Chandigarh Students Win ₹3 Lakh for AI Security Tool
Chandigarh University AI-powered cybersecurity platform won ₹3 lakh for analyzing suspicious Android apps, APKs and malware.
Chandigarh University students won ₹3 lakh after placing second in the national CyberShield Hackathon with an AI platform for analyzing suspicious Android apps. Team Fi, a four-student Computer Science Engineering team, entered the Bank of India and IIT Hyderabad event, which received more than 3,000 team registrations from universities and higher educational institutions across India. The platform automates reverse engineering, static and dynamic analysis, and risk scoring for fraudulent mobile applications and malware. The tool is designed to assist cybersecurity professionals in the analysis and investigation of suspicious Android applications.
Team Fi Reaches National Final
The team comprises Danish Verma, Rahul Jaluthria, Varun Gupta and Avneet Kaur, all third-year Bachelor of Engineering CSE students in the IBM Cyber Security program. Of 72 shortlisted teams and 232 participants presenting prototypes at IIT Hyderabad, Team Fi was one of nine teams to reach the final round for the first problem statement.
The team represented the Centre for Privacy and Security in Emerging Technologies at Chandigarh University’s Apex Institute of Technology Computer Science Engineering. Its runner-up award recognized a platform intended to bring several stages of Android security investigation into one workflow.
“Our approach was to build an agentic AI infrastructure around this problem, moving beyond a conventional automated analysis pipeline and exploring how autonomous AI agents could coordinate different stages of cybersecurity analysis. Without going too deep into the technical implementation, our goal was to rethink how AI could be applied to a traditionally complex and highly manual cybersecurity workflow. So, the AI-powered cybersecurity platform built by our team automates several aspects of application security assessment and uses intelligent analysis to identify potentially malicious or suspicious behaviour, evaluate associated risks and generate meaningful insights for cybersecurity professionals. By bringing different stages of Android security investigation into a unified workflow, this project aimed to reduce manual effort, improve the consistency of analysis and help security teams investigate potential threats more efficiently while maintaining an evidence-driven approach.”
Tool Focuses on Android Investigations
Team Fi’s submission addresses fraudulent Android application packages, known as APKs, and malware. It uses Generative AI and agentic AI to coordinate analysis tasks, identify potentially malicious behavior, assess associated risks and generate findings for security teams.
The ₹3 lakh figure is the team’s runner-up prize from the hackathon.
“The on-site evaluation of the solution given by the participating teams was done by an impressive panel of judges and experts from diverse backgrounds and organisations including EY, C-DAC, McKinsey, Bank of India, and IIT Hyderabad. After the final evaluation, Team Fi secured 2nd place nationally in problem statement 1 to win Rs 3 lakh prize. For our team, Rs 3 lakh prize was more than just a monetary award. It was a tangible recognition of the work, experimentation and persistence that went into building our solution and taking it through every stage of the competition. Starting from an idea and seeing it survive four rounds of online evaluation, a national-level shortlist, an on-site technical evaluation and finally the last round at IIT Hyderabad made the achievement especially meaningful. The problem statement gives our team an opportunity to look at cybersecurity through a different lens and explore what could happen when agentic AI is designed around real-world security problems. Presenting that vision to experts from EY, C-DAC, McKinsey, Bank of India and IIT Hyderabad, and ultimately being recognised among the top solutions, reinforced our belief that ambitious ideas are worth pursuing when you are willing to keep building, testing and improving them.”
University Expands Cybersecurity Learning
Chandigarh University has launched its Centre for Privacy and Security in Emerging Technologies Lab at AIT CSE, focused on research, innovation and hands-on learning in cybersecurity, privacy and emerging technologies. The university also offers a four-year Bachelor of Engineering program in Internet of Things with IBM that covers cybersecurity in functional and operational domains.
“We are very proud of these students for their dedication, expertise and collaborative spirit for pushing the boundaries of innovation and making meaningful contributions to the advancement of cybersecurity solutions in banking. Chandigarh University remains dedicated to offering top-tier educational experiences, supporting its mission to cultivate knowledgeable, skilled, and innovative engineers who will contribute significantly to their respective fields and society at large. The University's state-of-the-art infrastructure and highly qualified teaching staff enrich the students with practical experiences and theoretical learning. Additionally, the university regularly organizes various competitions and programs to enable students to showcase their talents and continue their educational journey.”
A Competition Result With Practical Focus
Team Fi’s result places its Android security platform among the leading submissions in a national contest centered on AI, cybersecurity and banking fraud. The project presents a student-built approach to automating parts of suspicious-app investigation, including analysis and risk scoring.
From a company announcement.
