Archive · 31 Jul 2026
IIT Madras Hosts BIMSTEC AI Road Safety Hackathon
IIT Madras, a big university in India, held a special competition in 2026 to help make roads safer.
Students and researchers from seven countries in the BIMSTEC group joined to use artificial intelligence, or AI, to find new ways to stop road accidents.
The event was organized with help from the Indian government’s road department.
The goal is to save lives in a region where many people die each year on the road.
IIT Madras said it wants to keep working with these countries to keep roads safer.
IIT Madras hosted its first international AI road safety hackathon in 2026.
The event featured a BIMSTEC track with participants from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
The hackathon aimed to develop AI-powered solutions to reduce road fatalities in the BIMSTEC region, home to 1.8 billion people and 200,000 deaths annually.
The initiative was organized under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and follows a 2026 announcement at the India AI Impact Summit.
IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti highlighted the institute’s role in uniting research, technology, and policy to address global road safety challenges.
- Who
- IIT Madras, V Kamakoti, participants from BIMSTEC nations
- What
- International AI road safety hackathon
- When
- 2026
- Where
- IIT Madras campus, India
- Why
- Develop AI solutions to reduce road fatalities in the BIMSTEC region
- Event
- BIMSTEC AI Road Safety Hackathon 2026
- Organiser
- IIT Madras Centre of Excellence for Road Safety
- Theme
- AI in Road Safety
- Participants
- Students, engineers, researchers from 7 BIMSTEC nations
- Fatalities
- Nearly 200,000 road deaths annually in BIMSTEC region