Panjab University’s team SATARK wins Chandigarh Police hackathon

Team SATARK from UIET (University Institute of Engineering and Technology), Panjab University, won the Chandigarh Police National Hackathon, which concluded on Wednesday after attracting 580 online registrations from across India.

The two-day hackathon was organised by Chandigarh Police in association with UIET, Panjab University, and Punjab Engineering College (PEC).

Following an initial screening, 90 teams were shortlisted for the offline round held on September 8 at the UIET and PEC campuses. A jury comprising technical and policing experts then selected 15 teams for the final round.

Participants developed solutions aimed at tackling a range of emerging policing and cybercrime challenges, including spot-testing kits for synthetic drug detection, tools to monitor illicit drug sales on the Dark Web, identification of AI-generated images and videos, and tracking of illicit cryptocurrency flows.

Other problem statements included detection of fraudulent bank accounts and transactions, along with platforms for integrated analysis of CDR/IPDR data and bank statements.

Team SATARK of UIET secured the first position and won a prize of ₹1 lakh. Team DABANGG CODERS from Panjab University finished second with Rs 75,000, while Team EmptyRoad from Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Tamil Nadu, secured third place and won Rs 50,000.

Three teams were also awarded consolation prizes of Rs 25,000 each.

DGP Dr Sagar Preet Hooda announced a participation incentive of Rs 5,000 for each member of all shortlisted teams.

The valedictory ceremony was attended by DGP Dr Sagar Preet Hooda, IGP Pushpendra Kumar, DIG Rajeev Ranjan Singh and SP/Crime Anurag Daru, along with CFSL Director Sukhmani Kaur and CSIR-CSIO scientist Narinder Singh.

Chandigarh Police said it would examine the possibility of integrating the shortlisted solutions into its operations.