2,515 students receive degrees from IIT-B; PhDs at record high

A total of 2,515 students, including 325 doctoral candidates, received their degrees at IIT-Bombay's 54th Convocation Day here.
The institute also accorded the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2015-16 on Prof R K Malik from the Department of Chemical Engineering in recognition of his contributions to the institute, the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) said in a statement.
The 54th Convocation Day held on Saturday saw 2,515 students being awarded degrees on completion of their academic programmes, the premier institute said.
Dr Rajendra Singh, Chairman, Tarun Bharat Sangh and winner of the Stockholm Water Prize 2015, was the chief guest.

The graduating students this year include 208 PhDs, nine dual degree (MTechs and PhDs) students and seven dual degree (MSc and PhD) candidates. A total of 101 PhDs were awarded during the interim convocation held in March, making it the highest number of PhDs being awarded at a convocation in the history of IIT-B, it said.
Out of these, 29 research scholars were selected for the 'Award of Excellence in PhD thesis'.

A total of 16 joint PhDs in association with the Monash University, were also conferred.
Besides these, 6 MSc (by research), 14dual degrees (MSc and MTech), 6 dual degrees (MSc and MPhils), 626 MTech, 56 MDes, 14 MPhils, 115 MMgt, 201 two-year MSc, 22 five-year integrated MSc, 508 dual degrees (BTech and MTech), 586 BTech degrees and 14 PGDIIT degrees were awarded at the convocation.

IIT-Bombay is one of the top engineering schools in the country. A total of 49 out of top 50 rankers and 67 of the top 100 rankers in JEE 2016 chose IIT-Bombay among 22 IITs. All the top 10 all-India JEE 2016 rank holders joined this institute.
Similar trends are observed for the candidates qualifying in other entrance examinations as well, IIT-B Director Devang V Khakhar said.
This year, three students were presented gold medals for their exemplary performance.
The 'President of India Medal' was bestowed on Vikranth Dwaracherla Reddy from the Department of Electrical Engineering. The 'Institute Gold Medal' was awarded to Sukanya Patil Vijaysing from the same department, while the 'Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma Gold Medal' was conferred on Karan Gupta from the Department of Civil Engineering.

Set up in 1958 as the second IIT, IIT-Bombay has over the years produced over 50,000 engineers and scientists.
Its 15 academic departments, 16 centres, one school and four inter-disciplinary programmes are served by over 602 faculty members.