Cognizant has successfully concluded the grand finale of the Cognizant Technoverse Hackathon 2026 at its Pune campus, bringing together some of India’s brightest young engineering minds in a celebration of innovation, diversity, and artificial intelligence-driven problem solving.
The nationwide hackathon witnessed participation from more than 22,000 pre-final year engineering students representing over 450 colleges, including premier institutes such as IITs, NITs, and IIITs, across 160+ cities in India. Significantly, 62 percent of the participants were women, underlining the company’s strong commitment to inclusive innovation and future-ready talent development.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajesh Varrier 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 reflects the depth and diversity of India’s engineering talent.”
The competition, launched in April, culminated in a high-intensity 24-hour finale, where 24 shortlisted teams built and presented innovative Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) before an expert jury. For the final round, Cognizant partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide participants with advanced cloud and AI development tools.
Winners of Technoverse Hackathon 2026
- Winner: Chennai Institute of Technology — Team AeroFyta
Awarded INR 3 lakh - First Runner-Up: Techno Main Salt Lake — Team Owlgorithms
Awarded INR 2 lakh - Second Runner-Up: Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences — Team Devtronix
Awarded INR 1 lakh
The top participating cities included Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, and Pune.
Strengthening its position as an AI-first enterprise, Cognizant also highlighted its recent achievement of earning a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD™ for hosting the world’s largest online GenAI hackathon during its global “Vibe Coding Week,” where employees created over 30,000 AI-powered prototypes.
The successful conclusion of Technoverse Hackathon 2026 further reinforces Cognizant’s vision of nurturing India’s next generation of AI builders and accelerating innovation-led digital transformation.
