Images: from the Ai in Fashion and design hackathon conducted at IIIT-Bangalore
Bangalore, April 9, 2022: Nikhil Agarwal from IIIT Bangalore along with his team members from Indian Institute of Crafts and Design ( IICD), Srishti Manipal Institute, LISAA School of Design,Bangalore ( L'institute Superieur des Arts Appliques, France) and Strate  School of Design, were declared winners at the  AI in Fashion and Design Hackathon which was held as a part of  the AI in Fashion and Design (AIfaD) Conference by the Institut Français en Inde and the French Embassy in India recently.
The winners were rewarded with a sponsored trip to Paris by the Embassy of France in India and the French Institute in India to attend the summer school sponsored by Aivancity Paris Cachan.
The International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT Bangalore) hosted and co-sponsored the event.
The Hackathon conducted on April 2 and 3  encouraged students across disciplines to work on projects that demonstrated the successful application of AI in several facets of fashion and design. Students from Design, Textile Engineering, Information Technology and Management Schools from India and France worked together to solve the current problems towards a sustainable fashion and design industry.
The Hackathon followed by a conference was held on April 4 and 5  at the Bangalore International Centre. The 2-day  conference featured  prominent personalities from tech and fashion sectors who delivered keynote sessions on the heritage of textile artforms, innovations by AI to combat challenges in forecasting trends, inventory control, waste management and its impact on creativity and design.
The conference also hosted a panel discussion around “E-commerce technology and trends”. Prof. Debarata Das, Director, IIIT Bangalore  who  was one of the panelists “As AI technologies find application in every sector and enterprise, it's important to also address the issues of Ethics, Bias and Privacy in developing these solutions and have robust frameworks. IIIT Bangalore's Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP) focuses on the policy challenges and the organizational demands made by technological innovation.  It seeks to provide a means to nurture and transform public policy through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by engaging with academic faculty and researchers, policy planners, political leaders and community representatives, technology vendors, public officials and civil society organizations.  The platform provided a holistic view of AI in fashion that students could take away from and incorporate in their respective careers.”