Palaj, Gandhinagar

Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) hosted its 4th Convocation on Saturday (August 1, 2015) at its newly opened Palaj Campus. A total of 105 BTech students, 31 MTech students, 6 PhD students, 25 MSc students and 6 PGDIIT students were awarded degrees on the occasion. In addition, 40 medals and awards for academic, sports, leadership and community service were awarded to graduating students.

Shri Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director at Bharat Forge Ltd and Chairman at Kalyani Group, was Chief Guest at the event and delivered the convocation speech. In his talk Kalyani said, “I think Indians in all walks of life are daring to dream big. More importantly, they are also passionately chasing their dreams. Look at the growing number of Indian success stories in academics, science & technology, business and industry, sports – you name it and we have begun to dominate on the world stage. I am convinced that in the next 15-20 years India will become a major economic power and one that will have a deep imprint in determining the future of the world.”

Inspiring the students to bring a change, Kalyani said, “If we look around there are so many areas where things need to be set right – availability of clean drinking water, air and river pollution, civic sense and discipline, the educational system, governance – there are so many areas in which you can contribute and make a difference. At the same time we cannot wait for optimum conditions to begin our work. We have to act immediately, which means that we must begin with a dirty slate and not get intimidated by the enormity of the task. ”

Over 40 percent of the graduating BTech students have foreign experience in the form of foreign internships, study abroad opportunities, participation in international conferences, etc. Some of the institutes and organisations that the students visited overseas include California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Texas A&M University; University of Washington; National University of Singapore; Texas A&M University; Underwriters Laboratories in US; EPIR Technologies, Inc. in Chicago,US; Technion in Israel, etc.

Eepsit Tiwari, who spent a month in Silicon Valley, said, “It was a very good learning experience. I had the opportunity to attend conferences, international expos, visit headquarters of companies like Google and Facebook and meet many important people. The experience gave me insight to latest world trends in technology and innovation as well as entrepreneurial ideas.”

IITGN Director Prof Sudhir K Jain said, “The 4th Convocation of IITGN is a landmark event for a number of reasons: it is the first convocation to be held on our permanent campus. The graduating batch of BTech students is the first to have undergone our unique and innovative curriculum. Also, the first batches of the two-year MSc programmes in Chemistry, Mathematics and Cognitive Science are being awarded degrees today. With this, IITGN becomes the first IIT to award an MSc degree in Cognitive Science.”

This year, IITGN introduced a “deferred placement policy” which allowed students to opt out of placement to explore alternative career paths. These students remain eligible to participate in placement for the next two years. Nine students from the batch are working on entrepreneurial ventures this year. 16% of the graduating BTech students will be pursuing higher studies in foreign universities, such as Stanford University, Columbia University, Duke University, Clemson University, University of California, University of Tokyo, Georgia Institute of Technology etc.

Nearly 60 companies, such as Reliance Industries, Flipkart, Bharat Forge, ITC Infotech, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Underwriters Laboratories, Cognizant Technology Solutions, BPCL, DRDO, eClerx Services Ltd., etc. recruited IITGN students this year.

– DeshGujarat