IIT Madras celebrates 66th Institute Day; felicitates students, faculty, alumni, teaching staff

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) organised its 66th Institute Day today, April 23, to felicitate students, faculty, alumni, teaching and non teaching staff.

Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, chief executive officer, Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) was the chief guest at the event. He is the alumni of the technology institute from a batch of 1993 (BTech in computer science), and was conferred with Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2021.

Kalyanaraman said: “This institution derives inspiration from institutions across the world including NRF and DARPA in the U.S. We have a special mandate for both public and private institutions. We will be supporting mission-oriented moonshot projects with directed research and directed innovations. The pathway from fundamental research to applied research through the innovation valley of death is arduous but I am delighted to see the innovation ecosystem at IIT Madras. We will be doing programs to support deep-tech start-ups and innovation.”

IIT Madras also honoured the achievers among faculty, researchers, students and the alumni at its Institute Day. Notably, donations from the students' festivals such as Saarang and Shaastra were also given to the selected organisations.

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IIT Madras’s Institute Day: Highlights

Various recognitions were conferred during the event, such as the Institute Research and Development Awards and Awards for Excellence in Teaching. Other recognitions were as follows:

Sivakumar M Srinivasan, professor, department of applied mechanics and biomedical engineering, and PS Lakshmi Priya, associate professor, department of civil engineering, have been jointly selected for ‘Srimathi Marti Annapurna Gurunath Award for Excellence in Teaching - 2025’.

Early Career Award 2025 Recipients:

• Surender Singh - Department of civil engineering.
• Aravind Kumar Chandiran - Department of chemical engineering.

Mid-Career Award 2025 Recipients:

• Sushanta Kumar Panigrahi - Department of mechanical engineering.
• Prabhu Rajagopal - Department of mechanical engineering.

In addition, several students were also selected for the Institute Blues 2025 Award:

• Rajagopal Subramaniam C - Silver
• Sukheth KM - Bronze
• Abhinav R - Bronze
• Malaviya Avani Tarun - Certificate
• Mihira Leela Nadapana - Certificate

The Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Young Alumni Achiever Awards were also presented on the occasion.

V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said: “Last academic year has been both challenging and rewarding, including the conferring of Padma Shri on Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, BoG, IIT Madras and IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Awardee Shri Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, U.S. National Research Foundation. Our BS in Data Science and Applications program has been a major success with three students securing top positions in the top 10 of the GATE DA Paper, including AIR 1.”

Furthermore, the list of distinguished alumnus awards and young alumni achiever awards is given below.