IIT Madras brings BS Degree students to campus for a 4-day cultural-technical fest

CHENNAI : Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is organizing the second edition of a cultural-technical festival for students of its BS Degree Program. ‘Paradox 2023’ is being held from 25th to the 28th of May 2023 at IIT Madras campus. More than 3,000 students from across the country are participating in this festival this year.

Paradox is a grand celebration of the pursuit of knowledge, innovation, and holistic development. The four-day extravaganza will feature a potpourri of cultural, sports, technical and literary events being organized across 20 venues on the campus.

The day-long events are scheduled to commence as early as 5 am with 3km and 5km marathons, other sports events such as basketball, cricket, badminton, table tennis, football, etc. followed by indoor events.

Speaking about the Paradox 2023 celebrations, Prof. Andrew Thangaraj, Professor In-Charge, BS in Data Science and Applications, IIT Madras, said, “One of the aims of IIT Madras BS degree has been to enable students to experience the IIT Madras campus and further help them foster and nurture their friendships with their peers. To further strengthen the sense of community among students, various clubs and societies for extra-curricular activities such as the programming club, film and photography club, music society, literary society, mathematics society etc. have been established.”

Launched in 2020, the BS in Data Science and Applications program provides a unique opportunity for students, graduates, and working professionals to study from IIT Madras without having to go through Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

Anyone who has completed Class 12 and interested in the program can enroll themselves, as IIT Madras aims to remove all barriers of age, discipline, or geographic location and provide access to a world-class curriculum in programming and data science to all aspirants around the country. It has an enrolment of over 16,500 currently.

Further, Prof. Vignesh Muthuvijayan, Professor In-Charge, BS in Data Science and Applications, IIT Madras added, “Students of all age groups and diverse professional backgrounds from all parts of the country are participating in this fest. The objective is to bring students together to experience IIT Madras campus life and interact with faculty and industry professionals.”

A large group of more than 300 students have been working on the arrangements for the event. Paradox 2023 also had curtain raisers in the form of Savan Paradox and Margazhi Paradox which are two-day events conducted in the months of August and December and entirely online which saw more than 2,000 student participants across events.

Paradox ’23 is all set to discover, inspire and innovate and includes among other events:

⮚ Interaction with faculty and instructors who teach the courses which helps both parties know the other group better

⮚ Talks by visionary keynote speakers, esteemed scholars, and distinguished experts from diverse fields

⮚ Industry panels with experts who share insights into current technology trends and skill sets required

⮚ An E-conclave that comprises entrepreneurs who have been successful sharing their insights about their journey and what made the idea click

⮚ 15 technical workshops handled by various experts with topics ranging from data science applications in medical radio imaging, career opportunities in market research, reinforcement learning, cutting edge work done at the IITM Brain research centre and RBCDSAI, hackathons, etc.