KL Deemed to be University (KLEF) has secured the top position at the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025, winning a cash prize of ₹1.5 lakh. The winning team developed an innovative automated classroom attendance solution for rural areas, addressing a problem statement proposed by the Government of Punjab.
The national finale took place at Chandigarh Engineering College, Landran, Chandigarh, Punjab, where the university team competed against over 500 teams from across India. The team successfully outperformed all competitors to claim the national winner title.
The winning team from the KL GNU Linux Users Group (KL GLUG) includes B.Tech students P. Vamsi Krishna, Varun Sharma, V. Jashwanth, Madhuhan Shekhar, Ankita Behera, and Prabhsirat Kaur from the IRD department. Dr. Sripath Roy Koganti mentored the team throughout the competition.
In this year’s hackathon, six teams from KL Deemed to be University qualified for the national finals. Five teams represented the Vijayawada campus while one team participated from the Hyderabad campus.
The award-winning solution uses a hybrid RFID and face-recognition system to streamline attendance marking and enhance teaching efficiency. The system supports data-driven Mid-Day Meal planning and features role-based mobile applications and dashboards. It also sends SMS alerts to parents, making it a cost-effective and scalable solution suitable for large-scale government implementation.
Prior to their hackathon success, the team had developed “KL EATS,” a pre-order food solution for university canteens that gained widespread adoption among students. This project, developed with support from KL GLUG and the Department of Experiential Learning, provided the team with practical product development experience that contributed to their hackathon victory.
The Vice-Chancellor and Registrar congratulated the students and their mentor for the achievement. The initiative received support from Dr. Narasimha Raju, SIH SPOC, with academic leadership from Dr. Aswin Kumar.
This marks the second national-level Smart India Hackathon win for the university. A team from the KL GNU Linux Users Group previously won SIH 2022 in Erode, Tamil Nadu, for a solution providing educational access to rural villages without internet connectivity. That solution was subsequently implemented in multiple villages.
