Shri.Azim Premji said outstanding colleagues over the past 40 years

Shri.Azim Premji said outstanding colleagues over the past 40 years have been alumni from this esteemed institute

07.11.2020:National Institute of Technology – Tiruchirappalli has organised its XVI convocation on 7th November 2020 at Barn Hall. This is the first ever E-Convocation, where the 53rd graduating Batch of the Institute comprising 1777 (One thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven) graduates have received their degrees.  This has showcased the power of human resilience amidst the pandemic situation.

The Chairperson, Board of Governors of the Institute,Shri Bhaskar Bhat has inaugurated the convocation, welcoming the chief guest Padma Vibhushan Shri. Azim Premji and complimenting the Director Mini Thomas for her inspiring long term plan. He has commended her team of excellent faculty members and staff for rising to the occasion and conducting classes and helping the students cross the proverbial tape of graduation and producing well rounded future Indian citizens to the world of technical education. He congratulated the graduates and their parents, to be a part of this historical event, as it is a unique tale to be passed on to their children and grandchildren.

 

 

Dr. Mini Shaji Thomas, the Director of NIT, Tiruchirappalli has presented her annual report, welcoming the gathering, greeting the graduands receiving the degree and felt honoured in welcoming the
chief guest Shri. Azim Premji, the Founder Chairman of Wipro. She has highlighted the accomplishments of NIT-Trichy, retaining the No.1 position among all the NITs, moving to 9th position in the Engineering category in the NIRF India Rankings 2020. She said that the Institute has improved on all the NIRF parameters and in the last 3 years, the overall score has improved from 59.44 to 64.1, with substantial improvements in Teaching Learning Resources (62 to 72.1) Research and Professional Practice (46.1 to 50.1) and in perception (43.1 to 63.7). In the overall category, 24th position is retained on par with renowned universities.  The Institute is part of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) and a Supercomputer is installed at an investment of Rs. 19 Crores. The MOU with CDAC has been signed on 12th October 2020.  An exclusive Innovation Facilitation Centre is set up by the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and is inaugurated on 26th Oct 2020. NIT-T is appointed the National MOOCs coordinator for UG and PG Engineering programs by the Ministry of Education.  A new Centre of Artificial Intelligence, IOT and Intelligent machines is inaugurated recently. The Centres of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing and Automation, Energy Harvesting and Storage Technology, Interdisciplinary research labs in Electronics System Design Calibration & testing and Particulate emission from combustion and industrial processes are being commissioned, to the tune of Rs. 15 crores to promote interdisciplinary research.

She has enumerated the Publications in Web of Science journals in 2019 as 768 (3. 23 per Faculty) with 12050 citations and in Scopus indexed journals as 1160 (4.83 per faculty) with 16, 614 citations, an increase of 35% publications with 73% of publications in Q1 and Q2 quartiles indicating the superior quality of publications. In the last financial year, 40 Sponsored projects have been awarded amounting to Rs. 34 Crores, including a DST FIST project of Rs. 2.4 Crores for the Department of Chemistry. Consultancy revenue has increased to Rs. 6 

Crores due to the untiring and consistent efforts of the faculty and to the CoE in Manufacturing. ISRO Space Technology Innovation Centre has executed 6 projects to the tune of 1.6 Crores. The Institute has published 26 Patents and 4 have been granted last year, which is a significant leap in the history of our Institute. The ties with Industry and sister Institutions have been made stronger, with signing of MoUs with IIT Delhi, MSME, NRDC, C-DAC, Tata Steel, Texas Instruments, Micron, Nvidia, Tamil Nadu National Law University and CPRI taking the total number of active MoUs to 82. In line with National Education Policy (NEP 2020), three new PG programmes, M.A.English (Language and Literature), M. Tech. in Geotechnical Engineering and M. Tech (Industrial Automation) have been introduced this year, taking the total number of programs to 10 UG, 31 PG, MS and Ph D. 68 new Faculty members have been recruited recently during the Pandemic, including 21 Women faculty adding geographical and cultural diversity to the Campus community.

On Congratulating the graduates, the chief guest Shri.Azim Premji has communicated that ‘Education and Learning’ is a life-long process and the young graduates must take charge of their education.  He felt happy to announce that most of his outstanding colleagues over the past 40 years have been alumni from this esteemed institute. He added that this pandemic has taught him to re-learn his 55 years of working life and he shared his experience giving 5 significant tips as lessons to the graduates. First, the ability to think critically, to ask questions/and to be open minded, are absolutely central to dealing with anything in life successfully. It is only through critical thinking capacities that one can actually grasp reality as it is, not as one wishes it to be. And understanding the reality is the basis for dealing with any situation big or small. Second, there is no substitute for hard work, commitment and tenacity that eventually make the most difference in life. The indicator is thousands of people who have worked 24/7 for the past 7 months at great risk to their lives.

Third, each one of us must understand and recognize that we live with fellow human beings. At the core of this living together is a sense of solidarity and empathy in this hour of crisis. This empathy and sense of solidarity makes us human and makes a society function and grow. Fourth, the most important lesson of his life, that truth and integrity are the foundation of everything. In the absence of integrity everything falls apart. He is confident that things will finally fall into place, if we possess truth and integrity in all our actions. Fifth, this pandemic crisis has showcased the stark inequality and injustice that millions of our fellow citizens face and live in our country. But it has also shown us that millions have the courage and generosity of spirit to battle the toughest of circumstances. So the challenge lies in the hands of this younger generation, to mobilize courage and spirit collectively and ameliorate injustice and inequality, and truly change our country. He urged the graduates to become ‘Leaders of Change’ for this country, so that the change would truly enable a just, equitable, and humane society.

The Director, NIT-T conferred the degrees to 1777 students, a record number compared to previous years.  This include 9 B. Tech. programmes (803), B. Arch. (38), M. Arch.(17), M. Tech.(489), M.Sc.(67), MCA(85), MBA(72) and MS(33) graduates.  The Ph.D Graduation has increased to 173 from 98 last year, an increase of  76% over 15 months, including an 81-year-old Doctor, G. Ganapathy, who worked on ‘application of Machine learning algorithms for healthcare’.The prestigious President’s Medal for overall highest CGPA is shared by L. Yeshanth of B.Tech, Electronics and Communication Engineering and K.S. Sridharsan of B. Tech. Mechanical Engineering, with a CGPA of 9.84. Adding feather to the cap, our students have been awarded notable fellowships like, 2 Prime Ministers Research Fellowship (PMRF), 3 Cargill Fellowships, 10 DAAD, 47 MITACS, and 20 Deity Scholarships. She congratulated all the graduates of the second batch graduating through the flexible curriculum. Out of the 841 UG students, 632 students have received degrees for Minors and 72 students have graduated with honors.The Institute has attracted 230 top notch companies-comparable
for placement this year. The UG and PG Placements are at 92%, and 87% respectively, which are among the highest in the country, despite the pandemic driven slowdown.