Ahmedabad: Imagine jumping on a moving train from a height and landing perfectly upright, on your feet. Coders at the Sentinel Innovation Hackathon 2026 achieved a similar feat as they successfully pinpointed a vehicle with a specific number plate from more than 250GB of data of ‘live’ CCTV feed.Suman Nala, IPS officer and coordinator of the initiative from Gujarat Police, said the primary challenge for participants was to find a way to standardise CCTV feed.“Across formats, there are a number of variations in both public and private CCTV networks. For the hackathon, we procured live feed from 30 CCTVs belonging to five different departments. There was roughly 250-300 GB data. The challenge, thus, was to find a specific frame with use of their own solution,” she said. “Additional checks and balances were in place to ensure that participants came up with their own solutions instead of using existing ones,” Nala said.Winners of the hackathon were announced on Tuesday in the presence of deputy chief minister Harsh Sanghavi. They received Rs 51 lakh in prize money.Organisers said that this was the first phase of the challenge and that the winners along with 14 other organisations will participate in the second and final phase for the solution. The event saw participation of over 6,300 students and researchers, over 370 companies, and over 350 recognised startups. The finalists were chosen from over 1,000 solutions submitted. The participation represented 17 states and 30 major cities, they added.Sanghavi said the challenge is not about creating IT, technological infrastructure or crime detection. “Rather, it represents a deeply human-centric approach that uses AI and modern software integration to save the ‘human hours’ (working hours) of thousands of Gujarat Police constables and officers,” he said.“Young innovators and startups developing CCTV camera integration and AI-based technological solutions will have significant business opportunities in the future, not only in Gujarat but throughout the country. The police department is committed to providing comprehensive support to young innovators at every stage, from concept development to execution, and facilitating access to real-time data for their work,” added Sanghavi.
