Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is organising a ‘Demo Day’ on the campus on June 15th and 16th, 2024. During this event, JEE 2024 aspirants can visit the campus and experience what IIT student life is like. This is the only such opportunity for aspirants across all the top IITs.
This is also an opportunity to interact with current students, faculty, and alumni and receive authentic and up-to-date information directly from the source. Students can also seek clarification about recent changes, like the introduction of B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, offered by the newest department at IIT Madras—The Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
The objective is to create awareness about the salient features of IIT Madras that made it the top-ranked engineering institution in the country for eight consecutive years—from 2016 to 2023—in the NIRF Rankings.
Students who cannot travel to IIT Madras can also participate in an online session on 17 June 2024, during which Prof. V. Kamakoti, the Director, other faculty, and alumni will respond to various queries related to academic and non-academic life on Campus.
Aspirants in and around Bengaluru and Hyderabad may also choose to attend the satellite Demo Day events at SD Auditorium, IISc, in Bengaluru on 11 June 2024 and T-Hub in Hyderabad on 12 June 2024. Senior faculty, current students, and alumni will be present at these events, too.
Interested JEE Candidates are advised to register at the earliest since there are only a limited number of seats at these events. Those interested can register on the following website – www.askiitm.com/demo
Welcoming JEE Candidates to take part in these events, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “This is a crucial juncture for the Young children to decide their career path and they must make an informed decision. Through this event IITM provides an opportunity for the young children to visit our campus and get to know about various engineering and other disciplines before making a choice.”
The Demo Day is part of the AskIITM initiative, designed and run by alumni and students. In addition to these events, on the website askiitm.com, aspirants can ask questions about courses, faculty, campus life, placements and more. A team of alumni and student volunteers will answer these. Aspirants can also browse through existing answers.
Additionally, the team has put up more than 200 videos on Instagram and YouTube about various topics related to IIT Madras.
Highlighting the unique academic environment at IIT Madras, Prof. Prathap Haridoss, Dean (Academic Courses), IIT Madras, said, “Aspirants can learn more about the academic flexibility that we offer through electives, minors and the IDDD programs. They can build a path that is unique to them.”
Throwing light on the unique opportunities available for students at IIT Madras, Mr. Amrutash Misra, an IIT Madras alumnus who is leading this initiative, said, “We say that Madras is the best place to build, with the perfect mix of academics, research labs, maker-spaces, pre-incubators and incubators. Students need to see it to believe it.”
IMPORTANT DATES
Ø 11th June 2024 – AskIITM Demo Day in Bengaluru
Ø 12th June 2024 – AskIITM Demo Day in Hyderabad
Ø 15th and 16th June 2024 – AskIITM Demo Day in Chennai
Ø 17th June 2024 – AskIITM Demo Day in Online mode
ACADEMIC FLEXIBILITY
The current IIT Madras academic system offers students a very high degree of flexibility in their choice of courses via the elective system. Students can choose between 40-50% of their courses as electives, including courses from any other department. Students can also opt for a ‘minor’ or switch to an ‘IDDD’ (Inter-Disciplinary Dual Degree).
Because of this flexibility, the ‘branch change’ system is no longer necessary and has been discontinued. The number of credits a student must complete to graduate has been reduced from 432 to 400, which eases the academic workload by almost 10%.
IMPROVED FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE
Workshops for first-year students, previously held during the vacation period, have been re-integrated into the semester, adding two more weeks of vacation time. Furthermore, a compulsory recreation course (Pass/Fail, 2 credits) has been introduced for students in the first two semesters, promoting a healthy work-life balance.
IIT Madras has always had a thriving entrepreneurship environment. Recognising this, the institute has decided to offer an entrepreneurship elective course in the third/fourth semester for interested students.
SPORTS QUOTA
IIT Madras has become the first IIT in the country to introduce admissions for sportspersons in its undergraduate programmes. The Institute will be introducing the ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA) from the academic year 2024-2025, This initiative is to recognize and reward talented students who have excelled in sports. This program encourages deserving students to pursue higher education while continuing to excel in their sports.
CAMPUS PLACEMENTS
As of 30th April 2024, IIT Madras has placed more than 80% of BTech/Dual Degree students and more than 75% of Master’s students this year. During 2023-24 Phase I and Phase II of campus placements, 1,091 students were placed in 256 companies. In addition, out of 300 pre-placement offers, 235 were accepted. This year, the median and average salary is ₹19.6 lakh and ₹22 lakh, respectively.
Companies from Japan, Europe and other countries made 44 international offers. Further, 85 start-ups made as many as 183 offers during Phases I and II of campus placement. Of the placed students, 43% are in the core sector, followed by 20% in software, and less than 10% each in analytics/finance/consulting and data science.
SCHOLARSHIPS & FINANCIAL AID
IIT Madras Alumni and CSR partners have rallied together to provide financial support to 100% of BTech students whose annual parental income is in the ‘Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh’ category for two consecutive years (2022-23 & 2023-24). The ‘Merit-cum-Means’ (MCM) Scholarship is one among the numerous financial assistance and scholarship support provided to students by IIT Madras, the Central and State Governments. SC/ST students admitted to the BTech program are exempted from paying tuition fees, irrespective of their parental income.
This support frees up the students to focus completely on their studies and future academic pursuits without having to worry about their financial situation or education loans.
