IIT Madras 58th convocation remained a grand affair with 1962 students receiving degrees. The event was held on 20 November in a virtual mode. As many as 2,425 degrees (including joint and dual degrees) were awarded to students on the occasion.

There is more to it than meets the eye as far as IIT Madras 58th convocation is concerned. This includes the highest number of PhDs awarded in an academic year – 392, which includes PhDs, Joint Degree Ph.Ds with foreign institutions and Dual Degree PhDs.

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IIT Madras 58th convocation chief guest

The chief guest for IIT Madras 58th convocation was Olympic Medallist and Badminton World Champion Ms. PV. Sindhu who has also won Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Padma Bhushan Award.

Dr. Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras, presided over the convocation in the presence of Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras.

Chief guest address
The moments turned special when P.V. Sindhu addressed the students. ‘I would like to congratulate the graduates and their parents for their hard work…You have to keep trying.’

You have achieved a lot. You have to keep learning a lot more in life. This is just not the end. You need to learn different things and try out different things, she said speaking at IIT Madras 58th convocation.

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‘You should not stop only with one thing but you learn a lot more. It does not matter if you fail or get success.’ Speaking further during IIT Madras 58th convocation, Sindhu said As you all know, hard work is the key for success.

‘Passion towards whatever you do is also very important. I think these few things are very important in life and also discipline. You have to follow the rules and regulation,’ said Sindhu speaking at IIT Madras 58th convocation.

It is not always the way you do but the discipline towards any field is very important. Because, in sports, if I have to say, the discipline, hard work and the commitment and the passion towards whatever you do (or) whatever you want to achieve in life and the goals you have in life are very important, she said while speaking at IIT Madras 58th convocation.

Dr. Pawan Goenka
Chairman of Board of Governors of IIT Madras Dr. Pawan Goenka congratulated the graduating students during IIT Madras 58th convocation. Given how the humankind is gearing up to leave covid behind, there is probably no better time to make this world a better place to live in, said Dr. Pawan.

The pandemic has accelerated the rate of tech adoption across streams of life, especially in the areas of education, telemedicine and digital economy, which is very relevant for engineers and scientists, he said speaking at IIT Madras 58th convocation.

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Dr. Pawan Goenka speaking further at IIT Madras 58th convocation said his interactions with professors, researcher scholars, startups, and students at IIT Madras have convinced me that the calibre of research and innovation in India is as good as anywhere else in the world.

In the last couple of years, my belief in India to do cutting-edge research has become even stronger. I am truly impressed with what is being done at IIT Madras in areas of 5G, drones, hyperloop, space technology, 3D printing, etc. Work like this will define the ‘New India,’ he said speaking at IIT Madras 58th convocation.

Annual report
Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi presented annual report during IIT Madras 58th convocation. The Institute continues to attract substantial funding for its research and consultancy activities from Ministries of Government of India and from industry, said Professor Bhaskar at IIT Madras 58th convocation.

In 2020-21, the Institute received sanction for 179 Ministry-sponsored projects for a total value of Rs. 359.25 crores, and 533 consultancy and industry-sponsored research projects amounting to Rs.230.09 crores, he said.

Despite the pandemic, we have maintained our growth momentum in attracting funding for research from both government and industry. The growth in the latter is particularly encouraging and heart-warming, as IIT Madras is widely perceived to be the leader in research collaboration with industry, said Professor Bhaskar during IIT Madras 58th convocation.

Speaking further during IIT Madras 58th convocation, Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi said they filed for 195 patents during the year of which 68 are international filings, and were granted 124 Indian and 5 international patents.

Our Faculty have undertaken nearly fifty projects in various research areas under the Corporate Social Responsibility activities at a total value of Rs. 31.57 crores,’ he said during IIT Madras 58th convocation.

IITM-incubated companies are together valued at ₹11,400 crores, based on their last investment data. 106 startups are in the market, having generated, despite the pandemic, revenue of ₹ 440 Cr in FY20-21 and created more than 5200 direct jobs.

‘IITM startups have filed over 200+ patents, and 10% of the startups are founded by women, and 12% by IITM faculty,’ added Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi.

Top medal winners
Sumanth Hegde was the winner of President of India Prize for getting highest CGPA amongst BTech and Dual Degree during IIT Madras 58th convocation. Sumanth also won Bharat Ratna M. Visvesvaraya Memorial Prize for getting highest CGPA in BTech.

E. Santhosh Kumar won Sri V. Srinivasan Memorial Prize for getting the highest CGPA in Dual Degree. Guhan Narayanan received Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma Prize for best all round proficiency in curricular and extra curricular activities in BTech.

Governor’s Prize for the best all round proficiency in curricular and extra curricular activities in Dual Degree went to Mayur Vikas Joshi.

Degree breakup
During IIT Madras 58th convocation, Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, awarded degrees virtually to 1,962 graduands includig 399 B.Tech (of whom 24 with Honours), 379 Dual Degree B.Tech and M.Tech, 366 M.Tech, 139 M.Sc, 44 M.A, 42 Executive MBA, 61 MBA of whom one is jointly with the University of Passau in Germany, 148 M.S, 311 PhD and 72 Web-enabled M.Tech (including the first batch of 23 students in Information Security and 28 students in Automotive Technology) for executives.

The above PhD numbers also include 6 joint degrees with Universities in Australia – one each with Curtin, Deakin and Swinburne Universities and three with University of Technology.

Institution of eminence
IIT Madras was designated as an ‘Institute of Eminence’ in early 2020. The special grant that came with it was primarily being used to give a sharp impetus to research activities.

Through an internal competitive process, the Institute identified for support nearly 70 research initiatives grouped under 21 clusters, ranging from AI and Data Sciences to Safety Science and Systems, and Sensing and Vision.

Pooja Singh

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