Government, tech ecosystem and academia converge to launch Tech4Heritage; a first of its kind initiative to preserve India’s cultural heritage
New Delhi: Rishihood University, in collaboration with Sapio Analytics and Internity Foundation is gearing up to launch the upcoming Tech4Heritage Hackathon, slated to commence from the 27th of September onwards. The primary objective is to develop viable solutions to preserve and rejuvenate key heritage sites contributing to India’s rich history and culture. The first of its kind initiative will be inaugurated by chief guests, Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of the Department of Science & Technology, himself an illustrious scientist with over 350 peer reviewed papers and patents.
Winning teams apart from cash prizes, will unlock opportunities to work directly on additional projects with Sapio’s Heritage Restoration team and get their solutions uploaded on the Arctic World Archives, a global digital memory bank, which will effectively immortalise their work for millennia to come. Support will also be extended to further refine and commercialise solutions, aided by Rishihood University and the Amity Innovation incubation cells.
The Hackathon will be marked by the presence of Saurabh Jain, Head, Paytm – Build for India as Guest of Honour. Some of the other esteemed panel of jurists include, Prof Sankar K Pal, distinguished scientist and Former Director, Indian Statistical Institute; Dr Ashish Tendulkar, Machine Learning Architect at Google Pay; Sachin Vyas, VP, Data-AI-Automation Products, LTI; Ankit Mathur, Staff Data Scientist, GE Transportation, amongst others. Tech4Heritage will initially be run as a pilot project, to restore the more than 2000 year old Ajanta Caves.
India has the sixth largest number of heritage sites in the world, with more than 30 UNESCO recognised cultural heritage sites which are in need of ongoing restoration work. Speaking on the initiative, Shri Suresh Prabhu, Founding Chancellor, Rishihood University, said, “Only via the convergence of stakeholders across government, industry and academia, can we even remotely hope to preserve India’s unparalleled cultural heritage. I firmly believe our passionate youth of today will come up with the most innovative solutions for the future generations of tomorrow.’
Successful implementation will then be further scaled up to include more heritage sites of national and cultural significance across India. This first of its kind initiative, promoting collaboration across academia, government and the tech ecosystem, has partnered with the platform partner Larsen & Toubro Infotech, which will provide a cutting edge Mosaic AI platform for participants to develop innovative solutions. Senior members of the Ministry of Culture will also be participating in the initiative and have expressed keen interest.
A mentor network and students of prestigious engineering colleges such as IIT Delhi, NIT Karnataka, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Delhi Technological University, IIIT Pune, are already onboard to participate in the first of its kind initiative. Primarily students of engineering colleges and young working professionals with expertise in Deep Learning, AI, ML and Image Processing, who can build a viable preliminary solution and optimize the same for deployment, are being targeted. To participate in the 15 day hackathon, please register free of cost by visiting https://rishihood.edu.in/tech4heritage/.
Sahil Agarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Rishihood University, added, “We are extremely proud to be a part of the Tech4Heritage Hackathon. This association will help build the stepping stones to rejuvenate key sites of historical significance, which are invaluable in inculcating a sense of pride showcasing India’s role as a seat of global learning and cultural homogeneity. It’s in many ways a culmination of using cutting edge tech to preserve our rich cultural legacy of the past to cement our role in the future”