The Story
of Zinnovatio.
A chronological journey of how an ambitious campus initiative evolved into a national hackathon phenomenon across 3 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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Evolution at a Glance
| Season & Edition | Event Timeline | Builders | Prize Pool | Format | Listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3.0 Zinnovatio 3.0Season 3 • 2025 | 31 Oct – 1 Nov 2025 | 3,303 | ₹1,00,000+ | 36h Overnight | Unstop |
2.0 Zinnovatio 2.0Season 2 • Early 2025 | 20 Jan – 15 Feb 2025 | 1,581 | ₹60,000+ | Multi-Tier Hybrid | Unstop |
1.0 Zinnovatio 1.0Season 1 • 2024 | 13 Sept – 16 Oct 2024 | 832 | ₹50,000 | Inaugural 2-Round | Unstop |
4.0 Zinnovatio 4.0Concluded | 30—31 Oct 2026 | 4,255 Builders | Grand Finale | Hybrid Challenge | Recap |
Ready to join the next edition?
Submit your idea for Zinnovatio 4.0 on Unstop. Offline finale on 30—31 October 2026.