NEC India organizes hackathon to find innovative logistics and transportation solutions using auto rickshaw

Talent knows no boundaries and this was evident in the NEC Hackathon organized by NEC Laboratories India, an R&D center under NEC Technologies India. Themed ‘Smart Logistics & Transportation’, the event attracted numerous young Indian talent with their creative ideas on using the auto-rickshaw to solve India’s social challenges in the field of transportation and logistics. Some of these challenges facing India include road congestion, lack of effective last mile delivery channels, inefficient and fragmented logistics operation, among others.

In the first round, a total of 1,563 teams registered for the hackathon by submitting their creative ideas and solutions and subsequently 30 teams were shortlisted for the final round of the competition held on 16 - 17 February in Bangalore.

Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Akihiko Iketani, Head- NEC Laboratories India, said, “It’s a great pleasure to see the awe-inspiring solutions coming from these talented participants. The NEC Hackathon is not just an event, but a concept aimed at creating a platform to showcase and encourage special talent. I take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners and thank every participant who joined the hackathon.”

Dr. Iketani added, “The aim of this hackathon was to find innovative ideas to solve the current challenges in logistics & transportation in this country. We strongly believe that the auto rickshaw can be an effective solution to traffic congestion while serving as an efficient mode of last mile connectivity in India’s urban road transport system. Also, we took special notice of rickshaw due to its historical connection with Japan.  The “rickshaw” originated in Japan almost 150 years ago as a man powered vehicle and later evolved to auto-rickshaw in India.”

Some of the ideas from the winners of Hackathon will be assessed by NEC team for potential commercialization. NEC Technologies India is looking into the possibility of organizing similar competitions in the future to foster open innovation in India.

NEC Technologies India is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies. The company brings together and integrates technology as well as the expertise to create the ICT-enabled society of tomorrow.