Hackathon
SIH 2026 Hackathon, IET Lucknow
The Incubation Center at IET Lucknow, with its Institution's Innovation Council, ran the qualifying round for Smart India Hackathon 2026 across two days. Seventy-three teams presented; two evaluation panels ran in parallel to get through them. Innovgeist was on the jury for those rounds and mentoring teams alongside it.
- Date
- 19 & 21 September 2026
- Venue
- Incubation Center, IET Lucknow
- Our role
- Jury Panel · Mentor
- Attendance
- 73 student teams
On the day
What was covered
Judging a qualifying round is not scoring a demo. It is deciding which of seventy-three ideas is worth another six months of somebody's time — so this is what the panel actually pressed each team on.
Understanding of the problem
Whether the team could state the problem statement in their own words, and name who actually suffers from it — before they said a word about their solution.
Technical approach
What they had built against what they had described: the stack, the parts that were working, and the parts still standing in as a slide.
Innovation and feasibility
Held together deliberately. An idea nobody has tried is worth little if it cannot be built by this team in the time SIH actually gives them.
Potential impact
Who uses it, at what scale, and what changes for them — the test a prototype has to pass before it is worth taking to the national round or incubating.
Hosted by
Incubation Center, IET Lucknow
- Location
- Kalam Hall, NNF Building, IET Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- Affiliated to
- Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University
- Managed by
- In association with the Institution's Innovation Council (IIC)
The Incubation Center, Institute of Engineering and Technology Lucknow, in association with IIC, has successfully conducted the SIH 2026 Internal Hackathon on 19th and 21st September 2026. A total of 73 student teams presented their innovative solutions to real-world problem statements under Smart India Hackathon 2026. To ensure a smooth and structured evaluation, the presentations were conducted over two days with two evaluation panels running in parallel. The teams showcased their understanding of the problem, proposed solutions, technical approach, innovation, feasibility and potential impact. This is an important step towards identifying and nurturing promising student innovations for SIH, prototype development and future incubation.
The room
Photographs from the session
Shot on the day, uncropped and unstaged. Select any photograph to open it full size.
Running a hackathon or an evaluation round?
We judge, mentor and sponsor student hackathons — the same panel work as above. Tell us the dates, the format and the number of teams and we will tell you what we can cover.