Kolkata: Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) concluded the Cognizant® Technoverse Hackathon 2026 with a grand finale at its facility in Pune. The hackathon saw participation from over 22,000 pre-final year engineering students, 62 percent of whom were women, from more than 450 colleges, including IITs, NITs, and IIITs, spanning over 160 cities across India. The hackathon reflects Cognizant’s commitment as an AI builder to developing the next generation of AI-ready talent and empowering India’s AI builders of tomorrow.
In line with Cognizant’s commitment to inclusion, the hackathon required a minimum of two women per four-member team. The results far exceeded that benchmark, as 62 percent of all participants were women and more than 1,100 of the over 5,600 teams were women-only. The top five cities by participation were Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, and Pune.
Rajesh Varrier, President – Global Operations and Chairman & Managing Director, Cognizant India, said, “As an AI builder, we know that bridging the gap between AI and enterprise value is only possible when talent advances alongside technology. Cognizant Technoverse Hackathon 2026 is our answer to that imperative, and with thousands of students from across the country and 62 percent women participants, it stands as proof that India’s engineering talent is not only deep but richly diverse.”
The hackathon, which began in April, culminated with 24 shortlisted teams competing in a24-hour challenge to build and present their Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to an expert jury. For this phase, Cognizant partnered with AWS to provide students with the necessary environment and tools to develop their solutions.
The winners of the hackathon, Team AeroFyta from Chennai Institute of Technology, Chennai, were awarded prizes worth INR 3,00,000. The first runner-up, Team Owlgorithms from Techno Main Salt Lake, Kolkata, and the second runner-up, Team Devtronix from Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, received prizes worth INR 2,00,000 and INR 1,00,000 respectively.
As an AI builder, Cognizant is fostering a culture of AI-driven innovation across the organization. Last year, the company achieved a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD™ for the largest online GenAI hackathon by hosting a global Vibe Coding Week. Associates were given access to leading vibe coding tools to sharpen their AI skills, producing more than 30,000 prototypes.