It's been 20 years since the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) was set up and they celebrated this joyous occasion on September 2, 2018. So we decided to get in touch with the director of the institute, Prof P J Narayanan after the celebrations were over. After taking a trip down memory lane, the professor recalled for us how, initially, IIIT-H was supported by the Government of United Andhra Pradesh with land and buildings, after which, they have been on their own.
One of their many founding objectives became 'How do we provide UG students with the opportunity for research?'. "Typically, a student comes into the institute, all excited to build something, say, a rocket. We tell them that you can take a course on propulsion later in the third or fourth year of the course and then build one. After the course, their time is up and because of this, our students end up going to the US and building rockets there. We want them to start right here, right now," says the professor who joined IIIT-H in 2000 and has been the director of the institute for over five years now.
When we ask him what 'research' comprises of, he gives us a simple comparison. "The classroom is like the fixed syllabus, whereas the world beyond the ceiling of the classroom, the sky itself, is what research is," explains the professor and by saying this, he establishes the institute's strong focus on research. He also tells us that they want to keep their focus on computing, IT and its application and wants to make a mark in this field, globally.
Another focus of IIIT-H is also to engage with all sections of the society. While they have courses for which professionals can register, they also have summer programmes for students from classes V to X on computational thinking. "The best educational institutions are like waterholes in a forest. All the species can make use of it. It develops an ecosystem for the education system. That has been our model from the beginning and that's how we would like to continue to be," he concludes.
For more on them, click on iiit.ac.in
