The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi) held its 5th Convocation Ceremony at the IIIT-Delhi premises. The ceremony was held to celebrate the graduation of 247 students from its different courses and programmes.
Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO at InMobi, attended the ceremony as chief guest and delivered the convocation address and Prof Pankaj Jalote, Director at IIIT-Delhi, delivered the Annual Report of the Institute.
At a press conference, before the convocation, Jalote spoke at length about the interaction withthe industry, who showed immense interest in the research culture of the institute. Prof Jalote said that the institute is very well focused on the research, due to which, more than 100 conference and journal papers are published by students graduating this year.
The institute conferred 2 PhD, 163 B-Tech and 82 M-Tech degrees this year, including 3 dual degrees. The institute currently has a student strength of 1,146 and its faculty strength stands at 50. The campus is spread across 23 acres. The phase 2 construction is currently going on and to grow its capacity 3 times in the coming years. The institute promotes more girls working in technology field.This year as well 47% of the total graduating students are girls, which is higher than any top tech institute in the country.
Jalote also mentioned that “based on the high average compensations that IIIT-Delhi’s graduates receive, the institute estimates that the 800 alumni of the institute will contribute over 100 crores to the GDP and 20 crores in income taxes this year”. Corporations like Microsoft, Xerox Research, Amazon, Adobe, and EMC among others provide placements to the graduates of IIIT-D. “By most measures for placement – highest domestic salary offered, the percentage of students placed, mean and median offers – we are amongst the top few in the country” cited Prof Jalote.
The institute received a grant of 24 crores by Infosys/Foundation for the establishment of Infosys Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI) this year, which is one of the largest industry-supported research centres in an academic institution in the country.
A grant of 1.5 crores was made by the Delhi Government to promote entrepreneurship. Addressing the audience, Jalote reiterated how the institution stood true to its conviction of committing the early years entirely towards achieving academic excellence.
This year, 16 research proposals from the faculty of the institute were approved by various agencies, for a total funding of 4 crores. The institute this year introduced a 3rd UG program, after CSE and ECE, called "BTech in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (CSAM)", aiming to produce graduates with skills in mathematical computation and concepts to tackle complex problems.
Prof Jalote envisioned that with the current momentum of progress, the institute will be self-sustainable in research in a few years.
"I have no doubt that given the commitment of faculty, staff, and students, and the support we get from the Board of Governors and the Government, IIIT-Delhi will continue on the path of improving our research and education, leading to more successes and contributions to the society by our students and faculty," Prof Jalote concluded.
