A team of students from the Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST), named ‘Team Passengers’ from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) has emerged as a national winner at the Grand Finale of the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025.

Team Passengers, led by Mohammad Azeem Wani with team members Amaan Ehsan, Faisal Hussain, Sabha Mushtaq, Tafheem Ul Haq, and Uzair Riyaz, all third-year students, competed under the mentorship of Dr. Insha Altaf, Assistant Professor, CSE. The 8th edition of SIH, organized by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell in collaboration with AICTE, witnessed exceptional nationwide participation, receiving 72,165 idea submissions from 68,766 teams. From these, 1,360 teams, comprising over 8,000 students and 1,300 mentors, qualified for the national finale held across 60 nodal centres in the country.
The team represented IUST at Graphic Era Deemed to be University, Dehradun, where 20 teams worked on four problem statements during an intense 36-hour hackathon. Following rigorous evaluation rounds and jury deliberations, Team Passengers was declared among the five winning teams at the centre.
The team addressed a problem statement issued by the Ministry of AYUSH titled “API to Bridge AYUSH NAMASTE and ICD-11 for EMR Compliance.” Their innovative solution successfully tackled the critical challenge of interoperability between traditional AYUSH healthcare systems and modern Electronic Medical Record (EMR) standards, enabling integration of Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha practices with international healthcare frameworks.
Congratulating the students, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. Shakil A. Romshoo, said that this achievement by our students reflects IUST’s strong emphasis on innovation, experiential learning, and problem-solving. Such national-level successes are a testament to the hard work of our students and faculty, and to the university’s sustained efforts in nurturing a culture of excellence and competitiveness.”
For their outstanding performance, the team was awarded a cash prize of ₹1.5 lakh, shared with Code Vaidyas (VIT Chennai), who also worked on the same problem statement. The achievement also opens avenues for internship opportunities for the winning teams.
It is noteworthy that through the Centre for Career Counselling and Placements (CCCP) and the School of Engineering and Technology (SOET), IUST has been consistently organizing internal hackathons and skill-based initiatives, which have played a crucial role in preparing students for such national competitions.