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PRANJUL RATHOUR
PRANJUL RATHOUR

Posted on Originally published at pranjulrathour.scult.in

How organisers should train first-time judges before the event, not during it

#hackathonjudging #organisers #training

A same-day briefing calibrates a panel on the rubric, but a first-time judge benefits from preparation before event day too — organisers who invest in this get more consistent scoring from their newer judges.

What organisers can send in advance

  • The rubric itself, a week ahead, with a short explanation of what each criterion actually means in practice.
  • Sample past submissions with example scores and reasoning, so a new judge can calibrate their own instincts against a reference.
  • A pairing with an experienced judge for their first event, so questions can be asked in the moment rather than guessed at.

Why this investment pays off

A judge who arrives having only seen the rubric that morning inevitably improvises more than one who's had a week to internalise it — and that improvisation is exactly where inconsistency between judges creeps in.

See what a judges' briefing should cover.

About Pranjul Rathour

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Pranjul Rathour

Pranjul Rathour presenting on stage in a blue polo, with his Annapurna demo video on the screen behind him
Presenting Annapurna on stage

Pranjul Rathour giving a talk titled 'How and what I do', with demo videos of his products Vaidya and Annapurna on screen
Talking through the products he has shipped

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On the mic

Pranjul Rathour pitching with a microphone in front of a projector slide at CSJMU, Kanpur
Pitching at CSJMU, Kanpur

Pranjul Rathour is a GenAI engineer from Kanpur, India, and CTO at SCULT INDIA, currently shipping production RAG,
fine-tuning and agentic AI systems, mentoring 200+ students through TechVerse Enclave, and judging and speaking at
student hackathons across India. Updated 2026-09-11.

Reach out if you want to talk GenAI, book a campus session, or invite him to judge:

Pranjul Rathour · GenAI engineer, 3x hackathon winner, campus mentor. Open for GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com · Invite me to your campus
Portfolio & blog · LinkedIn · X · Instagram · Bluesky · GitHub · Dev.to

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