‘Learning by Competing’: Experience from Smart India Hackathon 2019

In this paper, we describe the experience at Smart India Hackathon 2019, a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving. The Team ‘AndroDigi’ was shortlisted for Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2019 which was held on 2nd and 3rd March 2019. The team built a solution for Problem Statement “App based valuation and report generation” under Aich Appraisers Auctioneers Organization. Nodal Centre for this team was Chandigarh Groups of Colleges, Landran Mohali. In this study, we analyzed student’s perceptions and experience in a hackathon where they were to design a concept for an application for automation for asset valuation report generation. A team of 6 students (3 girls & 3 boys) was selected form 380 teams all over India. By collecting data through questionnaires and interviewing the participants, we applied descriptive statistics rather than exploring into inferential statistics to analyze the data due to the limited number of students. In the end, the results show that the use of hackathon helped in achieving the learning goals and inculcating problem solving mindset. The students expressed their satisfaction in the fact that it provided them with motivation to learn through practice. Also, students agreed that the event helped them to think collaboratively for refined ideas. The overwhelming satisfaction expressed by the students goes to confirm that hackathon brings out the best creative skills from people through problem-solving.