IIT Madras awards degrees to 1,962 students, saw highest number of PhD degrees in an year

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras held the 58th convocation on Saturday virtually and a total of 1,962 students graduated. As many as 2,425 degrees (including Joint and Dual Degrees) were awarded to students on the occasion. IIT Madras saw the highest number of PhDs awarded in an academic year – 392, which includes PhDs, Joint Degree PhDs with foreign institutions and Dual Degree PhDs.

The Chief Guest was Olympic Medallist and Badminton World Champion PV Sindhu, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Padma Bhushan Awardee. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras, presided over the Convocation in the presence of Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director of IIT Madras.

IIT Madras 58th Convocation: Degrees break-up

During the occasion, Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, awarded degrees virtually to 1,962 graduands including 399 BTech (of whom 24 with Honours), 379 Dual Degree BTech and MTech, 366 MTech, 139 MSc, 44 MA, 42 Executive MBA, 61 MBA of whom one is jointly with the University of Passau in Germany.

Further, 148 MS, 311 PhD and 72 Web-enabled MTech (including the first batch of 23 students in Information Security and 28 students in Automotive Technology) for executives were awarded. The above PhD numbers also include 6 joint degrees with Universities in Australia - one each with Curtin, Deakin and Swinburne Universities and three with University of Technology.

Addressing the graduates, PV Sindhu said, “I would like to congratulate the graduates and their parents for their hard work...You have to keep trying. You have achieved a lot. You have to keep learning a lot more in life. This is just not the end...It does not matter if you fail or get success.”

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Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras, said, “Given how humankind is gearing up to leave Covid behind, there is probably no better time to make this world a better place to live in. The pandemic has accelerated the rate of tech adoption across streams of life, especially in the areas of education, telemedicine and digital economy, which is very relevant for engineers and scientists.”

He further said, “My interactions with professors, researcher scholars, startups, and students at IIT Madras have convinced me that the calibre of research and innovation in India is as good as anywhere else in the world. In the last couple of years, my belief in India to do cutting-edge research has become even stronger.

“I am truly impressed with what is being done at IIT Madras in areas of 5G, drones, hyperloop, space technology, 3D printing, etc. Work like this will define the ‘New India’,” he added.

IIT Madras: Annual report 2021

Presenting the Institute Annual Report, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said, “The Institute continues to attract substantial funding for its research and consultancy activities from Ministries of Government of India and from industry. In 2020-21, the Institute received sanction for 179 Ministry-sponsored projects for a total value of Rs. 359.25 crores, and 533 consultancy and industry-sponsored research projects amounting to Rs.230.09 crores. Despite the pandemic, we have maintained our growth momentum in attracting funding for research from both government and industry.”

“We filed for 195 patents during the year of which 68 are international filings, and were granted 124 Indian and 5 international patents...IITM-incubated companies are together valued at Rs 11,400 crores, based on their last investment data,” he said.

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IIT Madras startups have filed over 200+ patents, and 10% of the startups are founded by women, and 12% by IIT Madras faculty, as per the annual report.

IT Madras was designated as an ‘Institute of Eminence’ in early 2020. The special grant that came with it was primarily being used to give a sharp impetus to research activities. Through an internal competitive process, the Institute identified for support nearly 70 research initiatives grouped under 21 clusters, ranging from AI and Data Sciences to Safety Science and Systems, and Sensing and Vision.