The Valedictory Programme of CODEARENA 3.0, the internal hackathon of Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) for the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2026, was held at the RRU Auditorium, Lavad, Gandhinagar. The ceremony marked the conclusion of a hackathon journey that began on 9 September 2026 and culminated in the nomination of 31 teams to represent the University at the national level.

Prof. (Dr.) Kalpesh H. Wandra, Pro Vice-Chancellor, RRU, graced the occasion as Chief Guest and delivered the Valedictory Address. Dr. Jasbir Kaur Thadhani, University Dean, RRU, was present as Guest of Honour and delivered the Special Address.

Delivering the Welcome Address, Dr. Chandresh Parekh, Director, School of Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security (SITAICS), noted that CODEARENA 3.0 drew participation from students across SITAICS, SASET and SISDSS, as well as from the University's Uttar Pradesh campus, reflecting the truly multi-school character of the initiative.

Presenting the Event Brief and Highlights, Mr. Poojan Shah, Assistant Professor, SITAICS, informed that 64 teams comprising 384 students worked on 74 problem statements over the course of the hackathon. He stated that the exercise was designed with two core objectives — first, to build team unity among students, and second, to prepare teams to represent their School and the University at the national stage. Of the participating teams, 31 teams were shortlisted for the Smart India Hackathon, comprising 12 teams in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, 10 in Cybersecurity and Forensics, 5 in IoT and Embedded Hardware, and 4 in Software Development. The 31 nominated teams are addressing 28 unique problem statements floated by 15 organisations, Mr. Shah informed, led by NTRO with eight teams, AICTE with four and MHA with three, with the rest coming from several Union Ministries. Six industry jury members evaluated every team over the two days, and several participants shared their experience.

Delivering the Special Address, Dr. Jasbir Kaur Thadhani congratulated the School on the successful conduct of CODEARENA 3.0 and observed that such events help build resilience among students. She noted that a hackathon of this nature tests far more than technical ability — it develops emotional regulation, teamwork, communication, adaptability and decision-making under pressure, which are professional competencies that serve students in any field. Highlighting the participation of women, she pointed out that 140 of the 384 participants were women, who contributed as team leaders, developers, researchers and core decision-makers. Nine of the 31 nominated teams were led by women, and two nominated six-member teams were composed entirely of women. Expressing appreciation for the calibre of the problem statements taken up by the shortlisted teams, she said that the University would extend opportunities to students to carry this work forward as extended projects aligned with the University's own requirements, enabling promising prototypes to mature beyond the hackathon.

In his Valedictory Address, Prof. (Dr.) Kalpesh H. Wandra lauded the encouragement, enthusiasm and potential demonstrated by the youth for technological advancement in this era. He stated that the purpose of a hackathon is to identify real challenges and to arrive at industry-ready solutions, and that this represents a win-win proposition for the nation, enabling young minds to address national challenges and strengthen national security. He underscored that time management is among the most critical skills in an event of this nature. During the evaluation students should be able to explain their solution to the jury well in a 3 minutes time frame. He urged the nominated teams to act on the jury's feedback and to strengthen the novelty, practicality and scalability of their solutions ahead of the national round.

Announcing the results, Mr. Poojan Shah declared Team Smart Smurfs, led by Ms. Shivangi Sharma, the Winner for its forensic analysis scripting solution built in a new programming language. Team AlphaOps (Mr. Anshu Prakash) and Team Tech Catalysts (Mr. Raj Vardhan) were adjudged First and Second Runners-up for their work on dark web threat actor de-anonymization and on a 3D ocean-model visualisation platform respectively. Code Purple, SRON, Avengers, The Debuggers, Trishuli, Sarvanetra AI and Strive completed the Top 10.

Proposing the Vote of Thanks, Mr. Darshan Prajapati, Manager – Placements, Internships and Training, SITAICS, observed that several teams had generated ideas with strong commercial and social potential, which can be taken forward for incubation through the University's Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) for startup development. The 31 nominated teams will now submit their ideas on the Smart India Hackathon 2026 portal, representing Rashtriya Raksha University at the national level. Following scrutiny by the respective problem-statement organisations and SIH evaluators, the selected teams will be invited to the SIH Grand Finale in December 2026.

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