At most colleges, hackathons are events students participate in.
At NEXIS School of Business, hackathons are events students design, lead, and execute.
What started as simple classroom discussions and everyday observations soon turned into two of the most defining learning experiences on campus, completely led by student clubs, driven by real-world problems, and executed with serious intent.
This is what learning looks like when students are trusted with responsibility.
From a Hostel Complaint to an AI Solution
It began with something very ordinary.
Students eat outside too much.
Food gets wasted.
No one really tracks how much, or why.
Instead of debating it endlessly, the AI & Tech Club decided to do something about it.
The AI Hackathon challenged students to look around campus, identify real problems, and use artificial intelligence to solve them. No hypothetical case studies. No textbook prompts.
One team built an AI-powered system with two dashboards, one for hostel wardens and another for parents, to track food consumption patterns and wastage trends. Other teams worked on equally practical issues, converting observations into working bots and applications.
There were no flashy demos or buzzwords.
Just purpose-driven tech built by students who noticed gaps and chose to act.
That’s not coding for marks.
That’s building with intent.
Finance, Pressure, and a ₹1 Crore Decision Clock
If the AI Hackathon was about solving quietly ignored problems, the Finance Hackathon was about thinking fast under pressure.
Led by Jay Goyal, President of the Finance Club, The One Crore Challenge put students in a high-stakes simulation: ₹1 crore on the table, limited time, and one shot to pitch an idea that made financial sense.
Teams brainstormed, built business models, negotiated valuations, and pitched live. Every decision had consequences. Every assumption was questioned.
The standout moment came when Team SPEAKBAND pitched a watch band that converts sign language into audio. The idea struck a chord – innovative, inclusive, and commercially viable, and raised ₹90 lakhs, the highest investment of the challenge.
This wasn’t a classroom exercise.
It was finance, strategy, and execution happening in real time.
Learning the Market the Hard Way
The Finance Club didn’t stop there.
In another hands-on challenge, students participated in a mock stock market simulation, investing across stocks, crypto, and alternative assets. Market fluctuations, risk appetite, and decision-making under uncertainty determined who came out on top.
The winner wasn’t the one who memorised definitions.
It was the one who understood timing, discipline, and market psychology.
Exactly how real investing works.
Why These Hackathons Matter
These weren’t just events.
They were proof of a larger shift.
At NEXIS, students aren’t waiting for permission to learn. They are building platforms to learn better. Clubs are not extracurricular, they are extensions of the classroom, led by students who think like founders, managers, and problem-solvers.
This is why NEXIS is increasingly being recognised as one of the best business schools in Siliguri and East India, especially for students looking for career-focused business management programs after 12th.
A Note for Students Applying This Year
As Early Bird Admissions open for the next cohort of the 3-year UG Business Management Program, stories like these matter.
Because they show what student life at NEXIS actually looks like:
hands-on learning, real responsibility, industry-style pressure, and outcomes that go beyond grades.
Hackathons here aren’t about certificates.
They’re about confidence.
And that’s what prepares students for real careers, startups, and leadership roles – right from Siliguri.
