IITs, IITians, and a Wish List
Posted : June 23, 2005 at 9:19 pm [IST]
IITs, IITians, and a Wish List
During last month, on occasion of the conference of Global IIT Alumni Conference in Washington, many articles appeared in media. As one of the alumni, I always get a kick from any news about IIT that I come across. I try to pass it on to my eldest son who again happens to be an IITian. Some of the information are interesting, so also some conclusions.
· IITs have produced roughly 1,40,000 graduates starting in 1951. IIT, Kharagpur was the first and only one, when I entered. Today, there are 7 now.
· 40,000 of IITians, some says 40% of the total are here in USA. Naturally, the out flux was much less in our days. It increased only after IITs started computer science departments.
· IITians have been the founders of some reputed companies such as Sun Microsystems, and Cirrus Logics.
· Many IITians have held the positions of CEO big US companies and global institutions such as McKinsey, US Airways, and IMF.
· OliverRyan in Fortune, June 13, 2005 reports- By some counts, theyve created 150,000jobs and $80 billion in market value.
· The US House of Representatives has unanimously adopted a resolution, which honors the economic innovation attributable to graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology, (IITs).
· The governors of Maryland and Virginia declared May as Indian American Heritage Month and IIT Graduate Month respectively.
· Scott Adams created Ashok, a brainiac IIT grad in his Dilbert comic strip.
· The IITians have certainly changed the world’s perceptions of India.
Are all these the result of its screening system? IITs impermeable admissions system screens some 2,500 every year from as many as 180,000 young boys and girls that go for its entrance examination system- an acceptance rate of less than 2 percent. By comparison, Harvard University accepted a record low 9.1 percent for its class of 2009. Is there some thing unique with the teaching system or curricula? How much is the contribution of the faculty? Are they the best in the country?
IIT Alumni Payback
Alumni in the country and abroad are alive and active to play a big role and payback to their institutions and in turn to the country.
Alumni wish to transform IITs from being just a leading institution to a truly great institution.
Alumni are trying to foster the manufacturing sector, because this is where India lags behind. Alumnimust come out with cutting edge products and a business model in manufacturing that brings a significant change. May be that Lord Kumar Bhattacharya and people like him can suggest a way out and provide the lead.
Alumni are encouraging people who are doing PhDs in US to go back and teach in India and help to build up a good faculty base.
Alumni are also helping to establish relationships between major research universities in the US and the IITs. Johns Hopkins people have signed an MOU with IITs for exchange of faculty and for some joint research together.
Alumni are also trying to sustain alumnis position in IT sector in USA by encouraging younger generation to join.
Alumni want to emphasize on the involvement of the alumni in fostering technology in education, in rural transformation, in trade between the US and India.
Alumni want to publish an IIT Review on the lines of MIT Tech Review.
Alumni wish to see IITs in league of Harvard and MIT in rankings.
What should be the priority of IITs? Should the institutes focus on nano-technology, genetics, and other cutting edge technologies? Or should they focus on finding ways and means to spread prosperity into villages and transform farming techniques?
A Wish list
IITs must work out a new positioning where entrepreneurial education is combined with world-class educational and research activity. Education must nurture and enhance the innovation and creativity among the students. IITs must develop as globalknowledge enterprises in real sense of the term on the line of Stanford, Berkeley, and University of Pennsylvania. National University of Singapore, and also the Chinese universities such as Peking, Tsinghua, and Fudan are emulating the same model.
High tech industries and startups with cutting edge technology must start developing around the IITs based on the advantages they foresee because of their proximity of IITs. The central and state governments may build Technology Park in vicinity. Global high tech companies may be invited to setup their R&D centers. IITs must emphasize more on teaching product design and research.
IITs must start the practice of teaching assistants and research assistants along with graduate assistants and on-the-campus jobs for their students. It will build confidence and create a dignity for labor. It may help in creating interest for joining teaching profession or research work among the students. Interestingly, IITians develop as introverts.I wish the education program included ways and means to develop their soft skill and make them a little more extrovert.
While researches in cutting edge technologies are essential, IITs must devote some of its resources on the product research that gives the country a lead over others. IITs must develop very close links of the industries in the region and help them with their research and development input or even with some critical problem solutions to make them globally competitive or superior.
As Chennais Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala is already showing the way out, the other IITs also should help with uniquesolutions to rural development. Department such as agricultural engineering can come out with cheaper and reliable equipment that can establish home based business for cultivators. Department of mechanical engineering can research on clean power generation, effective windmills, and solar plates. IITs must help our industries to develop as competitive India with new or better products at cheaper cost by allocating a part of its resources the research in this direction.
I wish someone takes a lead and publish a magazine, may be monthly, that caries the stories of the professional institutes only- their achievements, their plans, and their failures too. The objective of the magazines must be to let the common people of the country know what are the contributions of the best brains of the country.
I am sure all the IITs as well other research institutions must have developed a networking to avoid duplication and to achieve the best of synergy of the resources. If it does not exit, it should come up soon.
I wish to see them as big and as reputed as Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and MIT and that also in my lifetime. At least, twenty institutions including all IITs, IISc, IIMs, BITS, and some more, must appear in the list of 100 best educational institutes of the world. And the nearest institutes of repute transform Gauhati, Kharagpur, Pilani, Dehradoon, and Kanpur into mini-silicon-valleys. I am only 66this August. Am I dreaming or expecting too much?
Any one can contact with me on irsharma@drishtikona.com
IITs, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Gauhati, Roorkee and IIT Resource Centre
- Indra
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