The finale event of the CSIR Jigyasa EPIC Hackathon was organised on 20 December 2024 at the CSIR-IGIB, South Campus, New Delhi. The event was inaugurated by Dr Souvik Maiti, Director, CSIR-IGIB. Dr Geethavani Rayasam (Head, CSIR- HRDG), Dr D Shailaja (Chief Scientist, CSIR-IICT) and Mr Anurag Mishra (Head, Cipla Foundation) were among the dignitaries.

The event started with the poster presentation of the EPIC Hackathon students who had completed their Summer internship at CSIR laboratories across India under the EPIC programme. A total of 35 teams and 48 students had participated in a two-month summer internship at 18 CSIR laboratories across the country out of which 29 students presented their research projects done during the summer internship. At the end of the event, the winners of the CSIR EPIC Hackathon were felicitated with prizes and certificates. A workshop on pitch decks, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship was also organised for the participants.

The winner of CSIR Jigyasa EPIC Hackathon 2024 is Mr Japteg Singh Bamrah, who received a cash prize of ? 50,000 for his project Solar-Mech Engine. He did his internship at CSIR-IIIM, Jammu. Mr Uddhav Gupta & Mr Udbhav Bandhani were the first runner-ups. They did their internship at CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh, and won a cash prize of ? 30,000 for their joint submission titled “Drishyamitram — Illuminating walkways for visually challenged”. Ms Shreya Vinod and Mr Soyal Parija won the third prize of ? 10,000 each for their innovative works. The title of the project of Ms Shreya Vinod was “Generating electricity from the waste heat of air conditioners”, and she interned at CSIR-CBRI, Roorkee. Mr Soyal Parija’s topic was ‘I-Stetho-A wireless stethoscope’, and her internship was conducted at CSIR-IMMT.

CSIR launched Empowering Pupil Innovation and Creativity (EPIC) on 5 January 2024 under the JIGYASA programme with an aim to provide a platform for budding young students to pursue their innovation as well as nurture their potential in developing innovative solutions to address the challenges in the country through science and technology. For this year, innovative ideas from students were invited in two themes, namely “One Health” and “Clean and Green Energy”. Out of the 1300 students who submitted their applications, 52 students were initially selected for a two-month summer internship at different CSIR labs. At the end of two months, 48 students successfully completed their internship. Cipla Foundation partnered with CSIR-IICT for this CSIR Jigyasa EPIC Hackathon 2024 programme.