IIT-Mandi to have 3 new masters courses

Tribune News Service

Mandi, October 29

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, is planning to start three new masters programmes from the next academic session.

Discussions were going on to start M Tech in biotechnology and electrical engineering and M Sc in mathematics from the next academic session, said IIT-Mandi director Timothy A Gonsalves while talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the third convocation of the IIT-Mandi to be held on October 31.

He said the IIT-Mandi would graduate three Ph D students, seven MS (by research) students and 105 B Tech students in the third convocation. “Currently, the IIT has a total of 752 students, including 487 students in four different B Tech programmes. The proportion of PG students (including MS and PhD) in the institute is about 35 per cent, where UGs comprise about 65 per cent,” he added.

Prof Gonsalves said Sachin S Bhat would get President of India Gold Medal and Institute Silver Medal for overall excellence in academics and top performance in computer engineering.

Prashant Prazapati would get Director’s Gold Medal for all around excellence in academics and extra-curricular activities and Endowment Prize for German. Balasundaram would get Endowment Prize for German.

Ingale Swapnil Sushil would get Institute Silver Medal for top performance in mechanical engineering and Nidhi Manoj Makhijani would get Rani Gonsalves Memorial Medal for best performance among girl students of B Tech.

Prof Gonsalves said the institute had started two masters programmes – M Tech programme in Energy Materials and MSc programme in chemistry.

“The institute has also expanded in BioX areas and this year, we have started an integrated MSc- PhD programme in Physics (iPhD Physics). In addition, we have also started research in Infrastructure and Civil Engineering for mountain regions and B Tech programme in Civil Engineering with 25 undergraduate students and four faculty joining in August, 2015,” he said.

He said even B Tech students were encouraged to put their theoretical knowledge to practice. In 2014, the Design Practicum (DP) saw a number of successful projects from the graduating batch of students. Some of these projects included low cost 3D printer, intelligent parking system and volumetric 3D LED Display, he added.

The IIT-Mandi had obtained the third place in the overall tally at the Inter-IIT Tech Meet held at IIT-Kharagpur in January, 2015, beating a number of institutes.

The IIT-Mandi will host the 4th Inter-IIT Tech Meet at its Kamand campus in January, 2016.

He said faculty and students were conscious of the globally competitive environment and the institute had collaborations with universities and institutes all over the world.

“The 2014-15 saw IIT-Mandi completing six years and consolidating its achievement as the only new IIT to develop and occupy its new campus. All B Tech students and over half the PG students, 40 per cent of the faculty and a number of staff live and work on Kamand campus,” he said, adding most of the students were expected to shift to Kamand by early 2016, along with a substantial fraction of the 90 per cent faculty and 100 per cent staff.

The Chief Guest during the convocation will be Prof N Sathyamurthy, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali. The Guests of Honors will be M Natarajan, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Mandi, and Prof Gonsalves, Director, IIT Mandi.