IIT Madras celebrates 64th Institute Day; felicitates alumni, faculty, student achievers

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) celebrated its 64th Institute Day today, April 20 with students, faculty, teaching and non-teaching staff. The institute also felicitated alumni , faculty adn student achievers. The Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) was presented to Viswanathan Kumaran, professor IISc Bengaluru for the year 2020.

Rupesh Nasre, Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Nagabhushana Rao Vadlamani, Department of Aerospace Engineering, were jointly selected for the ‘Srimathi Marti Annapurna Gurunath Award for Excellence in Teaching’ for 2022-23. This award is based on an endowment by IIT Madras alumnus, Marti Subrahmanyam, Stern School of Business, New York University.

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The chief guest of this occasion was Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO, Zoho Corporation and a distinguished alumnus awardee of IIT Madras.

Addressing the students and faculty, Vembu said: “The models had to represent the real world because we are building systems for the real world. That is when I realized this is what real engineering is about. We had to build models to fit the real world and the only way to build that is to actually build real world systems. That was probably one of the deepest lessons I learnt. We had to build real world stuff to even make models meaningful.”

RI Sujith, Department of Aerospace Engineering, was presented the ‘Lifetime Achievement Research Award of IIT Madras.’ He received an Institute colloquium and be designated as ‘Institute Professor.’ He has been invited to teach and take on research scholars from various departments. The award carries a grant of Rs 50 lakh, to be operated as a project.

The Mid-Career Research and Development Award, which carries a grant of Rs 40 lakh, was presented to two professors from departments of civil engineering and biotechnology.

Delivering the presidential address, V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said: “Under the IoE Grants from the Government of India, we have granted more than 75 interdisciplinary projects were funded in Round 1, each to a tune of Rs two crore on an average, to enable exploration of different proposed areas by the respective groups.”

“As an outcome, 15 IoE centres of excellence in niche areas of research are to be set up at a funding of Rs. 15 crore each. In addition, around 20 IoE centres with a funding of Rs. 5 Crore each and 15 IoE Projects with a funding of Rs. 2 crore shall be supported,” he added.

The Research Affairs Secretary reported the formation of an All-India Research Scholars Team and the launch of the All India Research Fest 2023 in association with the IIT Madras Research Park.