The Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA), in collaboration with IIIT-Bangalore and VLSI System Design (VSD), organised the ELCIA Next-Gen Innovative Tech Hackathon 2026 – Smart City Dron e-AI Challenge. Two student teams from GSFC University secured the First Prize and First Runner-Up position, winning a combined cash prize of ₹85,000 from the total ₹1.10 lakh prize pool.
The awards were presented at the ELCIA Tech Summit 2026 on 10 September 2026 at The Oterra, Electronics City, Bengaluru. GSFC University was the only institution to secure both the first and second positions and the only institution to have two teams among the Top 5 finalists.
The hackathon attracted 183 team registrations, 343 participants and representation from 18 states. Participants were challenged to develop AI-based solutions to address real-world urban problems using drone and city-video footage. Both GSFC University teams competed in the Monsoon, Roads & Civic Infrastructure Intelligence track.
The winning team, Drone404, comprising Krishay Shah, a third-year B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering student, and Tatva Shah, a second-year B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering student, presented HYDRO-VISION-3D, an AI-powered 3D Ground Control Station project that uses drone footage to identify potholes, waterlogging, open manholes, drainage overflow and damaged footpaths. The system combines AI detection, tracking, depth estimation, GIS mapping and risk analytics to convert detected hazards into actionable municipal work orders.
The First Runner-Up team, CivicPulse, comprising third-year B.Tech Computer Science & Engineering students Manthan Chawda and A. Manav Prasath, developed AI-Assisted Monsoon Civic Risk Intelligence. The project processes drone footage and GPS data to detect civic hazards and enables operators to verify incidents, assign repairs, track their status and confirm restoration. The AI pipeline was trained on a dataset of 8,063 images.
The ELCIA Tech Summit 2026, held under the theme “Intellect. Insights. Impact.”, brought together more than 1,000 participants and 50+ speakers and partners from across the technology ecosystem.