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The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
technical university An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...
located in
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
,
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. It is one of the eight public
Institutes of Eminence Institutions of Eminence (IoE) is a recognition status set up in 2017 for higher education institutes in India, by the University Grants Commission. Recognised institutions are granted more autonomy, both administratively and academically, are ...
of India. As an
Indian Institute of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are a network of engineering and technology institutions in India. Established in 1950, they are under the purview of the Ministry of Education of the Indian Government and are governed by the Instit ...
(IIT), IIT Madras is also recognized as an
Institute of National Importance In India, an Institution of National Importance (INI) refers to a premier public higher education institution granted special status by an act of the Parliament of India. Such institutions are recognized for their pivotal role in developing high ...
. Founded in 1959 with technical, academic and financial assistance from the then government of
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, IITM was the third Indian Institute of Technology established by the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
. IIT Madras has consistently ranked as the best engineering institute in India by the
Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
's
National Institutional Ranking Framework National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministr ...
(NIRF) since the ranking's inception in 2016.


History

In 1956, the
West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...
Government rendered technical assistance to establish a state-of-the-art engineering institute in India. Soon, the first Indo-German agreement was signed in
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, West Germany in 1959 for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras (now Chennai). IIT Madras was started with technical, academic and financial assistance from the Government of
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
and was at the time the largest international educational project sponsored by the West German government. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has agreed to provide the following assistance in the establishment of a higher technological institute at Madras: * A workshop, laboratory equipment, and a library whose total value does not exceed
The Indian rupee sign ⟨₹⟩ is the currency symbol for the Indian rupee (ISO 4217: INR), the official currency of India. Designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 July 2010, following its ...
1.8
crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...
(equivalent to ₹166 crores or $20 million in 2024) . * Twenty German professors to serve at the institute for a period of four to five years * Four German foremen for the workshops of the institute for two years * Facilities for the training of twenty Indian teachers in German institutions 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 programme and Humboldt Fellowships still exist. The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras started functioning with the first batch of 120 students being admitted in July 1959 to the first year of the Engineering Course. The institute was inaugurated in 1959, by the then Union Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs. The first batch had an overall strength of 120 students from across India. In 1961, the IITs were declared to be
Institutes of National Importance In India, an Institution of National Importance (INI) refers to a premier public higher education institution granted special status by an act of the Parliament of India. Such institutions are recognized for their pivotal role in developing high ...
. The first convocation ceremony was held on 11 July 1964, with Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, then the president of India, delivering the convocation address and awarding the degrees to the inaugural batch of students. The institute got its first women students in the BTech batch of 1966. IIT Madras celebrated its
Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali language, ...
in 2009, and its
Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...
in 2019.


Campus

The main entrance of IIT Madras is on Sardar Patel Road, flanked by the residential districts of Adyar and
Velachery Velachery is a neighborhood of Chennai. It is located in the southern part of the Chennai city sharing borders with Guindy in the north, Taramani in the east, Perungudi in the south-east, Pallikaranai wetland, Pallikaranai in the south, Madipa ...
. The campus is close to the
Raj Bhavan Raj Bhavan () is the common name of the official residences of the governors of the states of India and may refer to: List of Raj Bhavan See also * Raj Niwas *Rashtrapati Ashiana *Rashtrapati Bhavan *Rashtrapati Nilayam Rashtrapati Nilaya ...
, the official residence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu. Other entrances are located in Velachery (near Anna Garden MTC bus stop, Velachery Main Road), Gandhi Road and
Taramani Tharamani is an area in the south Indian city of Chennai. It is known for the presence of the city's first IT parks and numerous government educational and research institutions. It is located adjacent to the posh residential area of Adyar an ...
gate (close to Ascendas Tech Park). The campus is located from the
Chennai Airport Chennai International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. It is located in Tirusulam in Chengalpattu district, in the Greater Chennai Metropolitan Area around southwest of the ...
, from the
Chennai Central Railway station Chennai Central (officially Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station, formerly Madras Central) (station code: MAS), is an NSG–1 category Indian railway station in Chennai railway division of Southern Railway zone. ...
, and is connected by city buses. Kasturba Nagar is the nearest station on the
Chennai MRTS The Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System, commonly referred to as Chennai MRTS, is a metropolitan rail transit system in Chennai, India. It is operated by Southern Railway of the state-owned Indian Railways. Opened in 1995, it was the first elev ...
line. Two parallel roads, Bonn Avenue and Delhi Avenue, cut through the faculty residential area before they meet at the Gajendra Circle, near the Administrative Block. Buses regularly ply between the Main Gate, Gajendra Circle, the Academic Zone, and the Hostel Zone. IIT Madras is the first IIT in India to set up an offshore campus in
Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
in Africa as part of the Central government's IIT expansion plans abroad. In July 2023, education officials of India and Tanzania said that an IIT Madras satellite campus in the Tanzanian autonomous territory of
Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...
would begin offering classes in October 2023 and this has started functioning as announced. IITM - Zanzibar is also the first IIT to have a Woman Director - the Director of the Tanzania Campus is Prof. Preeti Aghalayam. This progressive IIT is now, all set to establish its second international campus in Sri Lanka.


Student Hostels

Most students at IIT Madras reside in hostels, where extracurricular activities complement the academic routine. The campus has 21 hostels, of which, six, Sabarmati, Sarayu, Sharavati, Swarnamukhi and the convertible Tunga - Bhadra are currently exclusively for women. In earlier times, each hostel had attached dining facilities but all of them have been closed down starting around 2010. Dining facilities are provided in three centralised halls: Nilgiri, Vindhya and Himalaya. Recently (2023) a new mess has been opened in the old Cauvery hostel mess for Jain food. Students are assigned to hostels upon
matriculation Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used no ...
, where they usually reside for the entire duration of their course of study. The hostels of IITM are: * International hostel under construction, name to be announced Mandakini, Sindhu, Pampa, Mahanadhi and Tamiraparani are seven-storeyed whereas all the other hostels are three or four-storeyed. The latter four hostels can accommodate more than 1,200 students. The older hostels were all three-storeyed till the early 2000s when extra rooms were added. An additional new floor in the three-storeyed hostels which generally house the undergraduate students and a new block in place of the mess halls of these hostels have been constructed to accommodate for the increased intake of the students. These new blocks could be used as entrances for these hostels. As of 2022, old Mandakini has been demolished and a new multi-storey block opened, with provision to accommodate approximately 1200 students.


Facilities

IIT Madras provides residential accommodation for its students, faculty, administrative and supporting staff, and their families. The residential houses employ private caterers. The self-contained campus includes two schools ( Vanavani and
Kendriya Vidyalaya The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan () is a system of Government of India, central government schools in India. Governed by the Ministry of Education (India), Ministry of Education, Government of India. , it has a total of 1,257 schools in India, ...
), three temples (Jalakanteshwara, Durga Peliamman and Ganapathi), three bank branches ( SBI,
ICICI ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian Multinational Corporation, multinational bank and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai with a registered office in Vadodara. It offers a wide range of banking and financial services for corporate a ...
,
Canara Bank Canara Bank is an Indian public sector bank based in Bangalore, India. Established in 1906 at Mangalore by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai. The bank was nationalized in 1969. Canara Bank also has offices in London, Dubai and New York. History Amm ...
), a hospital, shopping centres, food shops, a gym, sleeping room and cricket, football, hockey and badminton stadiums. Internet is available in the academic zone and the faculty and staff residential zone. Earlier Internet was limited in the hostel zone from 2:00 pm to midnight and from 5:00 am to 8:00 am, but increasing demand during the academic semester led to round-the-clock Internet service. IIT Madras also has
supercomputing A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
capability, with the
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
Virgo Super Cluster with 97
teraflops Floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance in computing, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate measu ...
worth of computational power.


Organisation and administration


Governance

IIT Madras is an autonomous statutory organisation functioning within the Institutes of Technology Act. The twenty-three IITs are administered centrally by the IIT Council, an apex body established by the Government of India. The Minister of Human Resources and Development is the chairman of the council. Each institute has a board of governors responsible for its administration and control. The finance committee advises on matters of financial policy, while the Building and Works Committee advises on buildings and infrastructure. The Senate comprises all professors of the institute and decides its academic policy. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations, and results. It appoints committees to examine specific academic matters. The director of the institute serves as the chairman of the Senate. The current director (appointed in 2022) is Kamakoti Veezhinathan, who obtained his Ph.D. and M.S in CSE from IIT Madras. Three Senate Sub-Committees – The Board of Academic Research, The Board of Academic Courses and The Board of Students – help in academic administration and the operations of the institute. The Board of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research addresses industrial consultancy and the Library Advisory Committee oversees library matters.


Departments

IIT Madras has the following departments *
Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
* Applied Mechanics and
Biomedical Engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...
* Biotechnology(Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences) *
Chemical Engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...
*
Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
*
Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
*
Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', whi ...
* Data Science and Artificial Intelligence * Electrical Engineering (EE) *
Engineering Design The engineering design process, also known as the engineering method, is a common series of steps that engineers use in creating functional products and processes. The process is highly iterative – parts of the process often need to be repeat ...
* Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) * Management Studies (DoMS) * Mathematics (MA) * Mechanical Engineering (ME)
Medical Science and Technology (MST)
*
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the s ...
*
Ocean Engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circ ...
*
Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...


Academics

IIT Madras offers
undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...
,
postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
and research degrees across 18 disciplines in Engineering, Science, Humanities and Management. About 600 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy. The institute has 18 academic departments and advanced research centres across disciplines of engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories. The academic calendar is organised around the semester. Each semester provides a minimum of seventy days of instruction in English. Students are evaluated continuously throughout the semester. Evaluation is done by the faculty, a consequence of the autonomous status granted to the institute. Research work is evaluated based on the review thesis by peer examiners both from within the country and abroad. Ordinances that govern the academic programme of study are prepared by the Senate, the highest academic body within the institute. IITM is also gearing up to launch a new and completely online BEd degree programme in Maths and Computing to improve maths teaching in schools, as said by the director at the G20 seminar at IIT Madras.


Grading System and Student Evaluation

The
Indian Institutes of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are a network of engineering and technology institutions in India. Established in 1950, they are under the purview of the Ministry of Education of the Indian Government and are governed by the Inst ...
have strict rules for grading. Depending on the course the evaluation is based on participation in class, attendance, quizzes, exams and/or papers. Continuous evaluation is done by course instructors. The Evaluation System of IIT Madras which is also used in other IITs is the Cumulative Grade Point Average with a scale from 0 to 10 which is converted to letters: CGPA then gets calculated as the cumulative credit-weighted average of the grade points: CGPA = (Σ Ci • GPi) / (Σ Ci) where: N is the number of courses Ci is credits for the ith course GPi is grade points for the ith course CGPA is the cumulative grade point average The CGPA is not the same as the one commonly used in the United States. In India, some credits might be awarded during Bachelor studies for Co-curricular and Extra-curricular Activities, while during the Master's Programme, this is not allowed. Through agreements with numerous international organisations, IIT grades are accepted by many international organisations like NTU, NUS and DAAD. Additionally, the attendance of the students is evaluated with VG for very good (always present), G for good (not present every lecture), M for marginal (less than 85%) and P for poor (student was present less than 75% of lectures).


Admission tests

For the undergraduate curriculum, admission to the
BTech A Bachelor of Technology (BTech) is an undergraduate degree that is awarded for a higher education program in engineering. Countries Australia In Australia, the Bachelor of Technology degree is offered by RMIT University, Edith Cowan Univ ...
and Dual Degree (BSc + MSc or BTech + MTech) programme is done through the
Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced The Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced (JEE-Advanced) (formerly the Indian Institute of Technology – Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE)) is an academic examination held annually in India that tests the skills and knowledge of the ap ...
(JEE-Advanced). IIT Madras conducted
JEE Advanced The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is an engineering entrance assessment conducted for admission to various engineering colleges in India. It comprises two different examinations: the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced. The Joint Seat Allocat ...
in 2017 and 2024. However, admissions to the BS Chemistry and BS Medical Sciences and Technology courses alone will not be through JEE advanced but will be done on the basis of the rank obtained in IAT. Admissions to the 4-year BS degree programme for in Data Science and Applications are done through 2 channels: JEE and their own entrance test called the Qualifier exam. In 2025, IIT Madras introduced a new admission process for undergraduate programs, allowing students who have excelled in national and international Olympiads to secure seats without a JEE score. Moreover, they have also introducted a sports quota and fine arts and cultural excellence quota through which a candidate with national level achievements in various sports and cultural fields can apply for admission, after having qualified for JEE advanced. For the postgraduate curriculum, admission to the
MTech A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, ME, M.E. or M.Eng.) is a professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research degree requiring com ...
and MS programmes are through the
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an Entrance examination (education), entrance examination conducted in India for admission to technical Postgraduate education, postgraduate programs that tests the undergraduate subjects of e ...
(GATE); after 2022, with the discontinuation of 5 year integrated MA program and the same becoming a 2-year PG program, admissions is through GATE for the MA program also. The Joint Admission Test to MSc (JAM) is the entrance exam for the two-year MSc programme, and other post BSc programmes.
MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...
candidates are accepted through the
Common Admission Test The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a computer based test for admission in graduate management programs. The test consists of three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative ...
(CAT).


Academic research programmes

The institute has departments and advanced research centres across the disciplines of engineering and the pure sciences, and nearly 100 laboratories. Research programmes concern work undertaken by faculty members or specific research groups within departments that award an MS or PhD degree. Research is carried out by scholars admitted into these departmental programmes, under the guidance of their faculty. Each department makes known its areas of interest to the academic community through handbooks, brochures and bulletins. Topics of interest may be theoretical or experimental. IIT Madras has initiated 16 interdisciplinary research projects against identified focus areas.


Partnership with other universities

The institute maintains academic friendships with educational institutes around the world through faculty exchange programmes. The institute has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with foreign universities, resulting in cooperative projects and assignments. The list of partners includes
Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology ( AUT; ) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT is New Zealand's third largest university i ...
,
Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...
,
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
,
Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
,
University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...
and other prestigious universities around the world.


Rankings

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) was ranked 227 in the QS World University Rankings of 2025. Internationally, IIT Madras was ranked 227 in the
QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...
of 2024 and 74 in Asia. It was ranked 701–800 in the world by the
Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...
of 2022. IIT Madras was ranked 1st in the overall category, 2nd among research institutions, 1st among engineering colleges and 15th among management schools in India by the
National Institutional Ranking Framework National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministr ...
(NIRF) in 2024. ''
Outlook India ''Outlook'' is a weekly general interest English and Hindi news magazine published in India. History and profile ''Outlook'' was first issued in October 1995 with Vinod Mehta as the editor in chief. It is owned by the Rajan Raheja Group. Th ...
'' ranked IIT Madras 1st among government engineering colleges in 2022. IIT Madras BS in Data Science won Silver in the Wharton (
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
) - QS Reimagine Education Awards.


Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR)

Through industrial consultancy, faculty and staff undertake industry assignments that may include project design, testing and evaluation, or training in new areas of industrial development. Industries and organisations like the
Indian Ordnance Factories The Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination & Services) (abbreviated: DOO(C&S)) is an authority under the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government of India. Its primary work is to management, give instructio ...
, reach out to the IIT faculty to undertake assignments channelled through the Centre For Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR). National organisations sponsor programmes of research by funding projects undertaken by the faculty. Such research is time-bound and allows project participants to register for a degree. Project proposals are usually prepared by the IIT faculty and forwarded to interested organisations, based on the nature of their research and their interest to fund such projects. Sponsored projects are often vehicles for new resources within departments, and often permit their project staff to register for academic degrees in the institute. All sponsored research activities at the institute are coordinated by ICSR.


National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL)

To improve the quality of higher education in India, IIT Madras came up with an initiative called NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) in the year 2003. As per this initiative, all the IITs, along with the
IISc Bangalore The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 wi ...
would come up with a series of video lecture-based courses across all the streams of engineering. This initiative has gained wide popularity in India and the lectures are being used by several engineering students from across India. It is the largest online repository in the world of courses in engineering, basic sciences and selected humanities and social sciences subjects.


IITM Research Park

IITM Research Park is India's first university-based research park. The Research Park functions to promote innovation in established companies and provide a nurturing ecosystem to startups through incubation efforts and technical infrastructure. Following its success, 50 research parks were planned as part of the Start Up India initiative of the Central Government of India. Corporate clients of IIT Madras Research Park include the Defence Research and Development Organisation (
DRDO The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, headqu ...
),
Bharat Heavy Electricals Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking and the largest government-owned electrical/ industrial technology company. It is owned by the Government of India, with administrative control under ...
Limited,
Saint-Gobain Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris as the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs, and today headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a ...
and Forbes Marshall.
Ather Energy Ather Energy is an Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer headquartered in Bengaluru. It was founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013. It manufactures electric scooters including the Ather 450 series and Ather Rizta. It has EV man ...
, Hyperverge, Gyandata and Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre(Sponsored by
Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. ...
,
Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
) are some of the startups and centres incubated at the Research Park. The Research Park is a prime driver for the very large number of startups incubated at IIT Madras.


IOE-IITM Research Initiatives

As an Institute of Eminence, IITM has opened various research centres that include important domains like
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
and
data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...
s, big networks, complex systems, chemistry, earth sciences, math and cyber security, ocean technology, quantum science and technology and sensing and vision, etc.


Pravartak

IITM Pravartak is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, GOI, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, and it's hosted as a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) by IIT Madras. It focuses on Technology, Entrepreneurship and Human resource skill development through various initiatives. It provides hands-on programmes, and hybrid courses like Out of the Box Thinking in Maths, Winter School on Advanced Quantum Computing, Wireless Networks, Blockchains and others.


Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre

On 20 October 2023, the
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) is an executive agency of the Government of India, Union Government of the India, Republic of India. It was carved out of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (I ...
stated that the Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre (BSRC) would be established starting in 2024, working with professionals from the industry and academic institutions. Rajeev Chandrashekhar states that BSRC will function as the Indian counterpart of the MIT Microelectronics Laboratory, Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute,
Industrial Technology Research Institute The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI; ) is a technology research and development institution in Taiwan. It was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hsinchu, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, with branch offices in the United States, U.S., ...
, and
IMEC Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC; officially stylised as imec) is an international Research and development, research & development organization, active in the fields of nanoelectronics and Digital electronics, digital technologies ...
. The Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre will be located at IIT Madras. The centre will be established initially as an institution co-located with
Semi-Conductor Laboratory The Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL), Mohali is a research institute under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. SCL was formerly under the Department of Space. SCL's aims include research and development ( ...
, with the potential to split off into a stand-alone semiconductor research organization in the future.


Alumni and Corporate Relations


Initiatives and Engagement

The Office of Alumni and Corporate Relations initiates, promotes, and facilitates connections among the diverse network of IIT Madras alumni as well as corporations. Through collaborations, mentorship programs, and knowledge-sharing initiatives, the office contributes to the institute's progress and goals. The office fosters alumni engagement with the institute through various initiatives such as organising reunions across batches, recognising distinguished alumni, and ensuring that alumni stay in touch with developments at IIT Madras through newsletters and regular communications. It is currently headed by Prof.Mahesh Panchagnula from the Dept. of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras.


Collaborations with Corporations

The office has facilitated various technology-driven social impact collaborations with various corporations and corporate foundation arms, under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. Partnerships with both Alumni and corporations are undertaken through the Office of Institutional Advancement which functions as part of the Alumni and Corporate Relations office.


Modern and Advanced Courses


BS Degree in Data Science and Applications

The institute launched a 4-year full-time UG Bachelor of Science degree (BS) program i
Data Science and Applications
in 2020 with unique flexible exit options as per the NEP, which was earlier a virtual 3-year BSc degree programme in Programming and Data science. The 142-credit program consists of three levels - Foundation (32 credits), Diploma (54 credits), and Degree (56 credits). and a total of 36 theory courses and 4 project courses. The degree programme is currently being run in a hybrid mode with the course-wise best of the faculty members across India. The renowned faculty from the 1st year of this Data Science dept. include faculty Dr. Madhavan Mukund (Director, Chennai Mathematical Institute), Dr. Rajesh Kumar (Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras), Dr. Andrew Thangaraj (Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Madras), Sudarshan Iyengar (Associate Professor & HOD, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Ropar). The IIT Madras BS in DSA currently follows a Trimester academic system, where each academic year is divided into 3 terms each of 4 months duration: Jan-April (Winter), May-August (Spring) and Sept-Dec (Fall) The official IITM-approved societies and clubs under the BS in the DS branch include: the Ramanujan Society For Research (RaSoR), Pravaha (Dance society), Anime Society, Adhyay (civil services society), Raahat (Mental health and wellness society), Cosmos (Tech society), Erudite (Oratory society), Art Society, Sahityika (Literary society), Film Society, Heighters (esports club), WYZ Kids (Quiz club), Akord (Music society), Aayam (Drama society) and Shah Maat (Chess society) Students at IITM pursuing BS in DS get income-based (who have low family income) fee waivers each term. Also, students belonging to EWS, SC/ST, OBC and PwD categories get these waivers. Verizon India and L&T Technology Services provide scholarships to IIT Madras BS Degree Students. The programme has won Silver in the Wharton (
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
) - QS Reimagine Education Awards


BS Degree in Electronic Systems (ES)

IITM launched the 4-yr BS undergrad degree in Electronic Systems (ES) in March 2023 to meet the significant and growing demand for skilled graduates in the electronics and embedded systems sector in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. This programme would also run in hybrid mode. The faculty coordinators of this dept. include Dr Aniruddhan and Dr Boby George from the Dept. o
Electrical Engineering
at IITM. Students need to have Physics and Maths in class 12 as mandatory requirements to apply for the degree. Students can apply through the JEE channel or their own entrance or qualifier examination. Unlike the BS in DSA which follows a trimester curriculum, this will follow a semester system (2 semesters per year) with the same concept of 2 in-centre quizzes and an end-term exam in each semester. Keeping in line with the new NEP, IITM has provided the flexibility to exit earlier with a Foundation Certificate or Diploma. However, one needs to complete 142 credits to achieve the BS degree in ES.


IIT Madras Zanzibar Campus

IIT Madras established a new Campus in Zanzibar (Tanzania
IITM Zanzibar Campus
in July 2023 to provide quality education in Tanzania. IIT Madras is the first IIT to establish a campus outside India. Offered Degrees - # BS in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence # MTech in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence


Diploma Courses at IITM

IITM also offer
Diploma
in Programming and a Diploma in Data Science separately. Students who've completed a UG degree or have completed at least two years of an undergrad degree are eligible to sit for the DAD qualifier exam (duration: 3 hours for Diploma in programming and 4 hours for that of Data science) which serves as the entrance test for these programmes.


Research Centres


Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI (RBC DSAI)

The RBCDSAI was set up in 2017 with funding from the institute to encourage interdisciplinary research. In the last 5 years, it has grown to be the pre-eminent interdisciplinary research centre for Data Science and AI in India and is one of the country's largest groups in network analytics and deep reinforcement learning.


Centre for Responsible AI

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
has granted IIT Madras $1 million for setting up India's first multidisciplinary Centre for Responsible AI.


Centre for CyberSecurity Research (CyStar)

The Centre was set up in 2024 with the objectives of promoting research in the field of cybersecurity and protecting the national infrastructures from cyberattacks.


Center of Excellence in Fluid and Thermal Sciences

The Center of Excellence in Fluid and Thermal Sciences was established at IIT Madras with the help of the
Indian Space Research Organization The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...
(ISRO), which provided seed money of
The Indian rupee sign ⟨₹⟩ is the currency symbol for the Indian rupee (ISO 4217: INR), the official currency of India. Designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 July 2010, following its ...
1.84
crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...
. In terms of spacecraft design, analysis, and testing of different parts as well as thermal management, it will serve as a nodal centre. The centre will be an important ISRO research hub. The centre's advanced research initiatives will focus on cryo-tank thermodynamics, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and spacecraft thermal management.


Student activities


Festivals


E-Summit IIT Madras

E-Summit by the Entrepreneurship Cell E-Cell of IIT Madras is IITM's annual flagship event and the only ISO 9001:2015 certified entrepreneurship summit focusing on young entrepreneurs and their ventures.


Shaastra

Shaastra is the annual technical festival of IIT Madras. It is held in the second week of January and is an ISO 9001:2015 certified student organised festival. It consists of various engineering, science and technology competitions, summits, lectures, video conferences, exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops. The festival is traditionally held over four days and four nights during the first week of January. It has so far seen twenty-one editions, having started in its current avatar in the year 2000.


Saarang

Saarang is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a five-day-long event held in early January every year and attracts a crowd of 70,000 students and young people from across the country, making it the largest student-run fest in India. Saarang events include speaking, dancing, thespian, quizzing and word games, professional shows (nicknamed Proshows) and workshops on music, fashion, art, and dance.


Paradox

Paradox is the fest organised for the IIT Madras Bachelor of Science degree students. It is held 3 times a year. Paradox in Saavan and Paradox in Margazhi are held hybrid around August and December respectively and consist of various cultural, sports, professional events, hackathons. The main annual fest is held at the IITM campus. It's the biggest physical gathering of IITM Online BS students that happens in May every year, as the summer vacation for students begins.


Department festivals

Several departments organise department festivals. Samanvay, Biofest, ExeBit, Wavez, Mechanica, CEA Fest, ChemPlus, Amalgam and Forays are some of the festivals organised by the Department of Management Studies, Computer Science and Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and Maths departments respectively. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences hosts the Annual Academic Conference.


The Entrepreneurship Cell

The Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Madras believes that entrepreneurship is not just about starting companies and building businesses but a pathway towards India's socio-economic development. E-Cell was earlier known as C-TIDES and was rechristened in 2015 as the entrepreneur. E-Cell IIT Madras is an active non-profit, a completely student-run organisation to help encourage entrepreneurship.


Centre For Innovation (CFI)

Set up with funds donated by the batch of 1981. CFI was started in 2008 as a student-run lab for the creative output of the budding engineers of IIT Madras. It provides students with the necessary platform for realising their ideas. It houses 13 clubs and 7 competition teams, representing IIT Madras in various technical events. Summer School has been started by clubs to teach freshers popular topics during summer vacation. CFI houses the workspace of student teams such as Raftar Formula Racing, Team Anveshak, Mars rover team, Abhiyaan, autonomous vehicle team, Avishkar, hyperloop team, Team Abhyuday, rocketry team, Agnirath, solar car team and iGem. The annual flagship event of CFI, the Open House displays the projects of all CFI clubs, along with the works of the Competitive Teams.


Extra Mural Lectures (EML)

Launched in 1980 by a group of students with support from the then director of IIT Madras, the late Prof. P.V. Indiresan, the main aim of the Extra Mural Lectures series is to expose the IIT Madras community to the ideas and experiences of eminent personalities from diverse backgrounds. Over the years, lectures included the late former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Nobel Laureate The
14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935; full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso; ) is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served a ...
, Nobel Peace Laureate
Kailash Satyarthi Kailash Satyarthi (born 11 January 1954) is an Indian social reformers of India, social reformer who campaigned against child labor in India and advocated the universal right to education. In 2014, he was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace ...
, Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand, filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, Honorable Governor Shri. E.S.L. Narasimhan, Honorable Minister of Railways Shri.
Suresh Prabhu Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu (born 11 July 1953) is an Indian politician. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1996 to 2009, representing Rajapur in the Lok Sabha. He was also a member of the ''Rajya Sabha'', representing Andhra Pradesh ...
, current vice president of India Shri. M.Venkaiah Naidu, music composer
Ilayaraja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil in addition to Telugu, M ...
, co-founder of Infosys Shri.
Kris Gopalakrishnan Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan is an Indian businessman and the chairman of Axilor Ventures, a startup accelerator. He is one of the co-founders of Infosys, having served as its CEO and managing director from 2007 to 2011 and vice chairm ...
, Ambassador of Japan to India H.E. Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu, then defence secretary of India Mr. Ajay Kumar and ISRO chairman
S. Somanath Dr. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath (born July 1963) is an Indian Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer served as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, chairman of the ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Under hi ...
have been hosted at IIT Madras for Extra Mural Lectures, to motivate the students and broaden their perspectives.


Extracurricular activities

The Sustainability Network (S-Net) is an alumni-student-faculty initiative launched in May 2009 to help preserve the unique niche of one of the best educational campuses in India. S-Net was envisioned to work towards developing and deploying solutions for making a self-sustaining campus (focusing on energy/electricity, water, and waste management), which could eventually be replicated across the country through tie-ups with other educational institutions. The Fifth Estate is the official media body of IIT Madras and gives an insight into the happenings inside the campus and important news related to the institute. The Open Air Theatre hosts the weekly movie, a Saturday night tradition, besides other activities. It seats over 7,000. NSS in IIT Madras has been noted for taking up socially relevant initiatives, taken up as individual projects to create an impact on society as well as the students. The wing of NSS at IITM has over 400 students every year, contributing to the cause of the scheme. Since its inception, it has achieved many milestones in its history as a unique, student-run organisation. Linked with several NGOs and social organisations both within and outside Chennai. By working out projects from Braille magazines to technology interventions, from teaching children in urban slums to educational video content, NSS (IITM) seeks to challenge mediocre thinking and reach out into the darkness, to pull a hand into the light. Student bodies such as Vivekananda Study Circle (VSC), Islamic Study Circle, IIT Christian Fellowship, Genesis and Reflections focus on spiritual discussions. Regional groups include Marathi Mitra Mandal(MMM), Hindi Mitra Mandal(HMM), Karka Kasadara(Tamil), Kerala Kala Samithi(KKS), Garvi Gujarati Sangathan(GGS), Telugu Samskruthika Samithi and Kannada Samskrutika Sangh, North-east Students Association(SADINER), and African Students Association(AFSA) by students from African Continent. The campus has evolved a slang, called Insti Lingo, attracting a published Master's thesis at a German University. A mix of English, Hindi, Telugu (Gult), Malayalam (Mallu) and Tamil (Tam), aspects of the campus slang have been adopted by some other Chennai colleges. Unlike its sister institutions, IIT Madras has no single Indian language used among its students:
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
,
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
,
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
,
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
,
Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
and
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
are all very commonly used. All student participatory activities like debating, dramatics, short-film making, and others are held in English. This is even reflected in the slang that uses more English and other Indian regional languages than Hindi, unlike in IITM's northern counterparts. Prakriti Wildlife Club at IIT Madras was founded in April 2002 by students, faculty, staff, residents, and alumni who are wildlife enthusiasts.


IIT Madras Heritage Centre

The Heritage Centre was formally inaugurated by Dr Arcot Ramachandran, former Director IIT Madras on 3 March 2006. The centre is located on the ground floor of the administration building. The actual idea of a Heritage Centre was mooted in the year 2000 and has become a reality due to the efforts of the Professor-in-charge Dr Ajit Kumar Kolar and his team. The centre will function as a repository of material of heritage value and historical significance of various facets of the institute. The exhibits include photographs, documents, publications, paintings, portraits, products developed and other articles. Information regarding important events, laboratory development, visits of important dignitaries, Indo-German cooperative activities, and academic achievements of faculty and students also are included. Aspects of IITM campus features and development, campus life and student activities are also included, thus broadening the scope of the centre in the future to non-academic activities.


Controversies


Kiss of Love

Several members of the
Hindu Munnani Hindu Munnani is a right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation based in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Hindu Munnani was set up by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) The organisation was founded in 1980 by Ramagopalan, a member of RSS and sin ...
were arrested in November 2014 for organising a "spitting protest" outside the IIT-Madras after the institute played host to the ' Kiss of Love' campaign. The members of the group gathered and started spitting at the pictures of students kissing and hugging at the kiss of love campaign the past week. Additionally, they also hurled abuse at the students.


Beef Fest

In 2017, Beef fest was organised by some students from APSC to protest against the central government's ban on cow slaughter. Events turned violent when a PhD student was attacked in student mess by some right-wing students. The student sustained injuries and had to be admitted to the hospital. IIT Madras had to release an official statement and a petition was filed in High Court to set up a peacekeeping committee. In June 2023, High Court disposed the petition.


Notable alumni

*
Aravind Srinivas Aravind Srinivas (born 7 June 1994) is an Indian-American computer scientist and entrepreneur, best known as the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence company specializing in conversational search technologies. Early ...
, CEO and Co-founder, Perplexity AI *
Arumugam Manthiram Arumugam Manthiram (; born March 15, 1951) is an Indian-American materials scientist and engineer, best known for his identification of the polyanion class of lithium-ion battery cathodes, understanding of how chemical instability limits the capa ...
, director, Texas Materials Institute, Professor of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
*
Anand Rajaraman Anand Rajaraman is a Web and technology entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Cambrian Ventures and Kosmix. Rajaraman also co-founded former Junglee Corp. and played a significant role at Amazon.com in the late 1990s. Personal life and educati ...
, founder of Junglee; currently heading Kosmix.com with Venky Harinarayan *
Anant Agarwal Anant Agarwal is an Indian computer architecture researcher. He is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he led the development of Alewife, an early cache coher ...
, professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
*
Anima Anandkumar Animashree (Anima) Anandkumar is the Bren Professor of Computing at California Institute of Technology. Previously, she was a senior director of Machine learning, Machine Learning research at Nvidia, NVIDIA and a principal scientist at Amazon Web ...
, Bren Professor of Computing at
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
. She is a director of Machine Learning research at
NVIDIA Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...
. *
Arun Sundararajan Arun Sundararajan (Tamil: அருண் சுந்தர்ராஜன்) (born in the United Kingdom) is the Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Technology, Operations, and Statistics at the Stern School of Busi ...
, professor at Stern School of Business,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
* Atul Chokshi, materials engineer,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate * B. N. Suresh, director of
IIST Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) is a government-aided institute and deemed university for the study and research of space science in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. IIST was set up in 2007 by the Indian Space Researc ...
* B. Muthuraman, managing Director of
Tata Steel Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with its primary operations based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group. Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel ...
* Balaji Sampath, founder of Ahaguru *
Bhaskar Ramamurthi Bhaskar Ramamurthi is an Indian academic who served as the director of Indian Institute of Technology Madras from 2011 to 2022. He succeeded M. S. Ananth and was succeeded by Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan. Career Bhaskar Ramamurthi obtained his B ...
, director, IIT Madras (20112022) *
Gururaj Deshpande Gururaj Deshpande ("Desh" Deshpande) is an Indian American venture capitalist and entrepreneur, who is best known for co-founding the Chelmsford, MA-based internet equipment manufacturer Sycamore Networks,T. V. Rajan Babu, professor of chemistry at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
* G. K. Ananthasuresh, professor at
Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...
*
Hari Balakrishnan Hari Balakrishnan is the Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and the Co-founder and CTO at Cambridge Mobile Telematics. Early life and care ...
, Fujitsu Chair Professor in the EECS Department at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
* Jai Menon, IBM Fellow, CTO and VP, Technical Strategy – IBM Systems and Technology Group *
B. Jayant Baliga Bantval Jayant Baliga (born in Chennai) is an Indian electrical engineer best known for his work in power semiconductor devices, and particularly the invention of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). In 1993, Baliga was elected as a ...
, inventor of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (
IGBT An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily forming an electronic switch. It was developed to combine high efficiency with fast switching. It consists of four alternating layers (NPNP) that ...
) * Jayaraman Chandrasekhar, computational chemist,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate *
Kris Gopalakrishnan Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan is an Indian businessman and the chairman of Axilor Ventures, a startup accelerator. He is one of the co-founders of Infosys, having served as its CEO and managing director from 2007 to 2011 and vice chairm ...
, co-chairman and co-founder of
Infosys Infosys Limited is an Indian multinational corporation, multinational technology company that offers business consulting, information technology, and outsourcing services. Founded in 1981 in Pune, the company is headquartered in Bengaluru. On ...
*
Krishna Bharat Krishna Bharat (born 7 January 1970) is an Indian research scientist at Google Inc. He was formerly a founding adviser for Grokstyle Inc. a visual search company and Laserlike Inc., an interest search engine startup based on Machine Learning. ...
, creator of
Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google ...
, principal scientist,
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
* L. Mahadevan, FRS, de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Physics and Biology,
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals workin ...
2009 *
K. Mani Chandy Kanianthra Mani Chandy (born 25 October 1944) is the Simon Ramo Professor of Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He has been the Executive Officer of the Computer Science Department twice, and he has been a pr ...
, former chair of Engineering and Applied Science at
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
* Marti G. Subrahmanyam, professor of finance,
Stern School of Business The Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also NYU Stern, Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business schools, business school of New York University, a private university, private research university based in New York City. Founded ...
at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
*
Murali Sastry Murali Sastry (born 10 June 1959) is an Indian material chemist, nanomaterial scientist and the chief executive officer of the IITB-Monash Research Academy. He is a former chief scientist at Tata Chemicals and a former senior scientist at th ...
, nanotechnologist,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate * Mas Subramanian, Milton Harris Chair Professor of Materials Chemistry at Oregon State University * Narayanan Chandrakumar, chemical physicist,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate *
Neelesh B. Mehta Neelesh B. Mehta is an Indian communications engineer, inventor and a professor at the Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science who studies wireless networks. Biography Neelesh Mehtha was born ...
, communications engineer,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate *
Prabhakar Raghavan Prabhakar Raghavan is a computer scientist and the Chief Technologist at Google. His research spans algorithms, web search and databases. He is the co-author of the textbooks ''Randomized Algorithms'' with Rajeev Motwani and ''Introduction to Info ...
, vice president of Engineering,
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
and Consulting Professor at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
* R. Prasanna, guitarist and Carnatic musician * Pinaki Majumdar, condensed matter physicist,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate *
Prem Watsa Prem Watsa (born 5 August 1950) is an Indian-Canadian billionaire businessman who is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, based in Toronto. Early life and education Watsa was born in Hyderabad, India. He ...
, billionaire; founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, which owns
BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
*
Radha Vembu Radha Vembu (born 1972/1973) is an Indian billionaire businesswoman and the owner of a majority stake in Zoho Corporation, an Indian software development company. Early life Vembu has a degree in industrial management from the Indian Insti ...
, co-founder,
Zoho Corporation Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes computer software and web-based business tools. It is best known for the online office suite offering Zoho Office Suite. The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar V ...
. * Ramanathan V. Guha, inventor of
RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...
feed technology, computer scientist at Google; won the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIT Madras in 2013 * Ramesh Govindan, Northrop Grumman Chair in Engineering and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California; won the Distinguished Alumnus award from IIT Madras in 2014 *
Raghu Ramakrishnan Raghu Ramakrishnan is a researcher in the areas of database and information management. He is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft. He has been a Vice President and Research Fellow for Yahoo! Inc. Ramakrishnan spent 22 years as a professor at the Un ...
, technical fellow and CTO, Information Services
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
* Raju Narayana Swamy, IAS Officer *
Ramayya Krishnan Ramayya Krishnan is an American Management and Information technology scholar from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the dean of Heinz College, and is the W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management science and Information systems at C ...
, dean of the
Heinz College The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, also known as Heinz College, is the public policy and information college of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It consists of the School of Information Systems and ...
at Carnegie Mellon University * S. Sowmya, Carnatic vocalist * Timothy A. Gonsalves, computer scientist and first director of
IIT Mandi Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (or IIT Mandi) is a one of the eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) located in Kamand Valley, Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, India. Established by the Ministry of Human Resource Developmen ...
*
Shashi Nambisan Shashi Nambisan is currently a professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He has held various positions previously such as the director of the Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University, United States, where he w ...
, director of the Center for Transportation Research and Education at
Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...
*
Shekhar Bhansali Shekhar Bhansali is the division director in Electrical, Communication and Cyber Systems (ECCS) at the National Science Foundation. He also serves as an Alcatel-Lucent Professor and Distinguished University Professor in the Florida International ...
, division director in Electrical, Communication and Cyber Systems (ECCS) at the
National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
. *
Sridhar Tayur Sridhar R. Tayur is an American business professor, entrepreneur, and management thinker. He is university professor of operations management and Ford Distinguished Research Chair at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, and ...
, Ford Distinguished Research Chair and Professor of Operations Management at
Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
; founder, SmartOps and OrganJet *
Sridhar Vembu Sridhar Vembu (born 1968) is an Indian billionaire business magnate and the founder and former chief executive officer of the Zoho Corporation. According to ''Forbes'', he is the 39th richest person in India with a net worth of $5.85 billion, a ...
, founder and CEO of
Zoho Corporation Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes computer software and web-based business tools. It is best known for the online office suite offering Zoho Office Suite. The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar V ...
*
Subra Suresh Subra Suresh is an Indian-born American engineer, materials scientist, and academic leader. He is currently Professor at Large at Brown University and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
, former president of Carnegie Mellon University, former director of the
National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
, former dean of the
MIT School of Engineering The MIT School of Engineering (SoE) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state i ...
*
Venkat Rangan P. Venkat Rangan is an Indian computer scientist and vice chancellor of Amrita University. He was the founder and director of the Multimedia Laboratory and Internet at the University of California, San Diego, where he served as professor of com ...
, co-founder and CTO at Clearwell Systems *
Venkatesan Guruswami Venkatesan Guruswami (born 1976) is a senior scientist at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and Professor of EECS and Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He did his high schooling at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhav ...
, associate professor, Department of Computer Science,
Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
*
Venky Harinarayan Venkatesh "Venky" Harinarayan is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Cambrian Ventures and Kosmix. Harinarayan also co-founded Junglee Corp. and played a significant role at Amazon.com in the late 1990s. Originally from Bombay, Ind ...
, co-founder
Kosmix Walmart Labs (formerly named Kosmix and @WalmartLabs) became part of Walmart Global Tech, the technology and business services organization within Walmart. Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman founded Kosmix in 2005. In April 2011, Walmart acq ...
*
Vic Gundotra Vivek Paul "Vic" Gundotra (born 14 June 1969) is an Indian-born American businessman who served as the Senior Vice President, Social for Google until 24 April 2014. Prior to joining Google, he was a general manager at Microsoft. Career Gundot ...
, former senior vice president of Google, creator of
Google Plus Google+ (sometimes written as Google Plus, stylized as G+ or g+) was a social network owned and operated by Google until it ceased operations in 2019. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, ...
and MIT Technology Review top innovator in the world *
Vinay Nair Vinay Nair is a serial entrepreneur and academic. He is involved as an advisor or board member in several companies in financial services, across investment management, venture capital and fintech. He is the founder and chairman of TIFIN, an AI ...
, visiting professor at
The Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...
and founding principal of Ada Investments * Viswanathan Kumaran, chemical engineer,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...
laureate


Companies run by IIT Madras alumni

*
Zoho Corporation Zoho Corporation is an Indian multinational technology company that makes computer software and web-based business tools. It is best known for the online office suite offering Zoho Office Suite. The company was founded in 1996 by Sridhar V ...
, Indian Multinational Technology Company *
Ather Energy Ather Energy is an Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer headquartered in Bengaluru. It was founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013. It manufactures electric scooters including the Ather 450 series and Ather Rizta. It has EV man ...
, Indian Electric Two Wheeler Manufacturer * AgniKul Cosmos, an Indian Aerospace Manufacturer *
Avishkar Hyperloop ''Avishkaar'' () is a 1974 Indian Hindi-language film. Produced and directed by Basu Bhattacharya, the film stars Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore. The film was the part of Basu Battacharya's introspective trilogy on marital discord in an urban ...
*
Saaf Water SAAF may refer to: Military * Saudi Arabian Air Force * Saudi Arabian Armed Forces * Small Arms Ammunition Factory, munitions factories run by the Australian Government *South African Air Force * South Arabian Air Force *Syrian Arab Air Force ...


See also

*
Education in India Education in India is primarily managed by the state-run public education system, which falls under the command of the government at three levels: Government of India, central, States and Territories of India, state and Local government in In ...
*
Institutes of National Importance In India, an Institution of National Importance (INI) refers to a premier public higher education institution granted special status by an act of the Parliament of India. Such institutions are recognized for their pivotal role in developing high ...
* List of institutions of higher education in India *
List of universities in India The higher education system in India includes both private and public universities. Public universities are supported by the Government of India and the state governments, while private universities are mostly supported by various bodies and s ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
Institutes of Eminence Engineering colleges in Chennai Universities and colleges established in 1959 1959 establishments in Madras State Education in Chennai