KL Deemed to be University conducted a two-day “Skill Palaver” hackathon on Saturday-Sunday (September 26–27, 2026) as part of its project-based learning initiative aimed at enhancing students’ practical skills and industry readiness.

Organised by the University’s Skill Development division, the hackathon focused on Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and Programming Using Python. The initiative was integrated into the students’ current-semester curriculum, with 60% of the evaluation weightage assigned to projects and reviews by industry experts.

The event, held at the university’s R&D Block from 6 p.m. on Saturday (September 26) to 2 p.m. on Sunday (September 27), witnessed the participation of 1,642 students from III-Year B.Tech programmes in CSE, CS&IT, AI&DS, ECE, EEE and IoT, along with II-Year BCA students.

The programme began with mentors explaining problem statements, industry-use cases, technical challenges and possible approaches. Students then interacted with industry experts and worked overnight in teams to develop action plans and solutions. The following morning, teams presented their projects, which were assessed by industry experts using predefined evaluation criteria.

The evaluators included Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Uday, IT Advisor, Government of Andhra Pradesh Forest Department Nageswara Rao, Senior DevOps & Cloud Architect at Emids Technologies Mohammed Irfan Ali, Senior Microservices Developer at HSBC Anil Kumar D., AI Solution Architect at Carelon Global Solutions Krishna Reddy, and Senior Software Engineer at Sophos Harish.

The initiative was convened by Dean–Skill Development & Student Progression, KL University, A. Srinath, with the support of university leadership, department heads, faculty SPOCs, organisers and project mentors.

Vice-Chancellor G. Pardha Saradhi Varma highlighted the role of project-based learning in helping students apply classroom knowledge to real-world challenges.

The University authorities said three more Skill Palaver events were planned for October 2026.