As many as 523 students have graduated from the International Institute of Information Technology (IIITH) at the 20th convocation held online on Saturday. As many as 18 PhD students and 118 students in Masters with thesis have also received their certificates. Out of the 523 students that have graduated, 135 are Under Graduates, 270 Post Graduate students.
The Covid-19 pandemic has not affected placements at the institute. A total of 93 companies registered for conducting placements and made job offers to IIITH’s graduating students. “The past academic year was unique due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The institute continued to teach all its courses online using the best practices and technological tools available,” P J Narayanan, Director of IIITH, has said.
Valuable lessons
Aadilmehdi J Sanchawala, BTech (Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), has received a gold medal in recognition of his outstanding academic performance. The BTech Best All-rounder award was presented to Vakada Lakshmi Sireesha (dual degree in CSE) and Aashna Jena Dual Degree in Computation Linguistics.
In his eConvocation address, Yosuha Bengio, University of Montreal and Mila (Quebec AI Institute), asked the graduates “to give meaning to their lives by helping society with their expertise and helping the next generation of researchers to bloom.”
“The world is going through unprecedented challenges right in front of our eyes. This is truly an opportunity to apply the knowledge, skills, and attitude gained at the institute to alleviate the problems of the world in multiple ways,” P J Narayanan said.
New initiatives
During the year, the institute started two new initiatives aimed at applying its research strengths to societal problems. It started INAI to integrate AI research with population-scale problems in the country, combining research and translation. The second initiative is a Centre for Technology in Service of the Society to “celebrate and amplify institute founder Raj Reddy’s passion in education and research for marginalised sections of society.”