SustainX 2026: The Sustainability Hackathon

Overview

Design an AI-powered urban flood forecast system that Gurgaon's civic body could actually implement — and present it to the officials who can.

About the Competition

SustainX 2026 is a Delhi NCR inter-institutional hackathon hosted by the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, as part of the 5th International Winter Conference on Sustainable Business (WCSB 2026).

WCSB is one of Great Lakes Gurgaon's flagship events, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders each December to examine the intersection of Business and Sustainability. This year's conference theme is "Beyond Automation: AI, Human-Centricity, and Sustainability" — and SustainX is its student-facing counterpart: a solution-focused hackathon designed to turn that theme from conference panels into actionable civic solutions.

The Problem We're Solving

Every year, MCG releases a 'flood preparedness plan.' Every year, the same underpasses flood, and the same roads become rivers. On September 1, 2025, 133mm of rain in four hours caused a 20km traffic jam and a 51-hour power outage across the city. By late June 2026, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) had completed desilting at just 16 of 36 hotspots against a May 31 deadline with monsoon already underway. MCG has identified 159 waterlogging hotspots across Gurgaon. It has no system that predicts which of them will flood before the rain arrives.

This year's SustainX 2026 asks one focused question: Can you design an AI-powered predictive flood management system for Gurgaon that MCG can actually build and operate?

Why Participate

The judging panel will include officials from Gurgaon's civic administration. Solutions that demonstrate genuine implementability — technically credible, operationally feasible, and grounded in how MCG actually functions — will be formally presented by GLIM-G to civic stakeholders as a policy brief. This is one of the few student competitions where your solution has a realistic path from a slide deck to a government briefing room.

Who Should Participate

This problem sits at the intersection of analytics, urban infrastructure, civil engineering, public policy, environmental science, and business strategy. We actively encourage interdisciplinary teams. You do not need to be from a business management background, you need to understand the problem and design something that works.

Prizes

• Winner: ₹25,000 + Certificate of Excellence + Solution formally submitted to MCG/GMDA by Great Lakes Gurgaon
• 1st Runners Up: ₹15,000 + Certificates of Excellence
• 2nd Runners Up: ₹10,000 + Certificates of Excellence
• All Round 1 submitters: Participation Certificate

Key Dates

• Registrations + Round 1: Open now
• Round 1 submission deadline: November 5, 2026, 11:59 PM IST
• Round 1 shortlist announced: November 10, 2026
• Round 2 submission deadline: November 24, 2026, 11:59 PM IST
• Top 10 finalists announced: November 28, 2026
• Final Presentation on campus: December 8, 2026

Background & Context

The Gurgaon Flood Forecast System — From Reactive Pumping to Predictive Drainage

Every year, MCG releases a flood preparedness plan. Every year, the same underpasses flood, the same roads become rivers, and the same residential sectors report basement damage. On September 1, 2025, 133mm of rain in four hours caused a 20km traffic jam and a 51-hour power outage. By late June 2026, MCG had completed desilting at just 16 of 36 identified hotspots against its own May 31 deadline — despite a mandate to desilt 607km of drainage network.

The failure is one of operations rather than budget: maintenance is reactive, data collection is manual, and resource allocation is driven by political pressure rather than hydrological risk modelling. Gurgaon's 159 identified waterlogging hotspots behave differently under different rainfall intensities, upstream blockage conditions, and seasonal silt accumulation rates. MCG currently has no system that predicts which hotspot will flood given a specific rainfall forecast — meaning pump deployment and emergency response are always chasing the flood rather than anticipating it.

Problem Statement

Design an AI-powered predictive flood management system for Gurgaon that enables MCG to move from reactive flood response to pre-emptive resource deployment — one that is operationally viable within MCG's existing technical and administrative capacity, without requiring a complete infrastructure overhaul.

What Participants Must Do

• Map the drainage network topology: Identify which of Gurgaon's 159 waterlogging hotspots are upstream vs. downstream of each other, how blockages in one zone propagate flooding to others, and which 20% of the drainage network causes 80% of the city's flooding. Identify the critical intervention points that give MCG the highest flood-reduction leverage per rupee spent.
• Design the AI predictive system: Specify the data inputs your system requires (IMD rainfall forecasts, real-time drain sensor readings, historical flood incident records, seasonal silt accumulation data) and how the AI processes these to produce a 24–48 hour flood risk map with confidence levels and recommended pre-emptive actions for each risk zone.
• Design the MCG operations protocol: Outline the current operating procedure of MCG's maintenance and pumping crews. Given the AI's flood risk output, define exactly how MCG's maintenance crews and pump operators should allocate resources in the 12–24 hours before a forecasted heavy rainfall event. This should read as actionable SOPs — who does what, in what order, at which hotspot locations.
• Propose the sensor and data infrastructure: Specify the minimum viable sensor network (rain gauges, drain level sensors, CCTV at key underpasses) that makes your AI system reliable. Include a capital cost estimate, a vendor-agnostic technical specification, and a maintenance model MCG can realistically sustain.
• Design the citizen-facing alert interface: A publicly accessible system through which Gurgaon residents can see which roads and underpasses are at elevated flood risk in the coming 24 hours. Specify the communication channels (including SMS and IVR for residents without smartphones), the format of alerts, and how the system handles false positives without eroding public trust.

Expected Deliverables

• Gurgaon drainage network topology analysis identifying critical intervention nodes
• AI predictive system architecture: data inputs, processing logic, outputs, and confidence intervals
• MCG pre-event operations protocol in SOP format
• Sensor / technology infrastructure specification with capital cost estimate
• Citizen-facing alert interface design with channel strategy

Key Design Constraints

Your solution must work within the following real-world constraints — solutions that ignore these will score poorly on viability:

• The system must be operable by MCG's existing workforce without a dedicated data science team. If your system requires a PhD to run, it will not be implemented.
• The sensor network must be designed for vandal resistance, outdoor weatherproofing, and low-maintenance operation in an Indian municipal context.
• Your operations protocol must address the political economy of Gurgaon's civic administration: what happens when the AI system flags flood risk in a sector whose RWA has political influence? Your protocol must have an answer.
• All cost estimates must be grounded in publicly available data or Indian market benchmarks — not international figures.

Eligibility

• Open to all students currently enrolled in any undergraduate, postgraduate, or doctoral programme at a recognised higher education institution in Delhi NCR only — including Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and surrounding areas
• All disciplines are welcome: Management, Engineering, Computer Science, Urban Planning, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Economics, Public Policy, Law, Environmental Science, Social Sciences, Design, and all allied fields
• Interdisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged — this problem rewards diverse skill sets
• Team size: 2 to 4 members; members may be from different institutions
• Faculty members and working professionals may not participate as team members
• Each participant may be part of only one team

Rounds & Submission Structure

Round 1: Problem Framing & Solution Hypothesis

Submit a 1-2 page Executive Summary of your solution (Word doc, or PDF) covering:

• Your diagnosis of the core operational failure in Gurgaon's current flood management
• Your proposed solution approach in brief, what your AI system does and how it is better than the current reactive model
• The most critical design constraint your solution addresses, and how you've approached it
• Your team's composition and the specific expertise each member brings

We are screening for quality of thinking and clarity of diagnosis. A complete solution is not expected at this stage.

• Submissions close: November 5, 2026, 11:59 PM IST
• File naming convention: TeamName-SustainX-R1

Round 2: Shortlisted teams submit the Full Solution

Shortlist announced: November 10, 2026

Shortlisted teams must submit both of the following:

Structured Slide Deck (mandatory, maximum 12 slides)

• Must cover: problem diagnosis, AI system architecture, data model design, MCG operations protocol, technology / sensor infrastructure, implementation roadmap, and cost estimate.
• Format: PowerPoint or PDF
• File naming: TeamName-SustainX-R2

Working Prototype OR Financial Model (mandatory — either of two, or both)

• Working Prototype: A functional demo, interactive simulation, or a working AI prediction interface, and the MCG operations dashboard. Must be demonstrable live during the final presentation.
• Financial Model: A spreadsheet covering sensor infrastructure capital cost, system deployment cost, annual operations and maintenance cost, and projected reduction in flood-related economic damage as the financial case for implementation.
• Format: Hosted demo of AI solution (shareable link) / ZIP (in case of multiple files) or Excel (financial model)

Submissions close: November 24, 2026, 11:59 PM IST

Final Presentation Round: December 8, 2026 at Great Lakes Gurgaon Campus, Gurgaon

Top 10 finalist teams will be announced on November 28, 2026, giving teams 10 days to plan their travel and logistics. Each team presents in a 10-minute slot followed by a 5-minute jury Q&A. Travel and accommodation are the responsibility of participating teams.

Rules & Guidelines

• All submitted work must be original. Use of AI tools for research, drafting, and analysis is permitted — all sources and tools used must be cited.
• Solutions must be grounded in Gurgaon's specific civic context. Generic smart city frameworks applied without local adaptation will not score well on viability.
• Round 1 submissions are evaluated blind — do not include your institution name, team name, or any identifying information within the body of the Executive Summary inside the document.
• All submissions must be made through the Unstop platform only. Submissions via email or any other channel will not be accepted.
• The decision of the jury is final. No correspondence regarding results will be entertained.
• Great Lakes Gurgaon reserves the right to share shortlisted solutions with civic administration officials, with appropriate attribution to the participating team.
• Plagiarism, fabricated data, or misrepresentation of team composition will result in immediate disqualification.
• By submitting, teams grant Great Lakes Gurgaon the right to reference, present, and publish their solution (with full attribution) in academic and public interest contexts.

FAQs

• Can team members be from different institutions?
• Yes. Teams may include members from different Delhi NCR colleges or universities.
• Can I participate individually?
• No. Minimum team size is 2. We recommend teams of 3–4 for a problem of this scope.
• Is there a registration fee?
• No. Registration and participation are completely free.
• My background is engineering / law / design — is this competition for me?
• Absolutely. This problem benefits directly from non-management perspectives. Urban planning, civil engineering, data science, public policy, and design skills are as relevant as business strategy here.
• Can we submit both a prototype and a financial model in Round 2?
• You are required to submit at least one. Submitting both is allowed but judges will evaluate depth over breadth — a strong financial model beats a shallow prototype every time.
• Does WCSB 2026 cover travel costs for finalist teams?
• No. Travel and accommodation to the Great Lakes Gurgaon campus are the responsibility of finalist teams. All finalists will have 10 days from the announcement (Nov 28) to the presentation day (Dec 8) to plan accordingly.
• Can we use AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to help build our solution?
• Yes. AI tools for research, drafting, and analysis are permitted. The originality of your submission lies in the design decisions your team makes — not in avoiding AI assistance. Factual accuracy of any AI-generated content is your team's responsibility.
• What if our solution requires data that MCG hasn't publicly released?
• You may state your assumptions clearly and propose what data would need to be made available for your solution to function. Solutions built on documented, reasonable assumptions will not be penalised. Solutions built on data that does not and cannot exist will be.