IIT Madras opens its computer science programmes for public

NEW DELHI: Now, everyone can study Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras’ computer-science courses. The Institute has taken a unique initiative with the faculty from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering creating a portal containing the core courses that can be accessed by educational institutions, students and anyone else interested.

“This initiative is also a major step towards realizing the vision of Professor V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, who is keen to make high quality education accessible to rural India,” said an official statement from IIT Madras.

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The core computer science courses which are available on the portal - nsm.iitm.ac.in/cse/ are on programming, data structures, computer organization and algorithms. Each course contains YouTube recordings of live lectures taught to the students at IIT Madras during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department is also planning to engage senior students to organize live tutorial sessions where they will also clarify the doubts of students.

Computer Science courses, quizzes

People can also attend quizzes on the portal for self-assessment and ascertain their level of understanding of the courses. The department plans to create randomized quizzes in the future for better evaluation. All the elements together will provide a comprehensive package to the students to learn the course.

Speaking about this initiative, Professor C Chandra Sekhar, head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), IIT Madras, said, “The recordings of live lectures for CSE core courses at the undergraduate level and the graduate level, by the faculty of the Department are expected to be helpful to the students in Engineering Colleges to learn the underlying concepts and principles of the subjects of these courses in the right manner.”

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Highlighting the unique aspects of this initiative, Rupesh Nasre, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “The portal has been created to help students who could not study at IIT Madras, especially those from remote and rural areas of the country. They will have access to the same curriculum that is taught in the institute. This initiative will ensure that quality material is accessible to all students.”

Students’ experience

Abhishek Dhiman, a student who benefitted from the portal, thanked the faculty for taking this initiative, and said, “Even if I am not an IIT Madras student, I am able to access the Institute’s lectures mainly because of this amazing initiative.”

Rajesh Chandra, another beneficiary of the portal, said, “This is a really helpful initiative from IIT Madras as it helps anyone who wants to improve their expertise in Computer Science stream.”

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Sharing his experience on working on this initiative, Kovvuri Sravankumar Reddy, 3rd year B. Tech student, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, said, “The difficulty of the quizzes on the portal is on par with the exams conducted by the Institute for the undergraduate students.”