Manorama Online Digital Changemaker 2023 winners announced

Kochi: The winners of the Manorama Online Digital Changemaker 2023 challenge, a contest to identify innovative ideas that can bring meaningful changes in society, were announced. The winners in three categories were announced at the culmination of the grand finale of the event in Kochi.

In Category 1 (13-17 age group), N Anushak Ram of CKM Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode won the first prize while H A Abhinav Krishna of Bharatiya Vidyabhavan, Thiruvananthapuram bagged the second prize. Abhishad Binu of Christ Nagar Senior Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram came third. Merlyn Mary Sabu of St Joseph's Girls Higher Secondary School, Alappuzha won a special mention by the jury.

In Category 2 (18-22), Mareena Mariya Sabu of St Joseph's College for Women, Alappuzha won the first prize. C Namrutha of TKM College of Engineering, Kollam and Abhay Das of Amrita Viswapeeth, Kollam came second and third respectively. S J Ananthu of Mar Baselios College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram won the jury's special mention.

In Category 3 (23-26), G Akhilesh of the College of Engineering, Munnar clinched the first position. Mariya C George of Nirmala College of Pharmacy, Muvattupuzha and Kiran S Ajith of Government Dental College, Thrissur won second and third prizes respectively. The jury's special mention went to Abhiram Priyan of IGNOU, Thiruvananthapuram.

The Digital Changemaker 2023 Award for students was instituted as part of the Manorama Online Techspectations digital summit. The participants had to send in innovative ideas that can transform or improve digital services in the four categories of utility services, education technology, media and entertainment.

Thirty teams that got through the preliminary round of the challenge presented their innovative ideas before the jury. Twenty-one teams, selected from the first round, contested for the titles in the grand finale. A jury consisting of Prof. Joshy Joseph and Anjana Karumathil, both faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management, and Venugopal V Menon, finance head, Jain University, Kochi and ISDC director for Kerala Growth Projects, decided the winners.

In each category, the first-prize winners will receive Rs 30,000. The second prize is Rs 20,000, while the third prize is Rs 10,000. All those who reached the finals will receive a consolation prize of Rs 2,000.

The winners of the Digital Changemaker 2023 award will also get academic scholarships and merit certificates awarded by the title partner of Techspectations. The Digital Changemaker 2023 award is being organised in association with Jain Online, a leading company in the online education sector.

The winning projects

Category 1 (Age 13-17)

N Anushak Ram (First prize) - AI-based wild animal detection system

H A Abhinav Krishna (Second prize) - Computational vision-based mobile app for early detection and prevention of diabetes mellitus

Abhishad Binu (Third prize) - Votanet: The server-based voting app

Merlyn Mary Sabu (Special mention) - An informatory road safety alert

Category 2 (Age 18-22)

Mareena Mariya Sabu (First prize) - Production of eco-friendly paper from water hyacinth and use of water hyacinth instead of thermocol

C Namrutha (Second prize) - Sistasafe

Abhay Das (Third prize) - Amrita solar EV recharge station

S J Ananthu (Special mention) - Hydroptimiser

Category 3 (Age 23-26)

G Akhilesh (First prize) - Computer simulation study of mathematical optimisation of hyperparameters

Mariya C George (Second prize) - Med on wheels

Kiran S Ajith (Third prize) - Feel at home

Abhiram Priyan (Special mention) - KSRTC passion and compassion with AI