New Delhi: As the nation battles the spread of Covid-19 pandemic and incurring economic losses, the MIT management school has rolled out its 7th hackathon to address the critical needs during the coronavirus crisis.

Under this Covid-19 challenge hackathon, teams from around the world including those from universities, govt and NGO sector will help create solutions for the needs and immediate challenges that emerged out of the Coronavirus outbreak.

“India, with its population density and the scale of its informal sector is facing some unprecedented and unique challenges that call for extraordinary leadership from the community. Many of the strategies that have been adopted at a smaller scale or in the early stages of the pandemic become practically impossible to sustain long-term, without trade-offs,” said MIT alumni Rao V Mantri and Geethanjali Gopal, organizers of the hackathon.

Participants are expected to understand and address the problems and also generate solutions, supported by proof of concepts, prototypes and an idea about its execution.

“Participants do not need coding experience. We are looking for a diverse set of participants from various industries. The will to make a difference and a creative mindset is all you need,” said Mantri and Gopal.

All the teams, on August 30, will sit together to present their work after refining their pitches with the help of mentors and thereafter winners will be announced.