IIT Madras
Research Institute in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Research Institute in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), IIT Madras is also recognised as an Institute of National Importance.[6]
Emblem of the IIT Madras | |
Motto in English | Success is born out of action[1] |
|---|---|
| Type | Public Technical University |
| Established | 1959 |
| Accreditation | NAAC[2] |
| Endowment | ₹700 crore (2021) (US$ 93.26 million)[3] |
| Budget | ₹996 crore (US$120 million) (2021–2022)[4] |
| Chairman | Pawan Kumar Goenka |
| Director | V. Kamakoti |
Academic staff | 674[5] |
| Students | 10,238[5] |
| Undergraduates | 4,909[5] |
| Postgraduates | 2,488[5] |
| 2,841[5] | |
| Location | , , 600036 , 12.99151°N 80.23362°E |
| Campus | Urban 620 acres (2.5 km2) |
| Colors | Maroon Gold |
| Website | IIT Madras |
Founded in 1959 with technical, academic and financial assistance from the then government of West Germany, IITM was the third Indian Institute of Technology established by the Government of India.[7][8] IIT Madras has consistently ranked as the best engineering institute in India by the Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework since the ranking's inception in 2016.[9][10][11]
In 1956, the West German Government rendered technical assistance to establish a state-of-the-art engineering institute in India. Soon, the first Indo-German agreement was signed in Bonn, West Germany in 1959 for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras (now Chennai). IIT Madras was started with technical, academic and financial assistance from the Government of West Germany and was at the time the largest international educational project sponsored by the West German government. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has agreed to provide the following assistance in the establishment of a higher technological institute at Madras:
This has led to several collaborative research efforts with universities and institutions in Germany over the years.[14] Although official support from the German government has ended, several research efforts involving the DAAD programme and Humboldt Fellowships still exist.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras started functioning with the first batch of 120 students being admitted in July 1959 to the first year of the Engineering Course.[15] The institute was inaugurated in 1959, by the then Union Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs. The first batch had an overall strength of 120 students from across India.[16] In 1961, the IITs were declared to be Institutes of National Importance. The first convocation ceremony was held on 11 July 1964, with Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, then the president of India, delivering the convocation address and awarding the degrees to the inaugural batch of students.[17] The institute got its first women students in the BTech batch of 1966.[18] IIT Madras celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2009, and its Diamond Jubilee in 2019.[19]
The main entrance of IIT Madras is on Sardar Patel Road, flanked by the residential districts of Adyar and Velachery. The campus is close to the Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu. Other entrances are located in Velachery (near Anna Garden MTC bus stop, Velachery Main Road), Gandhi Road and Taramani gate (close to Ascendas Tech Park).[citation needed] The campus is located 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Chennai Airport, 12 km (7.5 mi) from the Chennai Central Railway station, and is connected by city buses. Kasturba Nagar is the nearest station on the Chennai MRTS line.[citation needed]
Two parallel roads, Bonn Avenue and Delhi Avenue, cut through the faculty residential area before they meet at the Gajendra Circle, near the Administrative Block. Buses regularly ply between the Main Gate, Gajendra Circle, the Academic Zone, and the Hostel Zone.[citation needed] IIT Madras is the first IIT in India to set up an offshore campus in Tanzania in Africa as part of the Central government's IIT expansion plans abroad.[20][21]
In July 2023, education officials of India and Tanzania said that an IIT Madras satellite campus in the Tanzanian autonomous territory of Zanzibar would begin offering classes in October 2023 and this has started functioning as announced.[22] IITM - Zanzibar is also the first IIT to have a Woman Director - the Director of the Tanzania Campus is Prof. Preeti Aghalayam.[23] This progressive IIT is now, all set to establish its second international campus in Sri Lanka.[24]
Most students at IIT Madras reside in hostels, where extracurricular activities complement the academic routine. The campus has 21 hostels, of which, six, Sabarmati, Sarayu, Sharavati, Swarnamukhi and the convertible Tunga - Bhadra are currently exclusively for women. In earlier times, each hostel had attached dining facilities but all of them have been closed down starting around 2010. Dining facilities are provided in three centralised halls: Nilgiri, Vindhya and Himalaya. Recently (2023) a new mess has been opened in the old Cauvery hostel mess for Jain food. Students are assigned to hostels upon matriculation, where they usually reside for the entire duration of their course of study.
The hostels of IITM are:
| Boys' Hostels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Alakananda | Brahmaputra | Cauvery | Ganga |
| Godavari | Jamuna | Krishna | Mahanadhi |
| Mandakini | Narmada | Pampa | Saraswathi |
| Sindhu | Tamiraparani | Tapti | |
| Girls' hostels | |||
| Bhadra | Sabarmati | Sarayu | Sharavathi |
| Swarnamukhi | Tunga | ||
Mandakini, Sindhu, Pampa, Mahanadhi and Tamiraparani are seven-storeyed whereas all the other hostels are three or four-storeyed. The latter four hostels can accommodate more than 1,200 students.[25] The older hostels were all three-storeyed till the early 2000s when extra rooms were added. An additional new floor in the three-storeyed hostels which generally house the undergraduate students and a new block in place of the mess halls of these hostels have been constructed to accommodate for the increased intake of the students. These new blocks could be used as entrances for these hostels. As of 2022, old Mandakini has been demolished and a new multi-storey block opened, with provision to accommodate approximately 1200 students.[26]
IIT Madras provides residential accommodation for its students, faculty, administrative and supporting staff, and their families. The residential houses employ private caterers. The self-contained campus includes two schools (Vanavani and Kendriya Vidyalaya), three temples (Jalakanteshwara, Durga Peliamman and Ganapathi), three bank branches (SBI, ICICI, Canara Bank), a hospital, shopping centres, food shops, a gym, sleeping room and cricket, football, hockey and badminton stadiums. Internet is available in the academic zone and the faculty and staff residential zone. Earlier Internet was limited in the hostel zone from 2:00 pm to midnight and from 5:00 am to 8:00 am, but increasing demand during the academic semester led to round-the-clock Internet service.[27]
IIT Madras also has supercomputing capability, with the IBM Virgo Super Cluster with 97 teraflops worth of computational power.[28]
IIT Madras is an autonomous statutory organisation functioning within the Institutes of Technology Act. The twenty-three IITs are administered centrally by the IIT Council, an apex body established by the Government of India. The Minister of Human Resources and Development is the chairman of the council.[29] Each institute has a board of governors responsible for its administration and control. The finance committee advises on matters of financial policy, while the Building and Works Committee advises on buildings and infrastructure.
The Senate comprises all professors of the institute and decides its academic policy. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations, and results. It appoints committees to examine specific academic matters. The director of the institute serves as the chairman of the Senate. The current director (appointed in 2022) is Kamakoti Veezhinathan,[30] who obtained his Ph.D. and M.S in CSE from IIT Madras.
Three Senate Sub-Committees – The Board of Academic Research, The Board of Academic Courses and The Board of Students – help in academic administration and the operations of the institute. The Board of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research addresses industrial consultancy and the Library Advisory Committee oversees library matters.
IIT Madras has the following departments
IIT Madras offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 18 disciplines in Engineering, Science, Humanities and Management.[31] About 600 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.
The institute has 18 academic departments and advanced research centres across disciplines of engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories. The academic calendar is organised around the semester. Each semester provides a minimum of seventy days of instruction in English. Students are evaluated continuously throughout the semester. Evaluation is done by the faculty, a consequence of the autonomous status granted to the institute. Research work is evaluated based on the review thesis by peer examiners both from within the country and abroad. Ordinances that govern the academic programme of study are prepared by the Senate, the highest academic body within the institute.
IITM is also gearing up to launch a new and completely online BEd degree programme in Maths and Computing to improve maths teaching in schools, as said by the director at the G20 seminar at IIT Madras.[32]
The Indian Institutes of Technology have strict rules for grading. Depending on the course the evaluation is based on participation in class, attendance, quizzes, exams and/or papers. Continuous evaluation is done by course instructors. The Evaluation System of IIT Madras[33] which is also used in other IITs is the Cumulative Grade Point Average with a scale from 0 to 10 which is converted to letters:
| Letter Grade | Grade Points | in Words |
|---|---|---|
| S | 10 | Excellent (top students/high performers) |
| A | 9 | Very Good |
| B | 8 | Good |
| C | 7 | Satisfactory Work |
| D | 6 | Below Average |
| E | 4 | Poor (but passed) |
| U | 0 | Failed |
| W | 0 | Shortage of attendance (usually below 85%) |
CGPA then gets calculated as the cumulative credit-weighted average of the grade points: CGPA = (Σ Ci • GPi) / (Σ Ci) where: N is the number of courses Ci is credits for the ith course GPi is grade points for the ith course CGPA is the cumulative grade point average
The CGPA is not the same as the one commonly used in the United States. In India, some credits might be awarded during Bachelor studies for Co-curricular and Extra-curricular Activities, while during the Master's Programme, this is not allowed. Through agreements with numerous international organisations, IIT grades are accepted by many international organisations like NTU, NUS and DAAD.
Additionally, the attendance of the students is evaluated with VG for very good (always present), G for good (not present every lecture) and P for poor (student was present less than 85% of lectures).
For the undergraduate curriculum, admission to the BTech and Dual Degree (BSc + MSc or BTech + MTech) programme is done through the Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced (JEE-Advanced). IIT Madras conducted JEE Advanced in 2017 and 2024. Admission criteria to the five-year integrated Master of Arts (MA) programme is changed as the Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Examination (HSEE), an IIT Madras-specific exam has not been conducted since 2023.[34] Admissions to the 4-year BS degree programme for in Data Science and Applications are done through 2 channels: JEE and their own entrance test called the Qualifier exam.[35]
For the postgraduate curriculum, admission to the MTech and MS programmes are through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE); after 2022, with the discontinuation of 5 year integrated MA program and the same becoming a 2-year PG program,[36] admissions is through GATE for the MA program also. The Joint Admission Test to MSc (JAM) is the entrance exam for the two-year MSc programme, and other post BSc programmes. MBA candidates are accepted through the Common Admission Test (CAT).[37]
The institute has departments and advanced research centres across the disciplines of engineering and the pure sciences, and nearly 100 laboratories.[38]
Research programmes concern work undertaken by faculty members or specific research groups within departments that award an MS or PhD degree. Research is carried out by scholars admitted into these departmental programmes, under the guidance of their faculty. Each department makes known its areas of interest to the academic community through handbooks, brochures and bulletins. Topics of interest may be theoretical or experimental. IIT Madras has initiated 16 interdisciplinary research projects against identified focus areas.
The institute maintains academic friendships with educational institutes around the world through faculty exchange programmes. The institute has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with foreign universities, resulting in cooperative projects and assignments.[39] The list of partners includes Auckland University of Technology, Massey University, Durham University, Sydney University, University of Colombo and other prestigious universities around the world.
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) was ranked 227 in the QS World University Rankings of 2025.[40]
| University and college rankings | |
|---|---|
| General – international | |
| ARWU (2022)[41] | 701–800 |
| QS (World) (2023)[42] | 250 |
| QS (Asia) (2023)[43] | 53 |
| General – India | |
| NIRF (Overall) (2024)[44] | 1 |
| NIRF (Research) (2024)[45] | 2 |
| QS (India) (2020)[46] | 4 |
| Engineering – India | |
| NIRF (2024)[47] | 1 |
| Government colleges: | |
| Outlook India (2022)[48] | 2 |
| Business/Management – India | |
| NIRF (2024)[49] | 16 |
Internationally, IIT Madras was ranked 227 in the QS World University Rankings of 2024[50] and 74 in Asia.[51] It was ranked 701–800 in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities of 2022.[41]
IIT Madras was ranked 1st in the overall category,[52] 2nd among research institutions,[53] 1st among engineering colleges[54] and 15th among management schools[55] in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024. Outlook India ranked IIT Madras 1st among government engineering colleges[48] in 2022.
IIT Madras BS in Data Science won Silver in the Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) - QS Reimagine Education Awards.[56]
Through industrial consultancy, faculty and staff undertake industry assignments that may include project design, testing and evaluation, or training in new areas of industrial development. Industries and organisations like the Indian Ordnance Factories,[57] reach out to the IIT faculty to undertake assignments channelled through the Centre For Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR).
National organisations sponsor programmes of research by funding projects undertaken by the faculty. Such research is time-bound and allows project participants to register for a degree. Project proposals are usually prepared by the IIT faculty and forwarded to interested organisations, based on the nature of their research and their interest to fund such projects.
Sponsored projects are often vehicles for new resources within departments, and often permit their project staff to register for academic degrees in the institute. All sponsored research activities at the institute are coordinated by ICSR.
To improve the quality of higher education in India, IIT Madras came up with an initiative called NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning)[58] in the year 2003.[59] As per this initiative, all the IITs, along with the IISc Bangalore would come up with a series of video lecture-based courses across all the streams of engineering.[60] This initiative has gained wide popularity in India and the lectures are being used by several engineering students from across India. It is the largest online repository in the world of courses in engineering, basic sciences and selected humanities and social sciences subjects.[citation needed]
IITM Research Park is India's first university-based research park.[61] The Research Park functions to promote innovation in established companies and provide a nurturing ecosystem to startups through incubation efforts and technical infrastructure.[62] Following its success, 50 research parks were planned as part of the Start Up India initiative of the Central Government of India. Corporate clients of IIT Madras Research Park include the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Saint-Gobain and Forbes Marshall. Ather Energy, Hyperverge, Gyandata and Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre(Sponsored by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India)[63] are some of the startups and centres incubated at the Research Park. The Research Park is a prime driver for the very large number of startups incubated at IIT Madras.[64]
As an Institute of Eminence, IITM has opened various research centres that include important domains like artificial intelligence and data sciences, big networks, complex systems, chemistry, earth sciences, math and cyber security, ocean technology, quantum science and technology and sensing and vision, etc.
IITM Pravartak is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, GOI, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, and it's hosted as a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) by IIT Madras. It focuses on Technology, Entrepreneurship and Human resource skill development through various initiatives. It provides hands-on programmes, and hybrid courses like Out of the Box Thinking in Maths, Winter School on Advanced Quantum Computing, Wireless Networks, Blockchains and others.
On 20 October 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that the Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre (BSRC) would be established starting in 2024, working with professionals from the industry and academic institutions. Rajeev Chandrashekhar states that BSRC will function as the Indian counterpart of the MIT Microelectronics Laboratory, Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, Industrial Technology Research Institute, and IMEC.[65] The Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre will be located at IIT Madras. The centre will be established initially as an institution co-located with Semi-Conductor Laboratory, with the potential to split off into a stand-alone semiconductor research organization in the future.[66]
The Office of Alumni and Corporate Relations initiates, promotes, and facilitates connections among the diverse network of IIT Madras alumni as well as corporations. Through collaborations, mentorship programs, and knowledge-sharing initiatives, the office contributes to the institute's progress and goals. The office fosters alumni engagement with the institute through various initiatives such as organising reunions across batches, recognising distinguished alumni, and ensuring that alumni stay in touch with developments at IIT Madras through newsletters and regular communications. It is currently headed by Prof.Mahesh Panchagnula from the Dept. of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras.[67]
The office has facilitated various technology-driven social impact collaborations with various corporations and corporate foundation arms, under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. Partnerships with both Alumni and corporations are undertaken through the Office of Institutional Advancement which functions as part of the Alumni and Corporate Relations office.[68]
The institute launched a 4-year full-time UG Bachelor of Science degree (BS) program in Data Science and Applications in 2020 with unique flexible exit options as per the NEP, which was earlier a virtual 3-year BSc degree programme in Programming and Data science. The 142-credit program consists of three levels - Foundation (32 credits), Diploma (54 credits), and Degree (56 credits).[69] and a total of 36 theory courses and 4 project courses. The degree programme is currently being run in a hybrid mode with the course-wise best of the faculty members across India. The renowned faculty from the 1st year of this Data Science dept. include faculty Dr. Madhavan Mukund (Director, Chennai Mathematical Institute),[70] Dr. Rajesh Kumar (Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras),[71] Dr. Andrew Thangaraj (Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Madras),[72] Sudarshan Iyengar (Associate Professor & HOD, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Ropar).[73]
The IIT Madras BS in DSA currently follows a Trimester academic system, where each academic year is divided into 3 terms each of 4 months duration: Jan-April (Winter), May-August (Spring) and Sept-Dec (Fall)
The official IITM-approved societies and clubs under the BS in the DS branch include: the Ramanujan Society For Research (RaSoR), Pravaha (Dance society), Anime Society, Adhyay (civil services society), Raahat (Mental health and wellness society), Cosmos (Tech society), Erudite (Oratory society), Art Society, Sahityika (Literary society), Film Society, Heighters (esports club), WYZ Kids (Quiz club), Akord (Music society), Aayam (Drama society) and Shah Maat (Chess society)
Students at IITM pursuing BS in DS get income-based (who have low family income) fee waivers each term. Also, students belonging to EWS, SC/ST, OBC and PwD categories get these waivers. Verizon India and L&T Technology Services provide scholarships to IIT Madras BS Degree Students.
The programme has won Silver in the Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) - QS Reimagine Education Awards[74]
IITM launched the 4-yr BS undergrad degree in Electronic Systems (ES) in March 2023 to meet the significant and growing demand for skilled graduates in the electronics and embedded systems sector in India.[75] This programme would also run in hybrid mode. The faculty coordinators of this dept. include Dr Aniruddhan and Dr Boby George from the Dept. of Electrical Engineering at IITM.
Students need to have Physics and Maths in class 12 as mandatory requirements to apply for the degree. Students can apply through the JEE channel or their own entrance or qualifier examination.
Unlike the BS in DSA which follows a trimester curriculum, this will follow a semester system (2 semesters per year) with the same concept of 2 in-centre quizzes and an end-term exam in each semester. Keeping in line with the new NEP, IITM has provided the flexibility to exit earlier with a Foundation Certificate or Diploma. However, one needs to complete 142 credits to achieve the BS degree in ES.
IIT Madras established a new Campus in Zanzibar (Tanzania) IITM Zanzibar Campus in July 2023 to provide quality education in Tanzania. IIT Madras is the first IIT to establish a campus outside India.[76][77][78]
Offered Degrees -
IITM also offers Diploma in Programming and a Diploma in Data Science separately. Students who've completed a UG degree or have completed at least two years of an undergrad degree are eligible to sit for the DAD qualifier exam (duration: 3 hours for Diploma in programming and 4 hours for that of Data science) which serves as the entrance test for these programmes.[citation needed]
The RBCDSAI was set up in 2017 with funding from the institute to encourage interdisciplinary research. In the last 5 years, it has grown to be the pre-eminent interdisciplinary research centre for Data Science and AI in India and is one of the country's largest groups in network analytics and deep reinforcement learning.[79][80]
Google has granted IIT Madras $1 million for setting up India's first multidisciplinary Centre for Responsible AI.[81]
The Centre was set up in 2024 with the objectives of promoting research in the field of cybersecurity and protecting the national infrastructures from cyberattacks.[82]
The Center of Excellence in Fluid and Thermal Sciences was established at IIT Madras with the help of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which provided seed money of ₹1.84 crore. In terms of spacecraft design, analysis, and testing of different parts as well as thermal management, it will serve as a nodal centre. The centre will be an important ISRO research hub. The centre's advanced research initiatives will focus on cryo-tank thermodynamics, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and spacecraft thermal management.[83]
E-Summit by the Entrepreneurship Cell E-Cell of IIT Madras is IITM's annual flagship event and the only ISO 9001:2015 certified entrepreneurship summit focusing on young entrepreneurs and their ventures.[citation needed]
Shaastra is the annual technical festival of IIT Madras. It is held in the second week of January[84] and is an ISO 9001:2015 certified student organised festival.[citation needed] It consists of various engineering, science and technology competitions, summits, lectures, video conferences, exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops. The festival is traditionally held over four days and four nights during the first week of January. It has so far seen twenty-one editions, having started in its current avatar in the year 2000.
Saarang is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a five-day-long event held in early January every year and attracts a crowd of 70,000 students and young people from across the country, making it the largest student-run fest in India.[citation needed] Saarang events include speaking, dancing, thespian, quizzing and word games, professional shows (nicknamed Proshows) and workshops on music, fashion, art, and dance.
Paradox is the fest organised for the IIT Madras Bachelor of Science degree students. It is held 3 times a year. Paradox in Saavan and Paradox in Margazhi[85] are held hybrid around August and December respectively and consist of various cultural, sports, professional events, hackathons. The main annual fest is held at the IITM campus. It's the biggest physical gathering of IITM Online BS students that happens in May every year, as the summer vacation for students begins.[86]
Several departments organise department festivals. Samanvay, Biofest, ExeBit, Wavez, Mechanica, CEA Fest, ChemPlus, Amalgam and Forays are some of the festivals organised by the Department of Management Studies, Computer Science and Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and Maths departments respectively. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences hosts the Annual Academic Conference.
| Fest name | Department |
|---|---|
| Aero fest | Aerospace Engineering |
| Amalgam | Metallurgical and Materials Engineering |
| ElecFest | Electrical Engineering |
| Samanvay | Department of Management Studies |
| Biofest | Biotechnology |
| ExeBit | Computer Science and Engineering |
| CEA Fest | Civil Engineering |
| Chemplus | Chemical Engineering |
| Forays | Mathematics |
| Mechanica | Mechanical Engineering |
| Wavez | Ocean Engineering |
| Annual Academic Conference | Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Bhoutics | Physics |
| CiHS | Chemistry |
The Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Madras believes that entrepreneurship is not just about starting companies and building businesses but a pathway towards India's socio-economic development. E-Cell was earlier known as C-TIDES and was rechristened in 2015 as the entrepreneur.
E-Cell IIT Madras is an active non-profit, a completely student-run organisation to help encourage entrepreneurship.
Set up with funds donated by the batch of 1981. CFI was started in 2008 as a student-run lab for the creative output of the budding engineers of IIT Madras. It provides students with the necessary platform for realising their ideas. It houses 13 clubs and 7 competition teams, representing IIT Madras in various technical events. Summer School has been started by clubs to teach freshers popular topics during summer vacation.[87]
CFI houses the workspace of student teams such as Raftar Formula Racing, Team Anveshak, Mars rover team, Abhiyaan, autonomous vehicle team, Avishkar, hyperloop team, Team Abhyuday, rocketry team, Agnirath, solar car team and iGem.[88]
The annual flagship event of CFI, the Open House displays the projects of all CFI clubs, along with the works of the Competitive Teams.[89]
Launched in 1980 by a group of students with support from the then director of IIT Madras, the late Prof. P.V. Indiresan, the main aim of the Extra Mural Lectures series is to expose the IIT Madras community to the ideas and experiences of eminent personalities from diverse backgrounds. Over the years, lectures included the late former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Nobel Laureate The 14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand, filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, Honorable Governor Shri. E.S.L. Narasimhan, Honorable Minister of Railways Shri. Suresh Prabhu, current vice president of India Shri. M.Venkaiah Naidu, music composer Ilayaraja, co-founder of Infosys Shri. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ambassador of Japan to India H.E. Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu, then defence secretary of India Mr. Ajay Kumar and ISRO chairman S. Somanath have been hosted at IIT Madras for Extra Mural Lectures, to motivate the students and broaden their perspectives.
The Sustainability Network (S-Net) is an alumni-student-faculty initiative launched in May 2009 to help preserve the unique niche of one of the best educational campuses in India. S-Net was envisioned to work towards developing and deploying solutions for making a self-sustaining campus (focusing on energy/electricity, water, and waste management), which could eventually be replicated across the country through tie-ups with other educational institutions.[90]
The Fifth Estate[91] is the official media body of IIT Madras and gives an insight into the happenings inside the campus and important news related to the institute.
The Open Air Theatre hosts the weekly movie, a Saturday night tradition, besides other activities. It seats over 7,000.
NSS in IIT Madras has been noted for taking up socially relevant initiatives, taken up as individual projects to create an impact on society as well as the students. The wing of NSS at IITM has over 400 students every year, contributing to the cause of the scheme. Since its inception, it has achieved many milestones in its history as a unique, student-run organisation. Linked with several NGOs and social organisations both within and outside Chennai. By working out projects from Braille magazines to technology interventions, from teaching children in urban slums to educational video content, NSS (IITM) seeks to challenge mediocre thinking and reach out into the darkness, to pull a hand into the light.
Student bodies such as Vivekananda Study Circle (VSC), Islamic Study Circle, IIT Christian Fellowship, Genesis and Reflections focus on spiritual discussions.
Regional groups include Marathi Mitra Mandal(MMM), Hindi Mitra Mandal(HMM), Karka Kasadara(Tamil), Kerala Kala Samithi(KKS), Garvi Gujarati Sangathan(GGS), Telugu Samskruthika Samithi and Kannada Samskrutika Sangh, North-east Students Association(SADINER), and African Students Association(AFSA) by students from African Continent.
The campus has evolved a slang, called Insti Lingo, attracting a published Master's thesis at a German University.[92] A mix of English, Hindi, Telugu (Gult), Malayalam (Mallu) and Tamil (Tam), aspects of the campus slang have been adopted by some other Chennai colleges.
Unlike its sister institutions, IIT Madras has no single Indian language used among its students: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, English and Hindi are all very commonly used. All student participatory activities like debating, dramatics, short-film making, and others are held in English. This is even reflected in the slang that uses more English and other Indian regional languages than Hindi, unlike in IITM's northern counterparts.
Prakriti Wildlife Club at IIT Madras was founded in April 2002 by students, faculty, staff, residents, and alumni who are wildlife enthusiasts.[93]
The Heritage Centre was formally inaugurated by Dr Arcot Ramachandran, former Director IIT Madras on 3 March 2006. The centre is located on the ground floor of the administration building. The actual idea of a Heritage Centre was mooted in the year 2000 and has become a reality due to the efforts of the Professor-in-charge Dr Ajit Kumar Kolar and his team. The centre will function as a repository of material of heritage value and historical significance of various facets of the institute.
The exhibits include photographs, documents, publications, paintings, portraits, products developed and other articles. Information regarding important events, laboratory development, visits of important dignitaries, Indo-German cooperative activities, and academic achievements of faculty and students also are included. Aspects of IITM campus features and development, campus life and student activities are also included, thus broadening the scope of the centre in the future to non-academic activities.
Several members of the Hindu Munnani were arrested in November 2014 for organising a "spitting protest" outside the IIT-Madras after the institute played host to the 'Kiss of Love' campaign.[94] The members of the group gathered and started spitting at the pictures of students kissing and hugging at the kiss of love campaign the past week. Additionally, they also hurled abuse at the students.[95]
In 2017, Beef fest was organised by some students from APSC to protest against the central government's ban on cow slaughter.[96] Events turned violent when a PhD student was attacked in student mess by some right-wing students. The student sustained injuries and had to be admitted to the hospital. IIT Madras had to release an official statement and a petition was filed in High Court to set up a peacekeeping committee.[97] In June 2023, High Court disposed the petition.[98]
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