Dear Alumnus/ Alumna,

Our 51^st Convocation is happening on July 18^th in SAC, followed by “Alumni Day” on July 19 in IC & SR Auditorium. Do attend both if you have a chance.Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairman, NarayanaHrudayalaya Group of Hospitals, is Chief Guest for Convocation. “Alumni Day” will have a special theme of “kal, aaj and kal” this year in view of 2014 being the golden jubilee of the first graduating class from IITM.

Center for Innovation (CFI, funded by my ’81 batch!) continues to be the source of some great…. well, innovation by our students.A CFI Team prepares to leave for Germany next month along with their indigenously-produced Raftar Formula Racing (RFR) car. They will be competing in the Formula Student Germany (FSG) sporting event at the Hockenheim ring Formula One circuit. It is four years since the single-seater formula car was designed and engineered by what is known as Team Raftar, students of the Auto Club at the Centre for Innovation, IIT Madras. After competing with 300 university teams in 28 countries, the students have successfully cleared the “Open World Registration Quiz” and are now ready for the 2014 student circuit.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/team-shunya-is-building-our-future-in-paris-special-to-ians-114062700329_1.html

The Center for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CSIE, funded initially by the ’84 batch) is also emerging from its cocoon with a plethora of meaningful activities, most recently a 2-day seminar & business plan competition conducted along with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development from Karnataka Law Society’s Institute of Management Education & Research (KLSIMER) based in Belgaum, Karnataka, in association with Deshpande Foundation. About 200 students participated in the program. Also of note is a 5-day Summer Camp on campus for Rural Government school students on “Social Innovation through Technology” in association with TVS Srinivasan Services Trust, Chennai.

Continuing on the innovation/ entrepreneurship theme, Sea6 Energy is a bioenergy company started up by a bunch of IITM Biotech undergrads and Distinguished Alumnus,ShrikumarSuryanarayan.  It was initially incubated at IITM’s C-TIDES (Cell for Technology Innovation, Development and Entrepreneurship Support) and now at C-CAMP (Bangalore). Sea6 Energy’s technology  was featured in Episode 8 – “Fuel for thought”  of the BBC Horizon’s series, this Saturday and Sunday (28th and 29th of June) . The episode may be viewed online at http://www.bbc.com/specialfeatures/horizonsbusiness/

Hope to see many of you on campus during July 18-19….