Opportunity brief
Hacktopia Pune – 24-Hour Hackathon
Hacktopia Pune is a 24-hour hackathon organised by Gotham-AI, the AI and emerging-tech community at JSPM's Rajarshi Shahu College of Engineering (RSCOE), Tathawade, Pune. It is held by the Department of Computer Science and Business Systems.
Hacktopia Pune is open to students from all colleges and disciplines. Teams will build innovative solutions, receive guidance from mentors, and pitch their work to a panel of judges.
Dates: 18–20 December 2026
Venue: JSPM's RSCOE, Tathawade, Pune
Prize Pool: ₹1,00,000+ (cash prizes, certificates and opportunities)
Eligibility
- Open to all UG and PG students from any college. - Open to all disciplines, including tech, business, design and more. - Team size: 2 to 5 members. - Inter-college teams: Allowed. - Inter-specialization teams: Allowed. - Content Creator (Compulsory): Every team must have at least one content creator. Special content-creation challenges and additional prizes will also be there!
Rounds
Round 1 – Open Innovation (Online Submission)
Teams will showcase their best project or innovative idea by submitting a PPT and GitHub repository. Having a deployed application is recommended.
The PPT template, submission deadline and other details will be announced soon.
Round 2 – 24-Hour Offline Hackathon (at RSCOE)
The top teams from Round 1 will be invited to the offline hackathon at RSCOE. Teams will build solutions over 24 hours based on the officially released problem statements, with mentorship and technical support, followed by presentations to the judges.
Evaluation Criteria
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Innovation
- Problem relevance - Technical implementation -
Feasibility
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Scalability
- User impact -
Presentation
- Overall solution quality
Rules
- Each participant can be part of only one team. - During Round 2, teams must work on the officially released problem statements. - Open-source libraries, frameworks and APIs are allowed, provided they are credited. - At least one team member must be present at the venue throughout the 24-hour round. - Participants must carry a valid college ID card to the offline round. - Plagiarism, copying another team's work, or any misconduct will lead to immediate disqualification. - The judges' decision will be final and binding. - The organisers may change the schedule, rules or format, and any updates will be posted on this page. - Detailed guidelines will be shared with registered teams soon.
FAQs
1. Is there an entry fee for Round 1? No, Round 1 is free. If your team clears Round 1, the entry fee for Round 2 will be ₹250 per participant.
2. Will selected teams be notified before Round 2? Yes, selected teams will be notified 2–3 days before Round 2.
3. Can students from different colleges form a team? Yes, inter-college teams are allowed.
4. What is the team size? Each team must have 2–5 members.
5. Will food and overnight rest arrangements be provided? Yes, meals, snacks, drinking water and overnight rest arrangements will be provided during the offline event.
6. What needs to be submitted for Round 1? Teams must submit a PPT and a GitHub repository. A deployed application is recommended.
7. When will the problem statements be released? Round 1 is an Open Innovation round, so teams can submit their own project or idea. Official problem statements will be released for the offline Round 2.
8. Is having a content creator in the team compulsory? Yes, every team must have at least one content creator. Special content-creation challenges and additional prizes will also be there.
9. Will technical mentors be available during the hackathon? Yes, there will be two rounds of mentorship during the 24-hour event.
10. Where will submission links and further updates be shared? A WhatsApp group invitation will be shared here on Unstop soon. Join the group to receive submission links, PPT templates, deadlines and other important announcements.
Contact
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Aayush Deshpande (President, Gotham AI): +91 87670 25489
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Prasad Bhalerao (Vice President, Gotham AI): +91 80558 82377
- Vipul Nanaware (Social Media & Outreach Head): +91 99706 59793