DAY 01
Day 1: Learn & Architect
Inaugural keynote, API sandbox credentials distribution, solution architecture reviews, and 1-on-1 mentor alignment.
ST ALOYSIUS DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY FinTech Innovation Hackathon 2026
Honouring Dakshina Kannada's Banking Legacy Through Digital Innovation. Build real-time AI/ML solutions to protect India's digital payments against fraud, mule networks, and cyber exploits.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), Bengaluru
Mentorship • Evaluation • Innovation Opportunities
ORGANISED BY
St Aloysius Foundation
St Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT)
Beeri, Kotekar, Mangaluru, Karnataka – 575022
Digital Payments Fraud Detection★
Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH)★
₹1,00,000 Cash Prize Pool★
3-Day Residential Boot Camp★
Top 30 Finalist Teams Fully Sponsored★
Live AI/ML Sandboxes & APIs★
St Aloysius AIMIT Campus★
Incubation & RBIH Fellowship★
Flagship Immersion • Top 30 Teams
Three-Day
Residential Boot Camp
AIMIT Campus, Beeri, Kotekar, Mangaluru, Karnataka
HOSPITALITY PROVIDED
100% Fully Sponsored
- Full residential accommodation for all 30 teams
- All meals, refreshments, and 24x7 lab access
- High-speed dedicated gigabit sandbox connectivity
03
DAYS
An Unforgettable Immersion in FinTech Engineering
Move from conceptual hypothesis to battle-tested working software with uninterrupted access to domain experts.
DAY 02
Day 2: Build & Stress-Test
24-hour sprint. Model fine-tuning, latency optimization, UI/UX refinement, and midnight checkpoint evaluation.
DAY 03
Day 3: Pitch & Demonstrate
Live functional demonstrations before the Grand Jury, Q&A defense, security code inspection, and scoring.
GRAND FINALE
Valedictory & Awards
Announcement of ₹1,00,000 cash prize winners, incubation selections, and networking dinner with banking dignitaries.
Connect & Pitch To:
RBIH Leadership
Commercial Bank CTOs
Venture Capitalists
Angel Investors
FinTech Founders
A legacy that inspires
From banking heritage
to fintech possibility.
Dakshina Kannada is widely revered as the cradle of Indian commercial banking, having birthed institutions that transformed the nation's financial landscape.
The St Aloysius FinTech Innovation Hackathon 2026 honours this rich heritage by galvanizing the next wave of visionary technologists, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Our focus is crystal-clear: fortifying India's digital payments infrastructure against next-generation fraud, mule accounts, and cyber threats.
Supported jointly by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) and AIMIT St Aloysius Foundation, this event serves as a concrete pipeline from breakthrough prototype to real-world incubation and deployment.
More than a competition.
A structured innovation-to-incubation pathway with direct access to RBIH domain leaders, venture mentors, and financial institutions.
01
Structured FinTech Learning
Masterclass on digital payments architecture & RBI compliance
02
Expert Mentorship
1-on-1 feedback from RBIH and banking cybersecurity specialists
03
Prototype Build
3-day residential hackathon with live sandboxes and APIs
04
Jury Pitch
Present to senior fintech leaders and venture investors
05
Pre-Incubation & Seed
AIMIT Incubation Centre & RBIH internship consideration
Continued innovation engagement and incubation support extends to winning and shortlisted teams beyond the event.
Your next step starts here
Why Participate?
Build meaningful, production-grade solutions and collaborate with a community committed to safeguarding India's financial future.
01
Transform Ideas into Impact
Build and validate a production-ready fintech solution that tackles real fraud vulnerabilities faced daily by millions of UPI and netbanking users across India.
02
Learn from Domain Leaders
Receive hands-on guidance across payment switches, fraud analytics, graph theory, AI explainability, DPDP Act compliance, and venture finance from RBIH leaders.
03
Pre-Incubation & Seed Grants
Gain direct entry to the AIMIT St Aloysius Incubation Centre, seed-funding opportunities, AWS/Cloud credits, and RBIH internship evaluation pipelines.
04
High-Value Ecosystem Network
Connect with leading financial institutions, public and private sector banks, angel networks, fintech accelerators, and top peer engineering talent.
Together, let's architect a secure, inclusive, transparent, and resilient financial technology ecosystem.
The Central Problem Statement
Make every
digital payment
more trustworthy.
Digital Payments Fraud Detection and Prevention
Design and engineer AI/ML-driven mechanisms for the real-time detection, mitigation, and prevention of fraudulent activities within India's soaring digital payments ecosystem (UPI, AePS, Cards, Netbanking).
Where will your team make a difference?
Challenge Tracks
Choose a specific high-impact focus area or bring an innovative cross-cutting approach that strengthens India's digital payments shield.
Showing all 7 challenge areas
TRACK 01
Mule-Account Detection & Network Mapping
Identify layered account networks, money mules, and rapid pass-through fund channels using graph neural networks and transaction topology analysis.
Idea Starters: Real-time mule syndicate clustering; automated dormant-account resurrection triggers; multi-hop cash siphon detectors.
TRACK 02
KYC & Onboarding Fraud Prevention
Detect synthetic identities, forged government credentials, forged video KYC streams, and biometric spoofing during customer account setup.
Idea Starters: Micro-expression liveness validation in low-bandwidth video; cross-registry credential consistency checks.
TRACK 03
Real-Time Transaction Anomalies
Surface suspicious velocity surges, abnormal spending hour drifts, and behavioral biometrics anomalies within ultra-low sub-50ms execution budgets.
Idea Starters: Touchscreen cadence & gyro telemetry profiling; predictive spending trajectory drift models.
TRACK 04
Account Takeover & Session Hijacking
Recognize stealth signals indicating an active account is under unauthorized control through SIM swaps, remote desktop toolkits, or session token theft.
Idea Starters: Silent SIM-swap timestamp cross-validation with telecom APIs; heuristic overlay malware interceptors.
TRACK 05
UPI & QR-Code Fraud Mitigation
Defend merchants and customers against physical QR sticker tampering, fake UPI payment acknowledgement apps, and deceptive collect requests.
Idea Starters: Dynamic rotating cryptographic QR codes; merchant geo-fence receipt cross-verification; collect-request risk badges.
TRACK 06
Explainable AI (XAI) for Fraud Scoring
Transform black-box fraud classifiers into human-interpretable rationale for fraud analysts, customer dispute resolution, and regulatory audit compliance.
Idea Starters: Plain-language plain-English/Kannada/Hindi explanation generation for blocked users; counterfactual analysis trees.
TRACK 07
Privacy-Preserving Fraud-Intelligence Sharing
Enable competing banks and payment aggregators to securely pool fraud signals, mule accounts, and indicators of compromise without disclosing raw customer PII, leveraging Federated Learning, Homomorphic Encryption, or Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
Idea Starters: Consortium blacklists encrypted with secure multi-party computation; real-time fraud alert gossiping protocol compliant with DPDP Act 2023.
Open to all innovators
Who Can Apply?
The hackathon welcomes builders, tinkerers, researchers, and problem-solvers ready to make a tangible mark in financial security.
-
Undergraduate & Postgraduate Students: Computer science, engineering, management, data science, and finance disciplines.
-
Developers, Innovators & Researchers: Independent technologists, cyber researchers, and AI/ML practitioners.
-
Early-Stage FinTech Startups: Pre-seed and bootstrapped ventures with functional prototypes or novel IP.
-
Working Professionals: Software engineers, banking analysts, risk officers, and cybersecurity specialists.
In strategic association with
Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) Engagement
RBIH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, partners to bring deep regulatory insight, technical mentorship, and industry exposure to participating innovators.
Digital Payments Architecture
Fraud Telemetry & Detection
Responsible AI Governance
Financial Inclusion at Scale
Regulatory Sandboxes
WHAT RBIH LEADERS BRING TO YOU
-
01
Direct Mentorship Clinics Interactive advisory sessions with RBIH data scientists and cyber architects.
-
02
Domain Masterclasses Deep dives into UPI rails, payment aggregation gateways, and emerging fraud vectors.
-
03
Grand Jury Evaluation Rigorous evaluation of shortlisted prototypes against institutional bank viability.
Exclusive Internship Opportunities:
Outstanding participants with exceptional technical execution may be considered for internship and innovation roles at RBIH Bengaluru, subject to their selection criteria.
Team Guidelines
Team Requirements
Assemble a balanced, multidisciplinary squad and prepare a concise, original problem-solving proposal.
Team Size: 2 – 3 Members
Each team must comprise strictly 2 or 3 individuals. Nominate one Team Leader who will serve as the primary liaison for all official communications.
Multidisciplinary Balance
We strongly recommend combining engineering/AI talent with domain/business thinkers. Each individual may register under only one team.
Early-Stage Startups Welcome
Bootstrapped startups, student incubatees, and early venture projects may apply under any of the 7 challenge tracks or the Open Innovation category.
What to Submit in Phase 1
Submit your 2-page Concept Note (PDF), selected challenge track, team bios with DK affiliation proof, and declaration of code originality.
What makes an entry stand out?
How Your Idea
Will Be Evaluated
Submissions will be assessed by an expert jury comprising RBIH leaders, senior bankers, and veteran fintech founders on balanced dimensions.
Clarity of Thought • Technical Rigour • Real-World Execution
Relevance & Problem FitDirect alignment with fraud
prevention
Innovation & OriginalityNovel AI/ML or architectural
approach
Technical FeasibilityRobust latency, scalability, and
code
Prototype Working QualityDemonstrable
proof-of-concept
Security & DPDP ComplianceData privacy and attack
resilience
Financial Inclusion ImpactUsability for tier-2/3 &
rural users
Business ScalabilityBank commercialization
pathway
Presentation & Q&AStructured pitch and live
defense
Step-by-Step Progression
Your Innovation Journey
A structured, guided pathway from team registration through intensive online workshops, prototype refinement, and the residential boot camp.
PHASE 1
OCT 01 – 31, 2026
Registration & Concept Submission
Register your team on the portal and upload your 2-page concept note outlining the selected track, methodology, and expected impact.
PHASE 2
NOV 02 – 07, 2026
Screening & Shortlisting
Jury evaluates concept notes. The Top 50 teams are selected and notified to advance to the online development masterclass.
PHASE 3
NOV 10 – 12, 2026
Online FinTech Orientation
6-hour intensive orientation covering the Indian payments stack, API sandboxes, threat vectors, and data security mandates.
PHASE 4
NOV 16 – 18, 2026
Design Thinking & Idea Refinement
Interactive virtual clinics with RBIH mentors to refine model architecture, data schemas, and user journeys.
GRAND FINALE
DEC 04 – 06, 2026
3-Day Residential Boot Camp
Top 30 teams gather at the serene AIMIT Mangaluru campus for 48 hours of non-stop hacking, hardware/API clinics, and live pitch evaluation.
INCUBATION
JAN – DEC 2027
Pre-Incubation at AIMIT / Internship @ RBIH
Top 10 teams enter structured pre-incubation at AIMIT with seed grant assistance and prototype refinement; eligible participants may be considered for internships at RBIH.
Residential Boot Camp Dates:
The 3-day Residential Boot Camp at AIMIT Campus will take place 04 – 06 December 2026.
Tangible Value at Every Stage
Rewards & Milestones
Every participating team gains valuable knowledge, certificates, and mentorship. The deeper you progress, the greater the rewards.
TOP 3 TEAMS
GRAND WINNERS
₹1,00,000 Cash Pool + Incubation
Cash prize pool of ₹1,00,000 distributed among the top 3 winner teams, along with winner trophies, direct entry into pre-incubation, and media spotlight.
₹1,00,000
Cash Pool
TOP 10 TEAMS
INCUBATION COHORT
Structured Incubation & Seed Support
Selection for pre-incubation at St Aloysius Foundation, seed funding facilitation, AWS/GCP cloud vouchers, and RBIH internship interview rounds.
Seed Path
Pre-Incubation
TOP 30 TEAMS
FINALISTS
All-Expense Residential Boot Camp
Fully sponsored 3-day stay and food at AIMIT Campus, hands-on masterclasses from industry experts, and direct live jury presentation.
3-Day Stay
Sponsored
TOP 50 TEAMS
SEMIFINALISTS
Design Thinking Masterclass
Virtual intensive workshop with industry practitioners to refine concept notes, architectural blueprints, and user experience flows.
Certificate
Masterclass
ALL APPLICANTS
REGISTERED TEAMS
FinTech Immersion & Participation Certificate
6 hours of exclusive orientation webinars on the Indian FinTech and startup landscape, plus verified digital certificates of participation.
E-Cert
Verified
Visionary Stewardship
Advisory Committee
Distinguished leaders from St Aloysius institutions, the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, and the Indian FinTech startup ecosystem.
Rev. Fr Dr. Praveen Martis SJ
Vice Chancellor
St Aloysius Deemed to be University, Mangaluru
Dr Ronald Nazareth
Registrar
St Aloysius Deemed to be University
Dr Seema A Kulkarni
Project Manager
Reserve Bank of India Innovation Hub (RBIH)
Mr Anup Pai
Founder & CEO
eSamudaay, Udupi • FinTech Pioneer
Dr Kiran Coth
Director – AIMIT
St Aloysius Deemed to be University
Dr A.P Achar
Chief Executive Officer
St Aloysius Foundation
Ready to build the future?
Protect India's Trust in
Digital Payments.
Join forces with fellow developers, researchers, and creators. Solve real-world financial fraud challenges and pitch directly to RBIH leaders.
✓ 2–3 Members per Team
✓ Dakshina Kannada Connection
✓ No Registration Fee
Registrations Open • Deadline: 31 Oct 2026
Get in touch
Contact the Organisers
Have questions regarding team eligibility, track problem statements, or travel logistics? Our organising team at AIMIT Mangaluru is here to assist you.
St Aloysius Foundation & AIMIT
Beeri, Kotekar, Mangaluru, Karnataka – 575022, India
ORGANISING TEAM CONTACTS
Dr. Steevan D Souza N
Assistant Professor
steevandsouza@staloysius.ac.in
+91 94818 43494
Dr. Sumitha Achar
Associate Professor
sumitha@staloysius.ac.in
+91 9980 885896
Mr. Brill Brenhill
Assistant Professor
brillbrenhill@staloysius.ac.in
+91 70193 56629
Mr. Maeve Fernandes
Assistant Professor
maeve@staloysius.ac.in
+91 83087 56771
Got questions?
Questions, Answered.
Find quick answers about participation rules, team eligibility, problem scopes, and residential boot camp logistics.
What is the central problem statement of the hackathon?
The central challenge is Digital Payments Fraud Detection and Prevention. Participating teams are invited to engineer AI/ML and software systems to detect, prevent, and report fraudulent activities in real time across India's digital payment rails (UPI, AePS, IMPS, Cards, Netbanking).
Who is eligible to participate and how many members per team?
Students (UG/PG), independent software developers, cybersecurity researchers, early-stage fintech founders, and working professionals are all eligible. Teams must comprise strictly 2 to 3 members. At least one member must have a documented Dakshina Kannada connection (native, resident, current student, alumnus, or working in the district).
Can members from outside Dakshina Kannada participate?
Yes, absolutely! Participants from anywhere across Karnataka or across India are warmly welcome, provided at least one member in their 2–3 person team satisfies the Dakshina Kannada connection requirement.
Is there any registration fee?
No. Participation is completely free of charge. Furthermore, shortlisted Top 30 teams attending the 3-Day Residential Boot Camp at AIMIT Mangaluru will be provided with free accommodation and meals on campus.
What should teams submit during Phase 1 registration?
During Phase 1 (by 31 October 2026), your team must submit: (1) A 2-page Concept Note in PDF format, (2) Selected challenge track, (3) Team members' profile details & DK affiliation declaration, and (4) A declaration of originality for your idea.
When and where will the Residential Boot Camp take place?
The 3-Day Residential Boot Camp will be held on campus at the St Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT), Beeri, Kotekar, Mangaluru, from 04 – 06 December 2026.
Are internships at Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) guaranteed?
While not universally guaranteed to all participants, exceptional teams and individuals who demonstrate standout technical craftsmanship and execution may be evaluated and considered for prestigious innovation internships and fellowship roles at RBIH Bengaluru, subject to their selection protocols.
