ZINNOVATIO 4.0 (Zinnovation) — National Level Gen Z Innovations Hackathon Chandigarh University
Chandigarh University's premier national hackathon series. Across 4 historic editions, Zinnovatio has empowered over 9,900+ registered student builders and generated 176,000+ national impressions. Zinnovatio 4.0 has officially concluded with transformative working software and celebrated winners.
Edition 4.0 Finale
30-31
Oct 2026
Edition 4.0 Status • Successfully Concluded
4.0 Registered Builders
on Unstop
Where ideas become
working software.
Hosted by Chandigarh University and organized by the Department of CSE, Nalanda, Zinnovatio is a high-stakes, real-world crucible. Moving far beyond slide-deck hackathons, teams build live code, deploy working hardware-software systems, and defend their creations before senior industry leaders.
Overnight non-stop prototyping sprint on campus
Registration & reporting at D8 block; Team Leader check-in with College IDs
Cross-disciplinary teams forming across India
Bring laptop, charger & extension board; College ID mandatory
Prize pool awards across 6 national focus areas
Live repo & functional demo, no slide decks
Choose one area
to solve for.
Track
Smart & Sustainable Cities
Build tools for better city services, traffic, waste, air quality, public safety, or disaster response.
The Story of Zinnovatio.
A chronological journey of how an ambitious campus initiative evolved into a national hackathon phenomenon across landmark seasons.
Bridging Classrooms to Working Prototypes
In autumn 2024, the Department of CSE, Nalanda at host university Chandigarh University launched the first-ever Zinnovatio. With 832 young developers forming cross-disciplinary teams of 3 to 5, the inaugural edition set out to build practical software for healthcare, women's safety, and civic accessibility. Teams presented live working demos before university leadership and industry mentors, awarding ₹50,000 in prizes.
CU Nalanda's inaugural edition uniting 832 builders across healthcare and civic innovation with ₹50,000 in awarded prizes.
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Tackling Lunar Vision, Deepfakes & Cloud Defense
Season 2 dramatically raised the technical bar. Builders tackled advanced challenges including ISRO Chandrayaan-2 lunar crater enhancement, AI-based face-swap deepfake detection, and cloud DDoS mitigation architectures. Participation surged by +90% to 1,581 developers. Winning teams were honored on stage with giant ₹30,000, ₹20,000, and ₹10,000 cheques against the official Zinnovatio 2.0 backdrop banner.
+90% surge to 1,581 builders solving ISRO lunar crater vision, deepfake detection & cloud DDoS defense with ₹60,000+ awarded.
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3,303 Builders, Overnight Coding & UN SDGs
Zinnovatio 3.0 marked the transition into a premier national hackathon. Scaling past 3,300 registrations from institutions across India, the event became a grueling 36-hour overnight hackathon on campus. Teams hacked non-stop through the night solving for 8 UN Sustainable Development Goals, evaluated in-person by domain experts. A grand prize pool of over ₹1,00,000+ was distributed on the finale stage.
National leap with 3,303 builders in a 36-hour non-stop campus sprint tackling 8 UN SDGs with ₹1,00,000+ awarded on stage.
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4,255 Builders, 176K+ Impressions & 6 Domains
Zinnovatio 4.0 elevated the national hackathon movement to historic heights with 4,255 registered builders and over 176,900+ impressions on Unstop. Covering 6 cutting-edge domains—Agentic AI, Autonomous Systems, FinTech, GreenTech, Cyber Defense, and Open Innovation—shortlisted finalist squads gathered at Chandigarh University for a grueling 36-hour in-person hackathon sprint judged by leading tech innovators from Google, TCS, KPMG, Grazitti, and global organizations.
Flagship national edition drawing 4,255 builders and 176K+ Unstop impressions across a 36-hour campus sprint with working software deployments.
Build, test,
and present your idea.
Work with your team, get mentor feedback, improve your prototype, and show it to the jury during the offline final.
Explore Brief & PhasesOrganizers &
Partners.
ORION GLOBAL HACKATHON
Global collaborative hackathon platform connecting innovative student developers, mentors, and worldwide tech challenges.
Grazitti Interactive | SkillStone
Global digital consultancy empowering students with advanced cloud competencies and developer upskilling.
Quick Heal Academy
Cybersecurity education division cultivating threat defense, digital safety, and infosec capabilities.
Hostego
Modern cloud hosting and infrastructure platform empowering developers to deploy and scale web applications.
Bhaichara Amritsari Kulcha
Official culinary partner serving authentic, fresh Amritsari kulchas to energize hackathon builders.
Chandigarh University
Department of CSE, Nalanda
Chandigarh University is the host university and the Department of CSE, Nalanda is the host for Zinnovatio 4.0. Uniting world-class campus infrastructure, advanced computing facilities, and industry engineering mentorship for a 36-hour national hackathon sprint.
Partner With Us.
Sponsor challenge tracks, provide developer tools or cloud credits, mentor student builders, or join our grand finale jury panel.
Ask Your
Queries.
Tell us what keeps you stuck, we'll turn it into your next breakthrough.