Media Release

Mangaluru, Aug 10: More than 200 students of the School of Engineering, St Aloysius (Deemed to be University) participated in FreeDOx – Freedom from Documentation, an eight-hour hackathon organised as part of the Independence Week celebrations. The hackathon challenged students to explore how technology could reduce the burden of repetitive documentation and simplify institutional processes.

The problem statements were drawn from various documentation requirements of the School of Engineering, covering areas such as academic documentation, accreditation, data consolidation, reporting and administrative processes.

Student teams worked on developing practical technology-enabled modules that could improve efficiency and reduce manual effort.

In his inaugural address, Dr Melwyn D’Cunha SJ, pro vice chancellor, highlighted the responsibility that comes with being a technology practitioner in an increasingly AI-driven world. He emphasised the need for empathy and sensitivity to the human side of technology, urging students to ensure that technological progress contributes to the upliftment of every section of society.

Referring to the growing influence of artificial intelligence, Fr Melwyn said that while technology would continue to transform the way people work, human thinking must be consciously nurtured, as it is what would keep people relevant in the age of AI. He also cautioned students to approach emerging technologies responsibly and with an awareness of their wider social impact. Also present at the Inaugural was Uri from Japan.

The hackathon provided students with an opportunity to work on real institutional problems, moving beyond conventional classroom exercises to understand a problem, develop a solution and demonstrate its practical application. The event concluded with the felicitation of the winning teams by Dr S Ruban, dean, School of Engineering, and Dr Glenson Toney, assistant dean, School of Engineering. The hackathon was coordinated by Dr Glenson Toney, Gaurav Prasad and Vijay Ganesh of the School of Engineering.