The term ‘Hackathon’ might be familiar to those in the computer programming world. A hackathon is an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming. With a similar philosophy, Professor Anil Saigal thought of organizing an ‘Appathon’. This idea became a reality and was held on July 9th, 2016 at the Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration (SHA), facilitated by Dean Dr. Arun Upneja. All funds raised from the event contribute to benefitting Ekal Vidyalaya.

Ekal Youth Leaders (EYL) from New England shaped this event into a mobile app building workshop and competition. With no prior programming experience required, the event was open to everyone eight years and above.  Using ‘Thunkable’, a drag and drop mobile application platform (a project created by Arun Saigal, treasurer of Ekal Bay Area Chapter), participants learned how to create applications. During the lunch break, they were asked to pick teammates and brainstorm their ideas for the competition. 16 teams worked on their ideas and presented later in the day. The participants created interesting applications, useful in many ways, some especially targeted for villages in India. Several parents shared in the enthusiasm and participated as well. A ‘grocery app’ by one of the parent was most noteworthy and left the audience amused.

EYLs Ayush Upneja, Vikram Pathalam, Shanmukha Srinivasan lead the workshop, which was  conducted in SHA’s advanced lecture hall. Dr. Arun Upneja and Prof. Anil Saigal mentored the EYLs in preparation for the workshop and they did a fantastic job making sure each participant was following along. In addition to the workshop, we had two inspiring speakers. Arun Saigal  gave his words of wisdom through a Skype conversation. Professor Ganesh Ramachandran also addressed the audience, where he discussed his projects for Ekal villages. We learned about real challenges in the villages and how we could bring solutions to those problems.

The EYL’s guided the teams through the competition portion and finally it was time to present. As Thunkable is cloud based, the presentation session incorporated a live-run of the app build. There was a distinguished panel of judges, including professionals from the industry and academic fields:

Prof. Ganesh Ramachandran from IIT, Bombay

Peter Zende, Assistant Dean of SHA

Amrita Saigal from Thunkable

Manoj Munjal from NE Reality

Su-Ming Wu from Oracle

Prof. Anil Saigal from Tufts.

The judges were totally impressed by the participants’ entries for the competition and had a tough time deciding the winners.

Everyone worked very hard to learn the app building tools from Thunkable and to come up with original ideas. Every participant was successful in their own way but we would like to highlight the chosen winners in their various categories:

Congratulations to all participants and winners!

The winners were presented trophies by Anu Upneja & Ranjani Saigal. Sushilaa Pathalam of SVTMjewels provided token of appreciation to the EYLs.

The tremendous success of the event can be accredited to the direction of Ekal NE leads:   Ranjani Saigal, Parveen Minocha, Anu Upneja, Pushpa Baskaran, and Srilakshmi Srinivasan.

and, to Ekal volunteers: Sridevi, Chennakesavan, Baskaran, and Anil Minocha  

as well as support from various Ekal Youth Leaders: Janani Baskaran, Amirta Chen, Dhruv Dang, and Sriganesh Srinivasan.

Ekal New England loves incorporating new fundraising ideas that can also benefit local communities. This was definitely a day to cherish; the participants had so much fun with hands-on learning while simultaneously supporting children in their efforts to receive a basic education. For those who could not make it, stay tuned because Ekal Appathon may be coming to your town!

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