SEMICON India Hackathon 2026
SEMI India
📌About the Event
The SEMICON India Hackathon 2026 – KLA Challenge is a national-level deep-tech competition where students develop an AI-powered solution for restoring degraded semiconductor inspection images. Participants must create a model capable of removing noise, recovering lost image details and improving spatial resolution while maintaining fast inference performance. The challenge gives students an opportunity to solve an industry-defined semiconductor manufacturing problem, receive mentorship from KLA engineers and present their solutions before leading semiconductor experts.
ℹ️ Event Details
- Track: Track 1 – KLA
- Problem statement: AI-Based Restoration of Degraded Images for Semiconductor Inspection
- Mode of conduct: Hybrid
- Solution development, webinars, mentoring and initial submissions will be conducted online.
- The Grand Finale will be conducted offline at SEMICON India 2026.
- Grand Finale venue: Yashobhoomi, India International Convention and Expo Centre, Dwarka, New Delhi
- Grand Finale period: September 17–18, 2026
- Team size: 2–4 members
- Challenge objective: Develop an AI model that can restore noisy and low-resolution grayscale semiconductor inspection images.
📅 Important Dates
- Registration opened: July 24, 2026
- KLA problem statement webinar: July 30, 2026
- Registration deadline: August 16, 2026
- Initial solution submission deadline: August 16, 2026
- Round 1 evaluation: August 17–26, 2026
- Top 30 semifinalists announcement: August 27, 2026
- Semifinal round begins: August 28, 2026
- Round 2 submission deadline: September 4, 2026
- Semifinal evaluation: September 5, 2026
- Top 10 finalists announcement: September 6, 2026
- Finalist mentoring sessions: September 7–12, 2026
- Grand Finale: September 17, 2026
- Winner announcement : September 18, 2026
🎯 Eligibility & Rules
- Who can participate:
- Participants must be students or research scholars from recognised Indian educational institutions.
- Eligible academic categories include undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and PhD-level participants.
- Listed qualifications include B.E., B.Tech, M.Tech and MCA.
- Relevant domains include:
- Electronics and Communication Engineering
- Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- Computer Science and Information Technology
- VLSI and chip design
- Embedded systems
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Teams must consist of 2–4 members.
🏆 Benefits for the Participants
- Total hackathon prize pool: ₹5,00,000 across the KLA and Applied Materials tracks.
- The exact prize division for the KLA track has not been separately published in the accessible official event information.
- Finalists will receive an opportunity to pitch their solutions at SEMICON India 2026.
- Selected teams may receive sponsor-provided hardware kits, development kits, tool credits and goodies, subject to availability.
- Top-performing teams may receive:
- Certificates
- Digital badges
- Recognition through IESA and i4C channels
- Visibility before semiconductor companies and industry leaders
- Participants will get networking opportunities with:
- Semiconductor professionals
- Embedded systems experts
- Startups
- Technology companies
- Industry and ecosystem partners
- Top teams may gain visibility for internships, employment opportunities and project collaborations.
- Finalists will receive dedicated technical and industry mentorship before the Grand Finale.