IIT Mandi Scaling the Heights- a 10-year Odyssey
Mr Baba Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Forge; Mr. Subodh Bhargava, Chairman of the Board of Governors; Members of the Board of Gov- ernors, IIT Mandi; Members of the Academic Senate; Faculty and Staff Members of the Institute; graduating students and their family members; and distinguished guests: I welcome you all on the occasion of the 7 th Convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi. I offer my congratulations to all graduating students on successful completion of their degrees. I am sure this would be a memorable day for you and your families.
Today, we are delighted to have with us Mr Baba Kalyani as the Chief Guest. Mr Kalyani is the Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Forge. He has transformed Bharat Forge into one of the global leaders in its domain. Mr. Kalyani was conferred the Padma Bhushan and was made Commander First Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by the Swedish government in recognition of his contribution in further- ing trade and business cooperation between Sweden and India. He has received many other awards. It is an honour for us to have him visit our campus on this august occasion
2011: North & South Campus
During the past 10 years, our student strength has grown steadily from 97 to 1,620. Our degree programmes have expanded from the initial 3 BTech programmes to 7 BTech + 13 Master’s + MS and PhD today. Notably, we have an MA (Development Studies) run by the Humanities School, and a BTech (Data Science & Engg) that is the first in the IIT system.
In February 2010, the first batch of 97 BTech students plus the Director visited the Kamand campus for the first time. The campus in the scenic, remote Uhl River Valley in the Himalayas was home to some horses. At that time, 8 new IITs had been started. IIT Mandi was considered by many to be a folly, destined to lag well behind the other 8. The small band of students, the first ~20 faculty and other well-wishers set out to prove the naysayers wrong. We soon crafted a strategy for success: growth on par with our peers, define academic USPs that would attract talented faculty and students, excel by focussing on a few regional and national priorities, quickly develop and use our campus, and build an ethos of cooperation, responsibility and accountability. Individually and as an Institute, we put in place a system of annual goal setting and self-appraisal.
8th among 8 New IITs?
Strategy:
Steady growth on par with peers
Define USPs to attract good faculty and students
Driven by local, regional and national problems
Leverage our locational advantage
Ethos: responsibility with accountability, cooperative spirit
Annual goal-setting and self-appraisal by each faculty
IIT Mandi Scaling the Heights- a 10-year Odyssey
To prepare students to become technology-based leaders in a rapidly changing world, IIT Mandi has an unusual design-oriented curriculum. From day 1 until graduation, students work on real-world projects, work in teams, deliver working solutions. For the BTech, we have Reverse Engineering in year 1, quick prototype development in year 2, a unique socio-technical practicum in year 3, and a major technical project in year 4. Teams from the graduating batch built this automated cooking station and a wall-climbing kit in their 2nd year. In their 3rd year, they worked on social problems such as dispensing of medicines in rural areas, and combatting drowsy driving in the hills.
