NITK Students Beat 640 Teams to Win National Aerospace Hackathon with Jet Engine “Digital Twin”

Share

Share

Share

Share

Email

Share

Surathkal : A four-member student team from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, has won first place at Aerothon 2026, beating out more than 640 teams from across the country in a national aerospace hackathon organized by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and IIT Indore.

The winning team Omkar Kharade and Shubham Shah, both pre-final year students of mechanical engineering; Diya Taneja, a pre-final year student of electronics and communication engineering; and Maxon David Nazareth, a second-year student of mechanical engineering was selected from 20 finalist teams following a 24-hour hackathon held at IIT Indore on August 7 and 8. The team was awarded a cash prize of 50,000 rupees.

More than 2,300 participants registered for Aerothon 2026, which asked competitors to tackle real-world aerospace engineering challenges using data-driven and machine learning approaches.

The NITK team’s winning solution addressed the problem statement “Physics-Informed Digital Twin for Real-Time Four-Stage Turbojet Health Monitoring.” The team built an architecture that ingests real-time sensor data and uses machine learning to predict specific turbojet failure modes before they occur a system aimed at improving flight safety and reducing turnaround times for engine manufacturers, maintenance providers, and airlines.

The team said it is looking to take the project further toward commercialization and is open to connecting with alumni and industry experts in the aerospace and aviation sector.