IIT Bombay wants to reconnect with alumni

In an attempt to get some of its best minds to reconnect with the institute at a professional level, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has now decided to create chairs for the purpose.

"At the Pan IIT meet this month, our director (Devang Khakhar) announced that we will create chairs to enable our alumni, who are either working as faculty or are engaged in high-end research and development work in the industry, to come here and participate in our teaching and research activities," said AQ Contractor, dean of alumni and corporate relations at IIT-B.

Pan IIT 2009 was held in Chicago earlier this month. Saying that the IIT-B alumni are spread across the globe and are keen to come to the institute, Contractor said the primary idea behind this initiative is to enable alumni to re-bond with the institute professionally as well as provide role models to the existing students.

"Since they already have professional commitments, they will come to the institute for short periods mostly. They may teach part of a course or a full course depending on how much time they can commit. Collaborative research projects can start too," he said.

Meanwhile, IIT Bombay's Faculty Alumni Network (FAN) event, which was held in conjunction with Pan IIT 2009, had a faculty recruitment drive as part of its activities. Although the institute received around 65 applications, nine were called for an interview at Chicago after a rigorous screening and scrutiny process. Candidates were interviewed for the post of assistant professor for departments, centres, and schools of the institute. "Among those interviewed, five have been selected and been asked to join. They are either fresh PhDs or at the final stages of their PhD, or are working as faculty in US universities," said Contractor.

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