IIT Madras Alumni’s ‘AskIITM’ initiative to help JEE aspirants make informed choice – The Financial Express

In an effort to showcase the top reasons why students should choose IIT Madras to pursue engineering, the alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras) has put together an initiative called ‘AskIITM’ to help aspirants make informed choice. For this, meetings are organised in different locations, the alumni has also created a website – askIITM.com – where students can ask questions about IIT Madras. Further there is an Instagram page – @askiitm – which profiles current student life and alumni stories. Students from various top schools and coaching institutes have been invited to meet and ask questions.

As part of this, an ‘AskIITM’ event was held on Saturday, September 3rd in Hyderabad, an important catchment region for the institution with several JEE aspirants. The highlight of the event was a live interaction with Professor V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras and Professor Mahesh, dean (alumni and corporate relations) at IIT, Madras.

The event is being held now as the JEE (Advanced) 2022 results are scheduled to be announced on September 11th 2022, with admission process scheduled to commence on September 12th 2022.

A note on this, quotes Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, who was a counsellor for incoming IIT students for 10 years – from 2000 to 2009, as saying, “Through this effort, we are trying to reach out to a large number of aspirants and help them at this crucial juncture of their life by providing answers to many of their questions.”

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The note further puts out what it calls, ten factors that make IIT Madras a preferred destination, are listed below:

1. PLACEMENTS – Almost 80 per cent students who registered for placements have received job offers during this placement season for last batch of 2021-22. Institute recorded 1,199 offers with another 231 pre-placement offers, totalling to 1,430 offers. A total of 45 International Offers were received during Phase I alone, which is another record high.
2. INTERNSHIPS – A 48 per cent increase in number of students who secured an internship besides 28 per cent increase in number of companies that visited IIT Madras for Internship. Institute recorded a 32 per cent increase in Internship Offers on Day One of Internship Drive for the current batch 2022-23 students, with several international offers coming from companies in the U.S., the U.K., Hong Kong, Singapore & Netherlands.
3. TOP-RANKED INSTITUTE – IIT Madras has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’ Category for Four Consecutive Year and No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category seven consecutive years – from 2016 to 2022 – in NIRF Rankings. It was also adjudged as the ‘Top innovative Institution’ in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019, 2020 and 2021. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education.
4. INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP – IIT Madras’ ecosystem to encourage student innovation and entrepreneurship:

• Centre for Innovation (CFI) is a student-run body that provides a platform for students from multiple departments to come together and work on passion projects. Students from CFI, such as Team Raftar and Team Avishkar Hyperloop, have won many international awards. Several successful start-ups have also come from CFI like AtherEnergy and HyperVerge.
• Nirmaan is the students Pre-incubator of IIT Madras. Nirmaan has seen over 20 groups pass through the program. Some have been successfully incubated and raised over USD 1 Million. Current cohort has about 20 teams in various business domains including edu-tech, agri-tech, consumer products and advanced technology solutions.
• Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is designed to give thought leadership and networking impetus to help build entrepreneurial systems and processes in STEM universities across India. It works with STEM universities to implement an innovative ‘Lab to Market’ mission: by helping faculty, researchers, students, and entrepreneurs to commercialise research ideas, and develop robust start-ups
• IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) is India’s leading Deep-tech Startup hub. It has, as on date, incubated 233 start-ups, which have attracted investments to the tune of US$ 296 million and have a combined valuation of US$ 1.5 billion. They have created over 400 jobs and generated more than 125 patents.

5. ACADEMIC FLEXIBILITY – IIT Madras provides an unprecedented level of academic flexibility. Students have the liberty to choose around 50 per cent of the courses that they will be studying, including having the option of studying the entire semester in a foreign university as well as pursue electives from any department. Out of the electives, students are free to choose about eight courses (called ‘Free Electives’) from any of the 16 departments of IIT Madras as well as other approved institutions. The students can get 72 credits from pursuing courses as diverse as ‘History of India,’ ‘Psychology’ and ‘Economics’ to ‘Artificial intelligence’ and ‘Machine Learning.’
6. INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS – IIT Madras also has major connections with around 250 international universities across the world and also attracts students from overseas. IIT Madras offers Joint Doctoral Programs(JDPs) Opportunities to carry out Joint Ph.D. between IIT Madras and reputed foreign universities. The Institute also offers several student exchange programs and research opportunities in partner institutes across the world.
7. RESEARCH FACILITIES – IIT Madras is internationally renowned for the quality and diversity of its research. Research at IIT Madras is nurtured through various academic programmes run by the departments and through sponsored programmes funded by national organizations and the industry. IIT Madras offers state-of-the art research facilities, with over 100 labs in the domains of science and engineering.
8. MULTICULTURAL CAMPUS – Around 10,000 students and 600 faculty members from diverse parts of the country and a sizable number of international students, make IIT Madras a highly cosmopolitan and multicultural educational institution in India. A good variety of Indian and international cuisine is available, right on Campus.
9. SPORTS FACILITIES – Beyond just academics, IIT Madras also has excellent facilities for sports including an Olympic-standard swimming pool, a well-equipped gymnasium, the impressive IIT-Chemplast cricket ground, a vast stadium and a high-tech wood-floored multipurpose indoor stadium are available in the Students’ Activities’ Center, to mention some.
10. VIBRANT HOST CITY – Chennai is one of the most multicultural and safest metros in India, boasting of a vibrant populace. It is also an industrial and IT Hub with some of most top global companies have established manufacturing units and offices.