We recently had the exhilarating experience of being finalists at NPCI’s Hackathon during IIT Bombay’s Techfest 2024. It was an intense, rewarding, and memorable journey that challenged us to innovate, collaborate, and push our boundaries—all while managing the demands of final exams. Here's a closer look at our story, solution, and learnings.

The Relevance of NPCI and UPI to Data Science

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) plays a crucial role in India’s rapidly evolving digital payment ecosystem, particularly through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). As the backbone of digital transactions in India, UPI generates massive amounts of data daily, requiring advanced security and fraud detection measures. Data science plays a pivotal role here by enabling predictive analytics, dynamic risk assessment, and behavioural analysis to ensure secure, efficient, and seamless transactions.

Our challenge was to develop an authentication system that could address the increasing threats of phishing and replay attacks while providing a frictionless user experience. Data science and machine learning models became key components in crafting a solution that was both secure and user-friendly.

Our Solution: DigiPay Pro

To tackle the challenge, we developed DigiPay Pro, a next-generation authentication system that integrates multiple advanced features:

1. Biometric Integration: Facial recognition, retina scans, and fingerprint-based authentication with advanced liveness detection to prevent spoofing
2. Behavioural Biometrics: Continuous authentication through touch, swipe, and typing pattern analysis
3. Dynamic Key Encryption: Encryption keys that refresh every 30 seconds, ensuring resilience against replay attacks
4. Edge Encryption with TEE: Regulation-compliant local encryption of sensitive data
5. Dynamic Risk Detection: Context-aware security measures leveraging location-based security and Emotion AI for real-time fraud detection

Our Approach and Challenges

We kicked off the hackathon just a week before our exams, which was challenging in itself. The first round demanded rapid ideation and development, pushing us to deliver a prototype on a tight timeline. For the final round, things got even crazier—we had our final exam in the morning and the presentation in the afternoon!

Being new to the hackathon scene, figuring out how to make everything work from scratch was daunting. However, our prior exposure to an AWS course gave us foundational knowledge about integrating cloud components, which proved invaluable. We explored additional tools and technologies to fit our problem statement, such as behavioural biometrics and secure key storage systems.

The Role of Mentorship and Teamwork

A major factor in our success was the guidance and support of Abhijit Dasgupta, who mentored us every step of the way. His insights helped us refine our approach, stay focused, and troubleshoot challenges efficiently.

Each team member contributed equally to every aspect of the project, from ideation to development and presentation. Our synergy and collective problem-solving mindset played a significant role in making DigiPay Pro a reality.

Key Learnings and Takeaways

1. The Importance of Presentation: Even the best ideas need clear and engaging communication to shine.
2. Technical Mastery: We tackled real-world challenges, from integrating biometrics to implementing secure encryption.
3. Collaboration is Key: Trust and teamwork were the backbone of our success.
4. Adaptability: Balancing exams and the hackathon taught us time management and resilience.

A Special Moment: Recognition from Judges

One of the most memorable moments was receiving a special mention from the judges for our innovative idea. It was incredibly validating and motivated us to keep pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve.

Looking Ahead: The Future of DigiPay Pro

While we don’t have immediate plans to continue working on DigiPay Pro, we see immense potential for this solution. It could evolve into a scalable, white-label security framework for payment platforms, helping them stay resilient against evolving threats. The learnings from this experience will certainly guide us in future hackathons and projects.

Final Thoughts

Our journey with NPCI’s Hackathon at IIT Bombay Techfest 2024 was thrilling, challenging, and deeply rewarding. From navigating technical hurdles to balancing exams and presentations, it pushed us to grow both personally and professionally. We’re excited to take these learnings forward and innovate even further in the world of technology.

About the Author

A finalist at NPCI’s Hackathon at the IIT Bombay’s Techfest 2024, Dev Sharma is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Data Science at SP Jain School of Global Management.