IIT Madras celebrates its 58th Institute Day – felicitates distinguished alumni, students, staff and faculty
Chennai: The 58th Institute Day of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) was celebrated today at its Campus. The Institute Day became even more special manner this year, as IIT Madras was been once again ranked as No.1 Engineering Institution in the Country and as the second best Institute in the Overall category by the National Institutional Rankings Framework 2017, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
Dr. Girija Vaidyanathan, IAS, Chief Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu, who is also one of the illustrious alumna (Ph. D 2012, HSS and M. Sc. 1981, Physics) of the Institute, was the Chief Guest for the Institute Day. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Vaidyanathan said, “IIT Madras is committed to innovation and entrepreneurship. Strategy for IIT Madras’ success is capacity to find solutions using multi-disciplinary approach. The Institute has a large number of centers that are inter- disciplinary in nature which allows faculty and students to deal with real life issues”. She also bestowed the Institute R&D Awards, Award for Excellence in Teaching and Non-Academic Staff Recognition Awards.
Delivering the Presidential address, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Today we celebrate the completion of 58 years from the founding of our Institute. The recognition by NIRF as the top engineering institute in the country, and the second educational institution overall behind IISc, re-inforces our self-assessment that we are on track to meeting our rather stiff objectives. My congratulations to students, faculty, staff, and alumni for this stellar achievement. We are not going to rest on our laurels, but will surge forward with renewed vigour to achieve greater heights”. The Director, felicitated 12 alumni of the Institute with the Distinguished Alumnus Awards, this year. He also presented the Institute Research Award (Academic Awards) to 29 Research Scholars, in appreciation of the quality and quantity of the research work done by them. The award consists of a merit certificate and a cash award of Rs. 20,000.
‘Extra Mural Lecture’ (EML) Yearbook, a book containing activities of previous year along with the personalized messages of distinguished speakers who were invited as part of EML (a student managed group organizing lectures on various topics) was released on the occasion. The money collected through Saarang 2017, IIT Madras’ cultural fest was donated to three different causes this year – Water Aid: Rs 3 Lakhs, Saarang Scholarships: Rs 2 lakhs and Gnanadharshan Seva Foundation: Rs 1 lakh. The cheques were presented by the Director to the respective organization/foundations.
The Institute Day function was attended by students, staff and faculty members of IIT Madras as well as a large number of alumni both from India and abroad. The event moreover, included presentation on students’ activities and accomplishments, introduction of new Executive Wing, presentation of credentials to the outgoing wing, presentation of Institute Blues, and giving away of mementos to the outgoing Institute officials, among other activities. The function was followed by a Graduands Dinner to bid farewell to the outgoing students and scholars of the Institute.
Prominent awards presented this year are as following:
Distinguished Alumnus Awards
1. Dr. K. Virupaksha Reddy, President and Founder, PriTel Inc., USA [1972/MSc/CY]
2. Dr. Ramayya Krishnan, Dean, H. John Heinz III College and William W. and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems, Carnegie Melon University, USA [1981/BT/ME]
3. Shri. V. Shankar, Founder, CAMS Pvt. Ltd., Chennai [1981/BT/ME]
4. Dr. Vivek De, Intel Fellow and Director of Circuit Technology Research, Intel Corporation, USA [1985/BT/EE]
5. Shri. Satish Pai, Managing Director, Hindalco Industries Limited, Mumbai [1985/BT/ME]
6. Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, Chair Professor and Executive Vice President, Arizona State University, USA [1986/MT/EE]
7. Dr. Pradip Dutta, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore [1987/MT/ME]
8. Dr. S. Sudarshan, Professor & Subrao M. Nilekani Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay [1987/BT/CS]
9. Dr. P.V. Venkitakrishnan, Director, ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), ISRO, Mahendragiri, Nagercoil [1989/MT/ME and 2006/PhD/ME]
10. Dr. M. R. Madhavan, President, Institute for Policy Research Studies, New Delhi [1990/BT/ME]
11. Shri. Venkat Viswanathan, Founder and Chairman, LatentView Analytics, Chennai [1992/BT/CE]
12. Dr. Anand Raghunathan, Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, USA [1992/BT/EE]
Institute Non Academic Staff recognition Award
1. Mr. K R Ravindranath, Producer GR-I, Centre for Continuing Education
2. Mr. S Dhanabalan, Technical Officer, Electrical Engineering Department
3. Mrs. B. Sundari, Superintendent, Administrative Section
4. Mrs. Shebasabari, Superintendent, Academic Section
Institute Research and Development Awards
A. Life-time Achievement Award: Prof. R Krishna Kumar, Department of Engineering Design
B. Mid-Career Research & Development Award: 1) Prof. G Sekar, Department of Chemistry & 2) Prof. Krishna Moorthy Sivalingam, Department of Computer Science & Engineering
C. Junior-Level Research & Development Award:
1. Dr. Radha Krishna Ganti, Department of Electrical Engineering
2. Dr. Ashis Kumar Sen, Department of Mechanical Engineering
3. Dr. Jitendra S Sangwai, Department of Ocean Engineering
4. Dr. Niket Kaisare, Department of Chemical Engineering
Award for Excellence in Teaching
Prof. A. Ramesh, Department of Mechanical Engineering