Roorkee, Dec 09th: The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee inaugurated the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025 – Hardware Edition Grand Finale, hosted by Rethink! The Tinkering Lab, bringing together 150 students and 36 faculty mentors from across the country. As a designated Nodal Centre under the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and AICTE, IIT Roorkee is playing a pivotal role in nurturing India’s next generation of hardware innovators.
The event was inaugurated with the presence of dignitaries, faculty coordinators, and participating teams, followed by virtual linkage with the central inauguration of SIH 2025. The ceremony included a welcome address by Prof. Varun Sharma (SPOC, SIH 2025) and remarks by nodal centre representatives from the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell.
The event was also graced by Nodal centres head Mr. Shrikant Sangludkar and Mr. Vikas Verma from AICTE. This was followed by central inauguration online by Prof. T.G. Sitaram, chairman AICTE in which he addressed 60 nodal centres simultaneously across the country.
This year’s Hardware Edition at IIT Roorkee features 25 teams working on five critical problem statements from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW). These include challenges in extreme-weather surveillance, satellite-integrated handheld radios, crop maturity prediction tools, low-cost cotton-picking solutions, and improved jute retting machinery—directly contributing to national missions under Atmanirbhar Bharat, Viksit Bharat@2047, Digital India, Make in India, and Agriculture 4.0.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Prof. K.K. Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “Smart India Hackathon exemplifies India’s commitment to technology-driven problem solving. At IIT Roorkee, we are proud to host innovators who are developing hardware solutions that will contribute directly to national priorities in security, agriculture, and rural livelihoods. This Hackathon reflects the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat—ideas emerging from India, for India.”
Highlighting the institutional commitment to innovation, by Prof. Varun Sharma (SPOC, SIH 2025) and Faculty Coordinator Tinkering Lab, IIT Roorkee, remarked, “SIH provides students a unique ecosystem to convert challenges into workable, real-world solutions. IIT Roorkee is honoured to support this national mission and work closely with the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell to build a robust innovation pipeline for the country.”
Throughout the week-long Hackathon, teams will work intensively within the Tinkering Lab ecosystem at IIT Roorkee, guided by jury members and expert mentors from departments including Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, ECE, Design, and Tinkering Lab technical staff.
The solutions developed during the Grand Finale will contribute to India’s long-term innovation goals aligned with technology self-reliance, youth empowerment, agricultural modernization, and next-generation hardware innovation.
IIT Roorkee extends best wishes to all participating teams and reaffirms its commitment to fostering innovation for national development.