IIT Guwahati holds 24th convocation ceremony, awards 1,620 degrees

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati held its 24th convocation ceremony on June 17. A total of 1,620 students, including 1431 boys and 189 girls, received their degrees in various disciplines.

Gaurang Ramakanth Kane (B Tech, Engineering Physics) achieved the highest score in the entire Bachelor of Technology (BTech) and Bachelor of Design (BDes) batch while Akshita Jain (BTech, Chemical Engineering) won the Shankar Dayal Sharma Gold Medal.

The graduating students include 697 from BTech and BDes, 470 from MTech and MDes, 253 PhD students and 196 Master's degree students. Along with this, three students were awarded dual degrees of MS and PhD.

Jagdish Mukhi, governor of Assam, graced the occasion as chief guest along with Rahul Mehta, founder, Mehta Family Foundation in Houston, USA as the guest of honour.

Presenting the convocation report, T G Sitharam, director and professor, IIT Guwahati, said, "I would like to start with congratulating all the graduating students and their family members for the hard work and sacrifices. The faculty members, research staff and scholars are highly appreciated for their immense contribution to realise this rise in research citations. I am hoping that we will continue this trend of improvement which has resulted in IIT Guwahati securing high rank in the recently announced QS Ranking 2023 where it has secured 37^th rank globally (41^st in 2022) in the 'Research citations per faculty’ category and rank 384 in World University Ranking globally."

In the 28 years of its existence, more than 18,520 students have graduated from IIT Guwahati.

Speaking on the occasion, Mukhi, said, “In close to three decades, IIT Guwahati has become known for its environment of academic experience in the entire country with its quality technical education. The institution has produced globally competitive human resource and carried out research that has significantly benefited the society. This shows the social commitment of this institute. The Alumni produced by IIT Guwahati comprise engineers, entrepreneurs, and technologists who have helped in building new India."

By implementing NEP 2020 policies, IIT Guwahati is moving ahead by embracing the rising demands of interdisciplinary research areas and technology development, including offering courses in futuristic areas, providing a thrust to the start-up culture, entrepreneurship at all levels and creation of jobs in the North East.

Addressing the students, Mehta advised them to express gratitude to their parents for all the sacrifices they have made in this memorable journey. He also shared his entrepreneurial journey and suggested to the students that if you want to achieve your full potential, develop your whole person. A well-rounded person is a happier, more productive, and more fulfilled person. Be a “life-long learner”, was his message to the graduating students.

This year, IIT Guwahati commenced its academic activities at the newly-initiated School of Business and will soon be admitting the first batch of students at its flagship programme, the Masters of Business Administration (MBA).

IIT Guwahati has 322 research projects in progress with a total sanctioned value of an approximate Rs. 478.55 crore. This year, a total of 128 new projects with a sanctioned value of Rs 136.62 crore were sanctioned with different funding agencies, including the Department of Higher Education (DHE), the Departments of Science and Technology (DST) and Biotechnology (DBT), the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).