NIAT Hosts ‘TakeOver 2026’ – Largest Cross Country AI & Engineering Showcase

2026-07-18 08:07:12 Education

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Mumbai / Hyderabad, July 17, 2026: NIAT - India's fastest-growing AI-native upskilling platform, today announced TakeOver 2026, India's Largest Student-Led AI & Engineering Showcase. The two-day event will bring together over 1,000 students, aged 18-19, from 18 campuses across 7 cities - Delhi, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Vijayawada, and Guntur to demonstrate how the next generation of engineers is building real-world AI solutions on July 17-18 at Kapil Kavuri Hub, Nanakramguda.

The event will feature live AI prototype demonstrations, shark tank-style startup pitches, hackathons and coding championships, with students presenting innovations developed through NIAT's experiential learning ecosystem before a panel of industry leaders, tech CEOs, and investors - Ujjwal Aggarwal (CEO, WCB Robotics Inc.), R. Mahan SRK (Founder & CVO, HackBoats), Srinivas Aditya (Digital R&D Physical AI Engineering Expert, Sanofi), Kartik Soni (Lead Robotics and IsaacSim Engineer, Techolution), Vimal Kumar (IoT Product Team Lead, Keus Smart Home), R. Varun (Founder, Robotics India Community).

NIAT Students to Demonstrate Standout AI Prototypes built for health, agriculture, transport & safety, disaster response

VaayuSwarm - Drone swarm
NeuroGrip – smart pen for individuals with motor disabilities like Dysgraphia
Prosthetic arm
KisanMitra - AI led Farmer assistant
Railway Edge AI safety
Truck blind spot detection System
Agnivaaran – AI led Drone fire extinguisher

Live Shark Tank Style Pitches for Thinkjoyful Learning, a difficulty-based LMS for IIT/JEE prep; MediAI, an AI medical assistant to streamline clinical documentation; MediFlow, a QR-based digital prescription platform; Sobos - QR-based self-ordering and smart billing platform and BuildTrack - an AI-powered Construction Cost Intelligence Platform

TakeOver 2026 will celebrate students who have demonstrated exceptional innovation, technical excellence, and entrepreneurial spirit. Backed by a cumulative prize pool of over ₹6.75 lakhs, students will compete for cash prizes, industry recognition, mentorship, and opportunities to accelerate their ideas. BRAVE – a launchpad for student entrepreneurs creating real businesses with real impact, was built on a simple belief: entrepreneurship cannot be taught through classrooms alone, it must be experienced by solving real-world problems. The initiative enabled over 150 teams to generate more than ₹2 crore in revenue in just three months while launching 100+ student-led startups. This impact is reflected in the success of teams like Editco Media (₹15.57 lakh), Versa (₹14.1 lakh), and Webaura (₹13.88 lakh), whose founders transformed classroom learning into thriving businesses, demonstrating how practical, AI-driven entrepreneurship can empower students to become job creators and build sustainable ventures. The student entrepreneurs will participate in live Shark Tank-style pitch sessions before investors, startup founders, and technology leaders to present AI-powered ventures they have built over the past three months while working with MSMEs across sectors including construction, healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, agriculture, and fintech, featuring innovations such as AI-powered construction cost intelligence platforms, digital medical assistants, smart restaurant ordering systems, school management platforms, subscription-commerce solutions for local businesses, and AI-enabled financial management tools. Beyond presenting their products, teams will defend their business models, demonstrate customer traction and revenue generated. Thinkjoyful Learning, a difficulty-based LMS for IIT/JEE prep; MediAI, an AI medical assistant to streamline clinical documentation; and MediFlow, a QR-based digital prescription platform to access and share prescriptions; BuildTrack - an AI-powered Construction Cost Intelligence Platform.

Maker's Conclave challenges students to build real-world functioning prototypes across domains like Health, Agriculture, Safety & Transport, and Disaster Response. Students will demonstrate AI Prototypes such as SmartSurv AI, an AI-powered surveillance system that detects intrusions in real time and alerts security personnel instantly without needing continuous human monitoring, and NeuroGrip, a smart assistive pen designed to improve writing habits for individuals with motor disabilities like dysgraphia.

TakeOver Hackathon brings outlier technical performers from 18 campuses for an open coding session to build for business solutions such as AI copilots, financial workflows and digital system for operations and inventory etc. GRIT recognizes students who've shown consistency beyond the classroom, and NIAT Code Quest identifies and prepares students for national coding competitions like ICPC.

Rahul Attuluri, CEO & Co-Founder, NxtWave and NIAT, said, "At NIAT, we have always believed that the next wave of innovation in AI, robotics, space technology, healthcare, and engineering will come from students who are given the right environment to build and the right people to learn from. TakeOver 2026 brings together over 1,000 students from 18 campuses - making it India's largest student showcase for AI and engineering and what you will see here is not academic work. These are real prototypes, real startup pitches, and real solutions built by students who have been trained to think like founders from their first year. This platform gives them something that no classroom can - direct engagement with industry leaders, investors, and founders who can accelerate what they have built.”

The Grand Finale will be held on 18th July, where students from 7 cities will come together to compete, earning recognition for their hard work and perseverance throughout the program. Beyond the prize money, successful student pitches stand to gain funding and grants from investors, along with mentorship from industry experts giving students not just a moment of recognition, but a genuine foundation into their entrepreneurial and professional journeys.

About NxtWave

NxtWave is a leading Indian edtech startup founded by Sashank Reddy Gujjula, Anupam Pedarla, and Rahul Attuluri, alumni of IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, and IIIT Hyderabad. The company is on a mission to build India’s largest employability platform for tech careers without the need for a conventional degree. Offering cohort-based training in Industry 4.0 career tracks in multiple languages, NxtWave has already enabled thousands of learners to secure roles in over 2000 companies, including Fortune 500 firms. NxtWave is an affiliated partner of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India.

About NIAT

NIAT, that is NxtWave of Innovation in Advanced Technologies. It is a four-year, on-campus program offered in collaboration with over 30+ universities and colleges across India. But what makes it different is how students actually learn with NIAT. Students learn Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Data Science, Robotics, and emerging technologies like Physical AI, through industry-ready training where they build and deploy real-world solutions in their first year.