AHMEDABAD: This prestigious event is organized to honor the legacy of Dewang Mehta, a visionary leader who played a pivotal role in shaping the Indian IT industry. Organized annually on Devang Mehta’s birth anniversary, the awards serve as a tribute to his contributions and a platform to inspire the next generation of IT leaders. The “Dewang Mehta IT Awards 2024” was organized jointly by Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust, Gujarat Technological University and NASSCOM at Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Auditorium in Ahmedabad. The event aims to create a talent pool for engineers in Gujarat and showcase future meritorious students to the industry, assess skill gaps, and support talented students from the region.
This year, the event saw overwhelming participation. Mr. Rajesh Nambiar, Chairman & MD of Cognizant India and Hon’ble Chairperson of NASSCOM, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. He was accompanied by Dr. Rajul Gajjar, Respected Vice Chancellor of GTU, Mr. Harish Mehta, Managing Trustee of Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust and Founder of Onward Technologies Limited; Mr. Pradeep Udhas, Industry veteran, Board Director, Mentor, Entrepreneur, Acclaimed Ghazal Artist, and Playback Singer; and Mr. Raj Jain, Chairman, Managing Director, and founder of RS Software India Limited, Kolkata, and ex-Chairperson of NASSCOM & Mr. Jaimin Shah, Trustee – Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust & Director – Dev IT Limited.
The 12th edition saw a massive response where 170 projects received from 59 Colleges/Universities of Gujarat (IT/CS/EC/IC Faculty) and 15 projects were short-listed by the jury for final assessment. These teams were invited to Ahmedabad for a personal presentation and finally jury announced the following winners.
Dewang Mehta IT Awards Winners : – In this competition, 1st winner was from the A.D. Patel Institute Of Technology- Anand (Non- GTU)- Students names- Aditya Sikarvar, Harshiv Patel & Denil Rameshbhai Dubariya. Their project name is Refreshable Braille Display Vizion
2nd Winner was from the Government Engineering College, Valsad (GTU)- students names- Joshi Mann Chandrakantbhai, Jadeja Dhruvrajsinh D, Patel Hetvi, Patel Mitul, Shewani Simran. Their project name is DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM
3rd winner was from the Atmiya University, Rajkot (non- GTU)- Students names- Kacha Brijraj & Dave Birva. Their project name is VU2 – AI Based Hexa-Wheel Robot.
Please note that there were no gold, silver or bronze categories. All 3 teams are the winners. And each team received an honour with a prize money of Rs. 1 lac each.
Along with the Dewang Mehta IT Awards 2024, the foundation & GTU in association with Shri Harish Mehta organized a Maverick Effect AI Challenge 2024. It’s was an online challenge where students of Gujarat from the faculties (IT/CS/EC/IC) have participated through online platform available at www.maverickeffectchallenge.com . Total 120 plus teams have participated and jury shortlisted 19 projects for the second round. All 19 teams were called at Ahemdabad for the final presentation.
For Maverick Effect Challenge 2024: 1st winner was from UIT, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar. Students Names- Nishit Chaudhary, Kunjan Parikh, Sonia Joshi, Jaymin Tanna & Vansh Tiwari. Their Problem Statemenst was on Environmental Monitoring and Conservation.
1st runner up was from LJIET, Ahmedabad. Students names- Tirth Savalia, Perin Modi, Khushil Shah, Tirth Patel, Vinit Harishbhai Chokshi. Problem Statement was on Environmental Monitoring and Conservation.
2nd runner up was from Chandubhai S Patel Institute of Technology, Anand. Students Names- Sneh Shah, Pankil Mukundbhai Soni, Neel Deven Shah. Problem Statement was on Healthcare Optimization.
The winning team got the prize of Rs. 100000 1st Runner’s up – Rs, 90,000 & 2nd Runner’s up – Rs. 80,000
This is the 12th edition of the prestigious Dewang Mehta IT Awards, a platform designed to recognize and encourage unique young talent in the IT sector of Gujarat.
Parallel to all these events, a special recognition was given to the toppers from the Engineering Colleges of Gujarat pertaining to the IT/CS/EC/IC faculties. In total 1004 toppers from 73 Engineering Colleges/Universities were rewarded on stage. They were presented a Certificate of Appreciation by the Chief Guest.
It is worth mentioning that Mr. Rajesh Nambiar delivered a Devang Mehta Memorial Lecture during the event, and the Gujarati version of Mr. Harish Mehta’s book, The Maverick Effect (Best Seller), was released today. As technology evolves rapidly, staying tech-savvy has become essential for success in the industry.
“The Devang Mehta IT Awards 2024 have attracted enthusiastic participation from students representing several colleges in Gujarat, including prestigious engineering colleges in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Anand, and Surendranagar, vasad, Valsad, bahruch, morbi, Porbandar, Bhavnagar and many other cities.
The winners of the Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust IT Awards will be selected based on a comprehensive evaluation of their projects across multiple parameters. Key criteria include originality, innovative approach, potential for sustainable social impact, feasibility of implementation, scalability and effective presentation and communication skills. For the Maverick Challenge, students were given five real-world problems, from which they were required to select a problem statement and provide an AI-related solution. The jury’s evaluation was based on the following criteria: relevance, innovation and creativity of the problem statement, technical accuracy, implementation quality, scalability and impact and presentation.
The Devang Mehta IT Awards serve as a beacon for emerging IT talent, highlighting the path forged by visionary Devang Mehta. Known for his pivotal role in advancing the Indian IT sector and his enduring legacy at NASSCOM, Devang Mehta epitomized the essence of competence, eloquence, competitiveness, philanthropy, modernity and unwavering confidence.
