Kochi: Team 420, the team from Govt. Model Engineering College (MEC), Kochi, emerged as the winner of Cubethon '23, the second edition of one of the largest student hackathons in the country organized by software development company Cubet in association with Nasscom. 

The team comprising Muhammed Jamal P, Jeff Prakash, Anand A, and Niya Shiyas won the top place by providing an innovative AI-powered solution that harnesses the ubiquity of WhatsApp, to streamline and simplify the manual process of tracking and analyzing personal daily expenses and financial matters.

The second and third places were won by team A2Z Technology and Team Sentient both from Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore. Team Tons of Tech from Prince Shri Venkateshwara Padmavathy Engineering, Chennai, and Team Heuristic Solaris from St.Joseph's Institute of Technology, Chennai, respectively were placed at the fourth and fifth positions.

There were 124 entries received in the first stage and of these, 19 teams were selected for the live hackathon held on July 29. The top five teams were selected on August 1 and the grand finale took place on August 5th. 

Infopark CEO Susanth Kurunthil distributed cash prizes including Rs 50,000 for the champions, Rs 30,000 (2nd prize), Rs 20,000 (3rd), and Rs 10,000 each (4th and 5th). Cubet CEO Lovegin John said the winning teams and the projects will be further evaluated to qualify for up to Rs 10 lakh seed funding in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the valedictory function was attended by Jofin Joseph, tech influencer; Sharon Sebastien, Nasscom; Jaison Joseph, CEO - iLeaf Solutions; Lovegin John, CEO, Cubet and Vipin Chandran, CTO, Cubet among others.