting registrations from over 1,300 teams and 5,200 student innovators representing leading universities across 15 states, the event has positioned itself among the largest university-led hackathons in India, offering participants access to a $6 million prize pool and a direct entry to Campus Tank. The ‘Zero-to-One’ hackathon is themed ‘an idea in the morning, a start-up by night’ served as a fast-paced innovation sprint, giving aspiring entrepreneurs a platform to transform their ideas into market-ready Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). Out of a total of 1300 teams, 100 teams were shortlisted who developed MVPs during the given 24-hour slot out of which top 10 teams were selected in the final round. The top 3 winning startups got direct entry in the country’s first university-led start-up challenge Campus Tank granting direct access to the top 300 teams to compete for the $6 Million prize pool. Lazy Genius, a team of four students from Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta Institute of Professional Studies (ADGIPS) New Delhi which came first in the Startup Challenge for their HealthTech Startup, has developed a physiotherapy model which will remain easily available for users with back and neck pain issues. Zudos, a team of three Chandigarh University students who came second in the Startup Challenge, have developed a tech startup for the creation of an affordable smartboard which operates with a laser mouse. Invaders, a team of four students from St John College of Engineering & Management (SJCEM) in Maharashtra which came third, have developed a Fintech Startup which will help groups of people who can’t borrow money from bank to get loans on monthly basis by becoming part of a digital wallet. A special award of US$ 100 was also given by Github to Syntex Syndicate. While CMD Tynor Orthotics India and Vice Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Pushvinder Jit Singh presided over the event as Guest of Honour, other prominent personalities from the world of entrepreneurship and start-ups who mentored participants in their prospective ventures during the hackathon include Mahavir Pratap Sharma, TIE India Angels, Mohit Dua Co-Founder, AI Sensy, Piyush Garg, Founder Techyst, Pratiksha Gupta, CEO, One Special Place, Piyush Sharma, Facilitator Google Cloud, Santosh Kumar Mishra, SDE Microsoft, Uday Sharma, CEO DevnDez, Simarpreet Singh, Developer Groups Google and Vikash Kumar Yadav, Campus Expert Github. From Chandigarh University, Prof (Dr) RS Bawa, Advisor to Chancellor, Chandigarh University and Prof (Dr) Manpreet Singh Manna, Vice-Chancellor, Chandigarh University and Archita Nandi, Director, Chandigarh University – Technology Business Incubator (CU-TBI) among other dignitaries were also present on the occasion. The hackathon saw participation of aspiring founders from premier institutions including Amity University, GLA University, Thapar University, Lamrin Tech Skills University, MIT ADT University, Chitkara University, LPU, UPES, SRMIST, Delhi Technical Campus, IIIT Sonepat, VNIT, NIET, Geeta University, HPTU, GEC Gandhinagar and Chandigarh University among others. The participants came from states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi NCR, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Warangal, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Panipat, Gurgaon and Chandigarh among other cities. Deep Inder Singh Sandhu, Senior Managing Director, Chandigarh University said, “Zero to One is the first of its kind MVP building hackathon organized by Chandigarh University that is aimed at transforming ideas into enterprise. It has brought together students, startups and tech enthusiasts to brainstorm, innovate, build and present impactful start-up solutions under the mentorship of industry stalwarts. I am quite hopeful that it is through such events that empower next-gen entrepreneurs with adequate funding and expert mentorship to transform their ideas into successful ventures, the start-up ecosystem of India will grow to be number one in the world soon. The hosting of ‘Zero to One’ has established CU which has already incubated more than 200 startups as national innovation driver that empower job-creators.” Archita Nandi, Director, Chandigarh University – Technology Business Incubator (CU-TBI) said, “While top 3 teams got the direct entry in the Campus Tank, the top 10 selected teams will be handheld by CU to release an MVP in the most frictionless environment for the next 4 months with incubation and market launch sup