New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur awarded degrees to 3,104 students across undergraduate, postgraduate and eMasters programmes during its 59th Convocation held on Wednesday.
The graduating batch comprised 1,325 postgraduate students, 1,247 undergraduate students and 532 students from the institute’s eMasters outreach programmes.
The convocation was attended by Dr Pawan Goenka, Chairperson of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), as the chief guest. IIT Kanpur‘s officiating Board of Governors Chairperson Jayant Patil and Director Prof. Manindra Agrawal presided over the ceremony.
Addressing the graduating class, Goenka urged students to take risks, embrace lifelong learning and contribute towards India’s development.
“Our Hon’ble Prime Minister has set the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047. It is a national mission to turn growth into inclusion, talent into leadership and possibilities into achievement. Fifty years from now, ask yourself one question: What legacy did I leave behind? My hope is that your answer will be, I helped build Viksit Bharat,” he said.
IIT Kanpur also conferred its top academic honours during the ceremony. The President’s Gold Medal was awarded to Sagar K. V. from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, while the Director’s Gold Medals went to Aditya V. (BS, Statistics and Data Science) and Ritwik Shankar (BT-MT, Aerospace Engineering).
The graduating cohort included 390 PhD scholars, 502 MTech graduates, 852 BTech students, 212 BS graduates, 186 MSc graduates, 59 MBA graduates, 36 MDes graduates, 66 MS (Research) graduates, 107 Dual Degree graduates and 492 eMasters graduates, among others.
Speaking at the ceremony, IIT Kanpur Director Prof. Manindra Agrawal urged graduates to uphold integrity and adapt to technological change, saying that while artificial intelligence can generate information and solutions rapidly, human intelligence remains critical in asking the right questions, exercising judgment and making ethical decisions.
The convocation was conducted in two sessions, with institute medals presented at the main auditorium, followed by the formal conferring of degrees across multiple venues on the campus.
