Kolkata's first tech hackathon to see scores of techies brainstorm for 'smart India' concept

Kolkata: At least 100 computer programmers and innovators will brainstorm in the city's first technological hackathon to come up with ideas for a 'smart' India where devices could be controlled from a single source, an organiser said on Saturday.

The 'Spark HACK' event organised by Jadavpur University seeks to give shape to the emerging computing concept of Internet of Things (IoT) that envisions a future where every day physical objects could be connected to the internet and would be able to identify themselves to other devices.

"A hackathon is a gathering where programmers collaboratively code in an extreme manner over a short period of time - at least a few days, or over a weekend and generally no longer than a week.

"Kolkata hasn't had a purely technological hackathon yet. This is the first one. The IoT hackathon will span from March 26 to March 28 at the University campus," Prasid Mitra, a student of the varsity's electrical engineering department, told IANS.

Organised in collaboration with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the mega event will see teams consisting of engineers, designers and end-users working towards developing hardware prototypes, applications and softwares to address IoT related problems and transform the technological scene in India, said Mitra.

"There is a vast array of problems to choose from since we are moving towards an age where devices and gadgets will be controlled from a single source, a smart society where all devices around us will be connected to cloud," Mitra explained.

Cloud or cloud computing means consumption of computing resources as a utility - just like electricity - rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in-house.

It basically means that computing facilities can be accessed from anywhere over the network using devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops, personal computers and so on. One example of cloud computing as a service is Flickr.

The hackathon, Mitra said, will pitch problems centred on these themes. The event is a part of the varsity's 'Convolution 2015' tech-fest.