Tarkes Dora , an alumnus from IIT Madras in the Applied Mechanics Department , is pursuing Ph.D in the Technion Institute Of Technology, Israel . In this interaction with Chennai 36, he speaks about the challenges of pursuing a Ph.D. in Israel and gives some practical ideas on how to manage life in this foreign land. Please tell us about yourself and your time in insti. What activities were you involved and how did they lead to your choice of pursuing grad studies? My name is

Tony Mathew , a 2016 Chemical Engineering alumnus recounts his experiences at Purdue University and his journey there. During a friendly chat with the Chennai36 team on a late night (thanks to the time difference), he gives a clear and concise opinion on every aspect of grad school application from selecting the right school to ensuring a successful selection. First Impressions My first impression can be summarized in two words – extravagant and friendly. I see extravagance a

Prasanna Rousseau , an IIT Madras alumnus shares with us his research experience at Carleton University, Canada . He finished his MS in Civil in 2015 and is now pursuing Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering . In an interview with Chennai36, he shares his experiences and gives us some valuable insights to study in Canada. Please tell us about yourself and your insti life. What activities were you a part of and how did they shape your careers decision towards grad school? My insti

Dr. Noshir Contractor is an alumnus of the batch of 1983, Department of Electrical Engineering . He was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award on this institute day. He is the Jane S. & William J. Professor of Behavioral Sciences at the Northwestern University, USA . In an interview with Chennai 36, he talks about his unconventional research on behavioral science and organization research and reminisces about his insti days. How would you describe your time at IIT Madras? Are

Dr. Seeram Ramakrishna , Director of Centre for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology at the National University of Singapore, completed his post graduation from Department of Mechanical Engineering in the year 1988. He is the co-founder of Global Engineering Deans Council and also an editorial board member of international journals. It was a matter of immense pride for Chennai36 to interact with him a day before he was conferred the Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2018. Read on to k

Dr. Satya Gupta is among one of the DAAs of this year. He is a graduate from the Department of Chemical Engineering , the batch of ‘74. He currently works as a Technology fellow at Baker Hughes, a GE company. He takes us on a ride through the journey of his life. Could you recollect your journey at IITM? Yeah, It was sort of strange. IIT was never in my plans. And it so happened that I’m glad it happened. More than the education we got here, the friendships we made here as we

Shri. V.M Thomas graduated in 1973 with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IITM. After graduation, he went on to work with HAL, TI DIamonds, and Johnson Lifts, where he is now the Joint Managing Director. He was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award on 26th April 2018. The Chennai36 team caught up with him for a short interview! Congratulations on being conferred the “Distinguished Alumni Award 2018”! What thought/feelings are running through your mind on th

Mr. Lazar T. Chittilapilly was just one among many students who graduated in ‘83 with a B.Tech. in Aerospace Engineering, just an ordinary student, or so he claims. After completing his post graduation at IISc Bangalore, he now works as the the Project Manager  in the Air Breathing Propulsion Project. His involvement has helped the project progress by leaps and bounds. An awardee of the Distinguished Alumni Award 2018, he has given an interview to Chennai36 where he talks abo

Adit Krishnan , an alumnus from the Computer Science Engineering department, is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign . He shares with us his story of how he developed his interest in research and how he pursued it. Q1. Can you tell us about your topic of research and its scope in the industry? My primary areas of research include natural language processing and recommender systems. I mainly work in developing machine learning and deep

As a part of our Placement Guru vertical, Chennai36 got in touch with Suparna(EP batch of 18 ) to talk to her about her placement experience. Insti LIfe: How it all began My life in insti mostly revolved around academics. I also played badminton during my first two years, I never made it into the insti team, but I enjoyed the game. I used to ask questions about acads to my seniors. I worked on the IITM-Sat project during my freshie year and I had a good rapport with the senio

Priyanshu Mishra (insti name – “mistake”), one of the most famous stand-up comedians in Chennai circuit, originally wanted to be a fighter pilot. He graduated from department of Aerospace Engineering of IIT Madras and currently works with an interesting start-up. In this interaction with Chennai36, he opens up about his unconventional career choices and a lot more. Did your experience at IIT Madras somehow shape your career as a stand-up comedian? Oh definitely! I think there

R. Srikumar, a well-known name in the IPS, completed his Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras in 1970. Having chosen to serve the society, he went up to become the DGP of Karnataka. Currently, he serves as the chairman of a public Trust called Indian Centre for Social Transformation. In an interview with Pranit Mehta from Chennai36, he shares why he chose this Unconventional career and his experiences ranging from institute life to solving the Rajiv Gandhi case and his other

We spoke to Sumon Das, an alumnus, who recently passed out of the Department of Civil Engineering (batch of 2018). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D at Columbia University, an Ivy league college. We detail some of the foolproof fundaes he passed on to us from his experience. The following excerpt is taken from a telephonic conversation with him. Life at Columbia University… Located in Manhattan, New York city, CU proved to be quite a new experience for Sumon. He found the cl

Ashwin from the Department of Chemical Engineering interned in his 3rd year, on a project involving enzyme catalysis in the Nagaoka University of Technology. Our correspondent Adriza speaks to him about his experience. How did you get to know about this internship opportunity? I interned in the winter vacation of my third year. I’m currently in my 4th year and am majoring in Chemical Engineering. I was interested in the field of Bioengineering at that time. I had mostly worke

Saarthak Marathe is a third-year undergraduate student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He talks to our correspondent Rohith about his experience at the ISIR Lab in France where he conducted research on robotics at the end of his second year. Here are some of the excerpts from their conversation – Why did you choose Sorbonne University to intern at? Well, it’s not about the university, it’s about the lab. The ISIR Lab has a good reputation for robotics and haptics

Karan Patel is a 5th-year Dual Degree student in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and is minoring in Operations Management. He did his summer research internship at the end of his 4th-year at the Operations Research Center, MIT Sloan School of Management. Chennai 36 got an opportunity to talk to him. The gist of the interview is as follows: Hello Karan! Can you tell us about your internship experience and about the topic that you worked on? My internship at the ORC, MIT Sl

Dr. Avilash Raul is the Principal Scientist at Indo German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) and a guest faculty at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras. Chennai 36 correspondent Rasika Joshi sits down with Dr. Raul to talk about the projects and research internship opportunities for students from all fields at IGCS. Could you talk about why IGCS was established and briefly outline your association with it? The Indo German Centre for Sustainability was

Mayur Joshi is currently in his fourth year of Mechanical Engineering. He’s a Dual Degree student with Interdisciplinary specialization in Data Sciences. This is his second time with Chennai 36, previously having talked to us about his CERN internship last year. In his third year, he went on a research internship program through the DAAD WISE (Working Internship in Science and Engineering) to RWTH Aachen University in Germany. This internship is entirely funded by the German

In their new study, Dr. Pallab Sinha Mahapatra and Mr. Siddhant Mohapatra from IIT-Madras have discerned the dynamics of the prey-predator relationship in a confined space. Through a modeling approach, the scientists have co-related the survival of prey to the strength of the disturbance caused by the imminent predator attack. Living in communities is not exclusive to humans. Many insects, animals, and birds prefer to stay in groups; for example, fish swim in shoals, birds fl

C ryptography is a beautiful branch of mathematics which guarantees the art of secret-keeping. In today’s world of big data, there is a serious conflict between utility and privacy. The prime example of this conflict comes from the field of medicine — the abundance of genetic data today makes it possible to imagine a future where medicines can be personalized, but developing this capability requires running algorithms on large scale genetic data which is highly sensitive, and