Graduating college students of the Indian Institutes of Expertise (IITs) will miss out on the expertise of strolling up a stage to get their levels or the ceremonial tossing of hats within the air this yr, because the institutes have opted for digital convocation ceremonies within the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 58th convocation ceremony of IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) will likely be held just about on August 23, maintaining in thoughts the security of scholars, introduced director Subhasis Chaudhuri. “We can have two very distinguished company of honour. The chief company for the occasion are Stephen Schwarzman, founder and chief government officer of Blackstone Group, and Duncan Haldane, professor at Princeton College and 2016 Nobel laureate in Physics,” he mentioned.
Whereas Schwarzman will ship the graduation speech, Haldane will ship the chief visitor’s speech. Graduating college students will take part through video conferencing, and your complete occasion will likely be webcast for public viewing.
That is the primary time IIT-B will maintain a digital convocation ceremony, with over 2,100 college students graduating in numerous programmes, mentioned P Sunthar, co-convenor of the convocation committee.
“Because the convocation will likely be held on-line, we’re at present figuring out methods to make the occasion a memorable one for all graduates, regardless of not being current on campus. In the meantime, we do perceive that every one our graduates wish to have a gala end-of-school bash, and we’ll organise a particular get-together for your complete batch as soon as the pandemic is over,” mentioned Chaudhuri.
IIT-Madras may also conduct a web based convocation ceremony. “IIT-Madras has already determined that the convocation this yr will likely be held on-line, maintaining in thoughts the present Covid-19 state of affairs. The dates, nevertheless, are but to be decided. Tentatively, the ceremony will likely be held someday in September 2020,” mentioned a spokesperson for IIT-Madras.
IIT-Gandhinagar, too, will maintain its ninth annual convocation ceremony on-line on August 23. In an invite despatched to all college students, the institute clarified that owing to the present state of affairs, the ceremony will likely be streamed reside on the institute’s homepage, their YouTube channel and Fb web page.
“Nandan Nilekani, chairman and co-founder of Infosys Restricted will likely be our chief visitor, and we invite all our well-wishers to be with us,” mentioned Sudhir Jain, director of the institute.
In the meantime, a number of IITs are nonetheless mulling on how their convocation ceremonies will likely be held. Spokespersons for each IIT-Delhi and IIT-Roorkee clarified that the institutes had been but to substantiate the standing of their convocation ceremonies.