The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a college of engineering located in Chennai, India. Founded in 1959, it is chronologically the third among the Indian Institutes of Technology established by the Government of India to provide high quality education in the fields of engineering and technology.

The city that IIT Madras is located in has since changed its name to Chennai; nonetheless, having been established by a charter of the Central Government of India, its official name remains the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

General Information

The IIT Madras is a residential institute with nearly 360 faculty, 4000 students and 1250 administrative & supporting staff, is a self-contained campus located in a beautiful wooded land of about 2.5 km². It has been growing from strength to strength ever since it obtained its charter from the Indian Parliament in 1961 and has established itself as a premier centre for teaching, research and industrial consultancy in the country.

The Institute has 15 academic departments and a few advanced research centres in various disciplines of engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories organised in a unique pattern of functioning. A faculty of international repute, a brilliant student community, excellent technical & supporting staff and an effective administration have all contributed to the pre-eminent status of IIT Madras. The IITs are rated among the finest educational institutions in the world in terms of peer ranking.

The campus is located in the city of Chennai, previously known as Madras. Chennai is the state capital of Tamilnadu, a southern state in India. Most of the campus is protected forest, and has a large population of chital (spotted deer) and black buck.

History

In 1956, the German Government offered technical assistance for establishing an institute of higher education in engineering in India. The first Indo-German agreement in Bonn, West Germany for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras was signed in 1959. The Institute was started with technical assistance from the Government of West Germany. This has led to several collaborative research efforts with universities and institutions in Germany over the years. Although official support from the German government has ended, several research efforts involving the DAAD program and Humboldt Fellowships exist.

The Institute was formally inaugurated in 1959 by Prof. Humayun Kabir, Union Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs. In 1961, the IITs were declared to be institutions of national importance. The IIT system has seven Institutes of Technology located at Kharagpur (estb. 1951), Mumbai (estb. 1958), Chennai (estb. 1959), Kanpur (estb. 1959), Delhi (estb. 1961), Guwahati (estb. 1994) and Roorkee (estb. 1847, joined IITs in 2001).

Campus

IIT Madras is located on Chennai's Sardar

The campus is midway between the Chennai Airport and the Chennai Central Railway station and is well connected by buses. It is around 14 km from the Central Railway station and the central bus depot. Adyar has its own bus terminus as well.

Two parallel roads, Bonn Avenue and Delhi avenue, lead you through the residential zone, under a canopy of green, to Gajendra Circle (otherwise called GC) and the administrative block. Buses ply between the gate and other locations on campus at regular intervals. Named after mountains, the IITM buses and electric mini buses ply to and fro the GC, academic zone and hostels for a nominal fare.

IITM is rich in flora and fauna and there are large number of spotted deer, blackbucks and monkeys. There is a lake inside IITM, to where most of the the rainwater inside IIT drains. This lake was deepened in the year 2003 to increase it's capacity.

Organization

Administration

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras is an autonomous statutory organization functioning within the Institute of Technology Act. The seven IITs (others being at Kharagpur, Kanpur, New Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati and Roorkee ) are administered centrally by the IITs' Council, an apex body established by the Government of India. The Minister of Human Resource & Development, Government of India, is the Chairman of the Council. Each Institute has a Board of Governors responsible for its overall administration and control.

The Senate comprising all professors of the Institute decides the academic policy of the Institute. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results. It appoints committees to look into specific academic matters arising from time to time. The teaching, training and reseach activities of various departments of the Institute are periodically reviewed to improve faciliites and maintain standards. The Director of the Institute is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate.

There are three Senate Sub-Committees, namely, Board of Academic Research, Board of Academic Courses and Board of Students to help academic administration and efficient functioning of the Institute. The Finance Committee advises on all financial policy matters while the builiding and Works Committee advises on matters relating to buildings and works activities. In addition, the Board of Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research; and Library Advisory Committe advises on matters of industrial consultancy and library matters respectively.

Departments

• Engineering

• Pure Sciences

Academics

IIT Madras offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees in 15 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. Around 360 faculty of international repute belonging to various science and engineering disciplines are engaged in teaching, research and consultancy activities here.

The departments and centres of the Institute are responsible for the academic activities which include Teaching, Research and Industrial Counsultancy.

The courses of study are organized on semester programs and each semester provides for a minimum of seventy instructional days. The medium of instruction is English. Students are evaluated on a continuous basis throughout the semester. Evaluation is done by the faculty, a consequence of the autonomous status granted to the Institute. Research work is evaluated on the basis of the review thesis by peer examiners both from within the country and abroad. Ordinances in respect of the academic program of study are prepared by the senate, the

Undergraduate Academics

• Admission to Undergraduate Curriculum

JEE: The Joint Entrance Examination to the IITs is conducted every year and forms the basis of admission to the undergraduate programs. It is considered an extremely competitive exam.

• NCC/NSS/NSO

Graduate Academics

• Admission to Graduate Curriculum

GATE: The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is the entrance exam used to govern admission to post graduate engineering programs at the IITs.

Credit System

As with the other IITs, IITM follows a credit system for evaluating academic performance. The GPA is on a scale of 0 to 10.

Other Academic Activities

Academic Research Programs

The Institute has several departments and advanced research centres in various disciplines of engineering and the pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories organised on a unique pattern of functioning. A faculty of international repute, a brilliant student community, excellent technical and supporting staff and an effective administration have all contributed to the pre-eminent status of IIT Madras.

These relate to research work undertaken by individual faculty or specific research groups in each departmnent running academic programmes leading to M.S or Ph.D degree.Research is carried out by scholars admitted to the programmes of study by research under the guidance of the faculty in each department.

Areas of interest for each department is made known to the academic community through handbooks,brochures andbulletins. Topics of interest include the theoretical studies as well as experimental areas and the resources and facilities available in the different laboratories are used.

IIT Madras has initiated the following 16 inter-disciplinary research projects under the identified thrust areas.

The rigors of academic study at each level are balanced with a number of other related activities which include co-curricular activities. Special lectures on varied topic of academic relevance are held under the Extra Mural Lecture series.

A number of conferences, symposia and workshops are organized by the faculty which attract participation from scholars all over the world.

Partnership with Other Universities

The Institute maintains academic friendship with several other educational institutes in the world through faculty exchange programs. The Institute has signed Memoranda Of Understanding (MOUs) with several universities abroad, resulting in co-operative projects and assignments for mututal benefit.

The faculty of the Institute have distinguished themselves through awards for academic activity from national as well as international organizations.

Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research

IIT Madras has set a fine example of interaction with the industry in the country, through consultancy services offered by the faculty. Innovative ideas are put to practice in many projects sponsored by other institutions in India.

The academic atmosphere at the Institute is a rare blend of modern day technical skills and the traditional emphasis on imparting knowledge. The faculty as well as the students who have qualified from the Institute have always done the country proud through their outstanding achievements and leadership qualities.

Industrial Consultancy provides for faculty and staff of the institute to undertake specific assignments for the Industry, which may incude project design, testing and evaluation or even training in new areas of industrial development. Industries and organisations involved in the industrial development request IIT faculty to take up specific assignments channeled through the Center For Industrial Consultancy and sponsored Research (ICSR)

Organisation at the national level sponsor specific programs of research by funding projects undertaken by the faculty .Research of this kind is time bound but provides for those involved in the project to register for a degree. project proposals are usually prepared by IIT faculty and forwarded to various organisations based on the nature of research and the interest shown by Government / Research bodies to fund new projects.

Sponsored projects allow for new resources to be created in a department and often permit staff employed for the project to register for academic degrees in the institute.

All Sponsored Research activities in the institute are Coordinated by IC & SR

Student Activities

Hostels

Most students at IIT Madras live in the hostels, where a large number of extracurricular activities complement the hectic academic routine. The campus has 13 hostels, of which two (Sharavati and Sarayu) are exclusively occupied by girls. There's a new hostel that has come up, called Sindhu. Three more are under construction. There is a new Giga-mess that has come up now. It is intended to serve all the boy students. Hostels in IITM may accommodate undergraduate and/or graduate students, though they tend to keep the two separate. Students are assigned to hostels by the Institute Administration after their fresher year, and usually spend the entire period of their stay in the Institute in the same hostel.

IIT Madras hostels are named after the principal rivers of India, and the buses that ply the campus are named after mountains. As a result, a common epigram about IIT Madras is that it is the only place where the mountains move and the rivers remain still.

The hostels of IITM currently are:

• Bramhaputra
• Saraswati
• Sharavati
• Sarayu
• Sindhu

Three new hostels (Seven storeyed) are currently being constructed to accommodate an increasing influx of students. Pamba, Tamarabharani and Mahanadi are the names of these new hostels. The construction activity in other three hostels are in progress and is expected to get over by around April 2006.

Extracurricular Activities

• Saarang

• Shaastra

• Open Air Theatre (OAT)

The OAT is the venue for the weekly Saturday night Film Club movies and other activities. It can seat over 7000 people and usually plays to packed capacity.

• Campus magazines

• Male/female ratio

Due to the fact that it's predominantly an engineering university, IIT Madras has an adverse male/female ratio, especially amongst its undergrad population. The ratio is better in the sciences and humanities departments. The new Management Studies Department, that offers the coveted MBA degree, has a very healthy ratio of boys and girls - making it the envy of the undergrads and grads of IIT Madras.

• Lingo

Like other large institutions, IIT Madras has colorful slang that's unique to itself. An eclectic mix of English, Hindi and Tamil, the slang is also popular in other Chennai colleges.

• Students Activities Center (SAC)

• Sangam

• Canteens

The campus has a couple of food joints, frequented more perhaps by hostelites looking for a change from hostel mess food than the occasional visitor. The Gurunath Patisserie at the SFC (that's Students Facilities Center) is open from 0800hrs to 0000hrs on all days. There's also the Coffee shop near the girls' hostel, Sharavati.

The 'Quark' located between Godavari and Saraswati hostels is open from 6 pm to midnight. A variety of North Indian dishes are available at the DHABA EXPRESS outlet here.

Famous Alumni

• S. Gopalkrishnan (Founder, Managing director and COO of Infosys)
• Gururaj (Desh) Deshpande (Founder of Sycamore Networks)
• Dr Hari Balakrishnan
• Dr C. Mohan
• Dr Ramesh Govindan
• Dr Krishna Bharat
• Dr Anand Rajaraman
• Dr R Bharat Rao