IIT-Madras aiming for global eminence

Updated on: Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, M.S. Ananth, on Tuesday said the institution was now drafting its ‘Strategic Vision 2010' aiming to attain global eminence. A committee had also been formed in this regard.

In his presentation on ‘IIT Madras: Strategic Plan 2020' to a number of alumni, he underlined the need for allowing students to study for what they wanted to become — researchers, designers, entrepreneurs, professionals or social workers — by extending a number of electives. He suggested introduction of “need of the hour model” through courses such as clinical engineering, petroleum technology, nuclear engineering, and so on.

He also stressed the importance of a “mix of disciplines,” especially humanities with science and engineering. The Director said IIT Madras was yet to become an “international campus,” not because of lack of quality but because of shortage of students and faculty from abroad. Hence, it had now been decided to have 10 per cent of the faculty irrespective of their culture and 25 per cent of the students from abroad.

He also focussed on combining research and teaching, as that brought about passion to teaching. He noted that hardly a fraction of the post-graduates and PhDs in engineering sought to enter teaching arena.

Mr. Ananth listed a number of projects, costing about Rs.150 crore, that were on the anvil and sought funding from the alumni for specific projects. Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman, Infosys, in his welcome address, said Chennai had a unique environment because of IIT Madras, and this should be leveraged. Pointing out that the GDP had been growing at the rate of more than eight per cent, he said that if it were to further grow similarly, there should be more innovation. “We have to come up with our own designs and services and we have to create products for the world using our unique strengths”.

IIT-Madras aiming for global eminence

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