New Delhi, February 2, 2020: Aligning with Toyota’s global commitment to offer innovative Safety solutions, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) organised third edition of Toyota Hackathon on Road Safety, at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Students from Grade 9th to 12th, from schools across New Delhi participated in this intense challenge to develop digital road safety solutions in support of the National Mission for "Zero Fatality." TKM organised this road safety initiative in association with Indian Road Safety Campaign. Aimed at creating an impactful consciousness, this unique initiative provides a platform to encourage and motivate young minds to be aware of the road safety challenges.
This was the second edition of the Toyota hackathon in Delhi where it received more than 500 entries from 35+ schools. The Bangalore chapter of the hackathon took place in Bangalore last year witnessing participation from over 600 teams. The event focuses on three dimensional themes - Driver Behavior, Better Enforcement and Road Conditions or Infrastructure
The event was graced by renowned athletes and other dignitaries. The top performers of the hackathon were selected by eminent a jury constituting of members from diverse fields such as Academia, Corporates, Media, Transportation, Government, Police and Toyota experts. The Top five and the Best three were recognised and awarded trophies and cash prizes.
In the initial stage of the hackathon programmme, a basic online aptitude test was conducted for the 500 participating teams from schools across New Delhi. A three-phase screening process was undertaken to shortlist the best 50 teams for the onsite hackathon. These top 50 teams were further trained and mentored on basic technical skills coupled with required resources to support them during the hackathon. Each team were allotted 36 hours to work on their innovative ideas with guidance and mentoring from experts during the process to finally arrive at a prototype or a concrete idea as a road safety solution. TKM will further incubate these bright ideas and help the students develop and nurture the implementable solutions suggested by them in support of road safety cause.
Sharing his thoughts on this unique initiative, Kamal Singh, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact Network India who was also the chief guest for the occasion, said, "Road accidents don’t only cause trauma to the family of the deceased but also contribute to the huge economic loss to the nation. It is important to engage the children in road safety campaigns at an early age to understand the road safety challenge and follow the right safety culture. It is a delight to witness these little wonders developing such out-of-the-box digital solutions to enhance road safety in India".
Speaking on this unique initiative, Guest of Honor for the event, Dipa Karmakar, Indian artistic gymnast, said, "This initiative is a great way to stimulate discussions around road safety involving new technologies and increase the range of solutions to tackle this impairing issue, helping the youth unleash their talent and contribute to the cause of road safety."
Congratulating all the participants, Vikram Gulati, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility & Public Relations said, "Toyota has been consistently and proactively engaging with stakeholders through its various Road Safety initiatives and pan-India campaigns since 2007. We are confident the solutions presented today will effectively help us further strengthening our goal of achieving zero traffic fatality."
He further added, "Taking this commitment towards road safety a step further, Toyota launched its global corporate initiative, Start Your Impossible (SYI), to achieve the ultimate goal of zero traffic fatality. It is through these initiatives that Toyota is committed to achieving a safer, more sustainable and mobile world for everyone."
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