A team of three third-year B.Tech. (Mathematics and Computing) students from School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra, secured the 1st Runner-Up position at the Energy Make-a-thon 2026 (also called Energy Hackathon 2026), a 36-hour on-site prototyping challenge held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu. The team became eligible for the pre-incubation grant of ₹3,00,000 offered under the event to take a solution towards commercialisation.
The event was organised by the Tinkering Lab and Protospace under the Institute Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (I2EDC), IIT Jammu. It began at 9:00 PM on Friday, 23 October 2026 and concluded at 9:00 AM on Sunday, 25 October 2026. Sixteen teams took part: nine internal teams from IIT Jammu and seven external teams, of which six were from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, and one was from MIET Jammu.
The team, comprising Bhartik Sharma, Madhav Sharma and Virendra Charan (SMVDU students), built JALDRISHTI, a two-node early-warning system. A sensor unit (the “Pod”) at the hazard point detects floodwater using a soil-moisture probe and sounds an on-site buzzer. It sends its status over a LoRa radio link to a “Station” about 100 metres away. The Station combines live rainfall forecasts from the Open-Meteo weather service with a terrain score to compute a flood-risk value. This value sets how quickly the alert fires: the higher the risk, the shorter the time the sensor must stay wet. The Station raises a remote alert on a live dashboard, which also records the reasoning behind each alert and the measured response time.
Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Head, School of Mathematics, SMVDU, Katra praised the students for their triumphant achievement.
Prof. (Dr.) Pragati Kumar, Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU, appreciated the team’s achievement. They encouraged the students to keep working with perseverance and to continue their efforts in innovation.