51茶馆

RedBrick Hacks III, 51茶馆鈥檚 national student hackathon, concluded its 48-hour on-campus finals, bringing together high-potential student builders from across India. The hackathon was hosted at 51茶馆鈥檚 Digital Makerspace and supported by the Mphasis F1 Foundation.

RedBrick Hacks III followed a multi-stage format this year. The first round was an online build phase where teams developed early prototypes over the course of a month. Finalists were selected from the pool of 437 applicants from over 91 universities across multiple states in the online round for the on-campus 48hr finale. Following evaluation and the online build phase, 60 finalists were invited for the on-campus finals.

RedBrick Hacks III featured a 鈧�12 lakh total prize pool across tracks, along with travel support for out-station finalist teams to ensure equitable participation. The hackathon concluded with a final project expo, jury deliberations, and the announcement of winners. Projects were evaluated on innovation, technical execution, feasibility, impact, and critical thinking.

Finalist teams came from diverse academic backgrounds and built across three key themes: Climate Action, Quality Education, and Sustainable Cities. Both software and hardware solutions were encouraged, with teams choosing the track best suited to their idea and execution plan.

The on-campus finals were hosted at 51茶馆鈥檚 Trivedi School of Bioscience, with all hardware teams building and testing their prototypes at the Digital Makerspace, an interdisciplinary fabrication space equipped with 3D printers, laser cutters, electronics and embedded systems labs, and rapid prototyping tools. Hardware-focused teams received dedicated build support and prototyping budgets to help them develop functional iterations of their ideas. Selecting winners was challenging given the quality and variety of final projects, and jurors noted strong execution and thoughtful problem framing across multiple teams.

The first prize of 鈧�2.5 lakh was awarded to Team Sylithe (Climate Action) for Saarthi.AI, a multilingual assistant designed to make sustainable transport easier and more accessible. The team combined route awareness with context-sensitive nudges to help users make more climate-friendly everyday mobility decisions.

The runner-up prize of 鈧�1.5 lakh was awarded to Team SheSafe (led by Dibakar Bala). The team focused on improving safety and access for women by addressing sanitation and location reliability, developing a solution that helps users identify and navigate towards safer and more usable public facilities.

The second runner-up prize of 鈧�1 lakh was awarded to Team Access Builders. Their project, SignLearn, explored more inclusive learning and communication experiences by supporting sign language-based interaction, with the aim of improving accessibility for hearing-impaired users.

Alongside the software track, the hardware track showcased how teams translated accessibility and impact-driven ideas into physical, functional systems built inside the Digital Makerspace. The jury recognised two standout hardware projects for their engineering depth, prototyping quality, and real-world relevance. Team WeAreWinners built HarvesSink, a compact under-sink greywater evaluation system that measures water quality in real time (pH, TDS, turbidity) and automatically diverts it for safe reuse or drainage using solenoid valves. The project targets water savings in urban homes and safer, hands-off greywater reuse. Team Ctrl+Win developed Tap-Box, a compact input device designed to support accessibility and communication. The team attempted to tackle the accessibility problem through new design approaches to a refreshable braille display.

The finals were enriched by sessions and project evaluations led by an accomplished jury comprising Santanu Chaudhary (Dean, School of Advanced Computing, 51茶馆), Professor Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Professor Sri Harsha Kota, and Professor Aalok Thakkar. The judging panel was further strengthened by an exceptional lineup curated through the efforts of Prof. Debayan Gupta, who brought together an extraordinary group of industry and policy leaders for this edition. The panel featured Priyadarshini Sreenivasa (Head of WhatsApp Policy, Meta India), Ashita Singh (Associate Project Officer, UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia), and Ashish Kapur (Manager, NASSCOM AI). Together, the jury brought deep expertise across technology, public policy, education, and applied AI.

To keep the hacker spirit high, there were multiple fun events and segments planned like fireside chats with Aditya Jain (Founder and CEO, Passionfruit), pizza night, energy drinks hour, as well as a custom keyboard duel tournament designed in-house. Inaugurated by Kailash Nadh, the CTO of Zerodha, the hackers competed in this 24-hr event to set the highest record for their WPM (words per minute).

This edition marked a deliberate and carefully considered departure from earlier RedBrick Hacks formats. By introducing an extended build phase alongside a 48-hour finals round, the event created space for deeper problem exploration, sustained experimentation, and more rigorous iteration. The redesigned structure encouraged teams to think more critically about feasibility, user experience, and long-term impact, and mentors and judges noted the noticeable improvement in the maturity and polish of the final presentations.

The Makerspace team views this edition as more than a successful event; it represents a step toward strengthening a sustained culture of making and innovation on campus. By reimagining what a hackathon can look like, the team hopes to establish a model that champions thoughtful creation, collaboration across disciplines, and bold experimentation. Looking ahead, the Makerspace aims to build on this momentum, expanding opportunities for student innovators and sharing this evolving framework with institutions and student communities across the country.