Technology
12h ago EN
2nd Washington Hackathon 2026 Brings 300 Participants Together To Showcase Technology Solutions
<p style="text-align: justify;">The 2nd Washington Hackathon 2026 concluded on September 20 after bringing together more than 300 participants from over 60 institutes for two days of technology development, problem-solving and solution presentations.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Organised by the Washington University of Science and Technology (WUST) and technically sponsored by The Institution of Engineers and Scientists (The IoES), the two-day event focused on developing technology-based responses to challenges across social, environmental and emerging technology domains.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">More than 300 ideas were submitted for the hackathon, with 80 teams eventually shortlisted to present their projects. The competition was divided into three broad categories: AI for Social Good, GreenTech & Climate Action, and Open Innovation.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Hackathon Focuses on Practical Technology Solutions</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The event opened with a welcome address by Prof. Touhid Bhuiyan, Convener, who introduced the Washington University of Science and Technology and welcomed participating teams.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Prof. Sandeep Kumar, Co-Convener, outlined the objectives and structure of the hackathon, while Dr. Hasan Karaburk, President of the Washington University of Science and Technology, addressed participants as the Chief Guest.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Following the opening session, teams began presenting their ideas and working on solutions across areas including artificial intelligence, sustainability, healthcare, education, agriculture, smart cities, cybersecurity, climate action and financial technology.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The format was designed to give participants an opportunity to move beyond conceptual ideas and demonstrate how technology could be applied to specific challenges.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Experts From Technology And Industry Evaluate Teams</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">A key part of the hackathon was the involvement of professionals from academia, technology companies and specialised industry sectors as judges.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The AI for Social Good track featured experts including Ripunjoy Sarkar, Technical Architect; Venkateswara Rao Guntupalli, Sr. SQL Database Administrator at Health Resources and Services Administration, Maryland; Satyanarayana Gopisetty, Senior Cloud & DevOps Architect at Toyota Financial Services Corporation; Maneesh Gupta, Salesforce Architect and Contractor at Eli Lilly; Anjali Mudireddy, Risk Analyst at Amazon, USA; Dilip M. Sharma, Application Analyst at Houston Methodist Hospital; Shreyansh Sharma, Senior Software Developer at London Stock Exchange; Gunjan Pravin Shegade, Performance Engineer at Raks Group; and Bharathi Sesha Sai, Cybersecurity Architect at Leidos Inc.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The GreenTech & Climate Action panel included professionals such as Pratishtha Singh, Software Engineer II at Amazon; Parth Ghaswala, Cloud Infrastructure Advisor at Gainwell Technologies LLC; Soumyajit Mukherjee, Sr Manager, Data Engineering at Shutterfly Inc; Sudarshan Venkataraman, Principal Software Engineering Manager; Pushpanjali Chauhan, Supply Chain & Operations Analytics Professional at California State University–Fullerton; Shubham Srivastava, Senior Cloud Software Engineer; Ramesh Chandra Aditya Komperla, Senior Software Engineer at Geico; Tevfik Tolga Kavun, Independent Commercial Leadership Advisor; Sanjay Vijay Mhaskey, Lead Principal Consultant; Sivakumar Balu of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development of North America; Mahesh Shanmugam, Control Systems Engineer; Shyamprasad Sesshagiri, Staff SAP S/4 Analyst at Nvidia; Sarath Kumar Kallayil Sreedharan, Senior Technical Account Manager at Amazon Web Services; Siddhesh Latkar, Senior Software Engineer at Apple; and Venkata Satya Karthik Koganti, Senior DevOps Engineer at Holland America Line.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Open Innovation Track Brings Diverse Expertise</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The Open Innovation track was evaluated by professionals including Pritesh Gehlot, Senior Architect at Staples; Premkumar Ganesan, Technology Leader at Deloitte; Aneesh Varghese, Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS; Manjeera Chanda, Senior Mulesoft Architect at GoodRx; Chandramouli Viswanathan, Vice President and Senior Lead Architect at JPMorganChase, Delaware, USA; Poli Reddy Basani of SAP America Inc.; Sakthi Sankara Balaji Sathyamurthy, Senior Technology Program Manager at Truist Financial Corporation; Gopichand Talluri of Annslotech Inc; Sumit Sachdeva, Technical Manager, Predictive Analytics / Business Intelligence at The Scotts Company LLC; Kamana Parvej Mishu, M.S. in Engineering Management (Industrial) at Trine University; Sai Krishna Puli, Lead Application Architect/Data Architect; Harsh Jeenesh Banthia, Co-Founder of Avenue Ticketing Inc.; and Rajasekhara Duggimpudi, Software Engineer II at CME Group.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The composition of the panels brought together expertise spanning software engineering, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, data science, DevOps, enterprise architecture, business technology and sustainability.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">This allowed teams to present their ideas to professionals with experience in different technology and business environments.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Two-Round Presentation Process</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The hackathon followed a two-stage presentation process. The first selection round took place on September 19, followed by the final round for shortlisted teams on September 20.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">During the track-specific sessions, participating teams presented their solutions to the respective judging panels. The presence of participants from more than 60 institutes also created opportunities for interaction between students, innovators and professionals from different areas of technology.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">For participants, the event provided exposure to the practical considerations involved in taking an idea from an initial concept to a demonstrable technology solution.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">With more than 300 submissions, 80 shortlisted teams and participation from over 60 institutes, the 2nd Washington Hackathon 2026 brought together students, innovators and technology professionals across multiple disciplines. The event concluded with a focus on collaborative problem-solving and the development of technology-led approaches to social, environmental and technological challenges.</p>
