Students of Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education added yet another feather to the cap as they emerged winners in the COVID-19 challenge: India Turning the Tide, conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. The competition consisted of 10 tracks from A to J, where the students from Manipal Institute of Technology won Track H: Providing Mental Health Support Resources. The event took place for 2 days from 28th August 2020 to 30th August 2020; a virtual 24-hour event.

The winning team was called Crosslives and consisted of Ananya Thapliyal (IT) as the backend developer, Dhruva P Bhat (EEE) as the AI Developer, Dwitrisha Saha (IT) as the frontend developer, Meghana Rao (EEE) as the backend developer, Pratyaksh Gupta (EEE) as the IOT developer, Simran Saluja (IT) as the frontend developer and Vishesh Ghorawat (EEE) as the App developer.

The students bagged the award for their solution on “Intelligent Ubiquitous Cross-Communication Platform”. The winning team will be receiving a cash prize of USD 500 along with support and resources to bring their idea to life, thus allowing a chance to provide additional resources during this trying period. CrossLives is going to be an Intelligent Ubiquitous Cross-Communication Platform, providing better mental health support by removing the language barrier in telehealth.

In an unprecedented pandemic that the entire world is experiencing there is shortfall of healthcare experts and mental health issues have not been successfully destigmatised. The COVID-19 crisis has greatly exaggerated these existing problems in the Indian Society calling for much needed resources during this period of isolation.

Sharing his happiness on the big win, Pratyaksh Gupta (EEE), MIT, MAHE said, “I am thrilled that we Crosslives were chosen as one of the winners in the MIT COVID-19 Challenge: India Turning Tide. Crosslives is going to be an Intelligent Ubiquitous Cross-Communication platform, providing better mental health support by removing the language barrier in telehealth.”

Celebrating with the team, Dr. Srikanth Rao, Director, Manipal Institute of Technology, MAHE said, “We are delighted to see our young sophomores bring out the best of innovative ideas and winning this prestigious global competition. I congratulate our students & wish them well for all their future endeavours .We hope the idea gets implemented to help everyone around us, as it is a testing time with a need for innovation. We encourage our students to continue cultivating and nurturing such innovative ideas, making their learning experiences more knowledgeable with the right kind of exposure. This helps their minds to be creative, curious, agile and resilient”