Case Study: Greenfield IIT in the Remote Kamand Valley

Timothy A. GonsalvesDirector

IIT Mandi Jul 2019

1

Jan ‘14

Outline

• Genesis

• Challenges

• Strategy

• Achievements

• The Future

2

Genesis• 8 new IITs started in 2008, 2009

• 500-acre site chosen for IIT Mandi– Near Kamand village (pop. 200) along

Uhl River– 200 acres animal husbandry farm– 300 acres forested mountain slopes– 45 mins from Mandi (pop. 40k) via

steep mountain road with 1,500’ gorge– 5-6 hours from Chandigarh

3

… Genesis• Himachal: peaceful State with high

HDI

• Low pop. 6m, largely rural 90%

• Economy: mainly agrarian and tourism

• Pockets of education, industry in Solan, Shimla, Dharamsala

4

7/1/16

IIT Mandi in 2010: Dream or Folly?

26/5/12

… IIT Mandi in 2010

Challenges• General:

– Hire faculty and staff– Equip labs and library– Build a residential campus– Attract research funding– Attract industry for placements, etc

7

… Challenges• Specific:

– Remote location• 2 days for 1 hour meeting

– Cold winters– Mountain terrain, landslides, …– Fear of leopards, bears, …– Poor ecosystem

• schools for children• jobs for spouses

• medical care for elderly parents

8

Strategy for an IIT

Globally, many paths to prominence as a research University. Eg:

Technology excellence through focus on local and national needs

Name Size PG Scope Yrs Nature Strategy

Stuttgart 25K 47% S&T 185 Public Industry

Caltech 2K 55% S&T 125 Private Nat’l labs

MIT 11K 65% ST&M 150 Private Teaching, product, startups, industry, Nat’l labs

Stanford 16K 55% General 125 Private Product, startups, industry, Nat’l labs

NUS 37K 27% General 100 Public Partnerships, Nat’l labs

06/5/15 9

06/5/15

Vision

to be a leader in science and technology

education, knowledge creation and

innovation,

in an India that is marching towards a

just, inclusive and sustainable society10

IIT Mandi Strategy

• Focus on a few areas – especially regional and national relevance

• Partnerships with like-minded institutions in India and abroad

• Inter-disciplinary culture, organisation, academics

• Exploit Locational advantage

11

Design-oriented B.Tech. curriculum

Students develop practical devices that meet real-world needs

2nd YrProduct

Development

2nd YrProduct

Development

1st YrReverse

Engineering

3rd YrTechnology &

society

3rd YrTechnology &

society

4th YrMajor technical

project – product, patent, publish

4th YrMajor technical

project – product, patent, publish

Inter-disciplinary academic culture

Real-world team projects from Year 1 to 4

Ingredients: Learn-by-doing,

teamwork, driven by needs of society,

strong humanities component

Innovative Curriculum

Pre-paid EB metervoice-controlled wheel-chairgas-leak detectorintelligent drip irrigationsmart whiteboard

oil-spill removerclothes drierwall-climbing spiderman…

13

Eg. 2nd B.Tech. students design and build products for society:

Innovation by 2nd BTech

Low-cost 3D printerRs. 25,000 / $400

14

06/5/15

Smart Cane

Socio-Technical Practicum

3rd BTech Practicum• Projects on social impact of

technology

• 15-25 WPI UG students (Mass., US) resident in Mandi for 3 months/year

16

Direct solar lighting for houses

Quality of milk

Irrigation in the Himalayas

Hill farm mechanisation

Women’s education

…

Guided by faculty teams

Academic Organisation

CS/EE Hum/SS

Basic Sciences

Engg

Faculty Schools

Student Degrees Research Groups

CSEMech

Chemistry

EE

EnergyCNRG

Technology for Himalayas

Materials

Green EnergyMAS

Interdisciplinary Culture• No departments, instead broad schools• School ≠ Building

– Faculty offices assigned without regard to discipline

• School does not own degree program– Any faculty can teach any course

– Any faculty can guide any student– Institute Core courses designed and taught by

groups of faculty from various disciplines• E.g. IC150 Computation for Engineers,

taught by faculty from CSE, MA, Civil Engg, Bio

• Large shared labs encouraged– Generous allocation of resources to faculty teams

18

Focus: Materials• 2 Distinguished Professors + 14 young faculty with

expertise in materials– from molecules to devices to applications

• National needs: Electronics, electrical, biomedical applications

• Sophisticated instruments installed/ordered– 32 cr / $5m installed + 20 cr / $3m (ordered/planned)

• $315,000 from Intel Corp, US for next-generation VLSI photo-resist material– State-of-the-art in 2012: 22 nm– IIT Mandi: 20 nm, working on 10 nm– Network of labs in India, Brazil, Mexico & US

• Centre for Design & Fabrication of Microelectronics19

20

10 nm Feature

2018

VLSI Resists

20 nm Feature

2014

Validation at 180 nm

fab line of SCL

Intel US, $300K in 2012: <22nm

IIT Mandi indigenizing 11 out of 34 chemicals used at SCL, Mohali

Indian patents filed:No. 201611044190No. 201611018061No. 201611022219

21

Advanced Materials Research CentreInaugurated by HRM on 9/3/13

Devices & InstrumentationBiomechanics

Bio ImagingNanobiotechBiomaterialsTheranostics

High-throughput phenotyping in agricultureSystemsanalysis of crop pathogens

Natural Products for Health and Industry

Novel microbes

in extreme environments

for industrial and biotech applications

22 facultyRs. 15 cr projects

BioX Centre – systems and synthetic biology

Detection of cervical cancer cells•With KIDWAI Memorial Institute of Oncology, PGI

Chandigarh, Aindra Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore

Low-cost point-of-care diagnostic devices● 0.2 Tesla portable MRI @Rs. 30 lakhs

Machine learning for telecom network management

● NMSWorks Software Ltd, Chennai

2 Mentor Profs + 10 young faculty, 10 cr projects

MANASMultimedia Analytics Networks Systems

24

FarmerZone: A DBT Initiative

Raw Data

Farmers

Agri Supply Companies Agri Universities/ Experts

Startups

Cloud 1:Public Data

Utility

Cloud N:Public Data

Utility

Curation, triangulation, denoising, ...

Sources: IMD, ISRO, NABARD, ...

AI Advisories

Authenticated Data

Gov

tfu

nded

Indu

stry

Eco

syst

em

……

Raw Data

Lead: IIT MandiPartners:

India, UK, USRs. 10 cr

Energy Centre

• Renewable energy sources• Materials for high density

energy storage, fuel cells, carbon sequesteration, ...

• 12 faculty + 1 mentor professor– Rs. 5 crores sponsored

projects• eMandi: Project to convert

Mandi district to e-autos in 2-3 years

25

Goal: e-transportation for India by 2030

More Strengths• Communications, Networks & Distributed Systems

– 6 faculty + 2 visiting professors– Rs. 1.2 crores sponsored projects

• Condensed matter physics– 5 faculty– Rs. 50 lakhs sponsored projects

• Energy and Power Systems/Electronics– 6 faculty + 1 mentor professor

– Rs. 50 lakhs sponsored projects • German Studies, History, Business

26

Partnerships

India:•IITs- online teaching – biggest user of NKN initially

- faculty visits for 1-month to 1-year•Especially in May-June

- Student semester exchange, internships

- Joint sponsored projects

•Regional- online teaching, sharing of labs

- part-time MS/PhD

27

Globalisation

Active MoU with TU9 in Germany since May 2011

• Funding from India and Germany for exchange visits:

• 3-month stay by faculty and post-docs in both directions

• Student exchange visits bilaterally

WPI (US):

•25 UG students every year for 3-month socio-technical practicum

28

13/7/18

Gender DiversityIIT Mandi led effort from 2016 to increase females in BTech in all IITs

Goal: Increase 8% → 20%● In 2017: special outreach during JEE counseling

==> 8% → 9.1% IIT Mandi: 4% → 15%● In 2018: 14% via supernumerary seats

● Only candidates withranks > IIT closing rank

● IIT Mandi target 20%

New Campus at KamandOur Unique Advantage

3-pronged strategy, incrementally build-use1.Renovation of existing Animal Husbandry buildings

– 1,000 sqm Workshop + lab ~Rs. 3 crores

2.Preengineered buildings– Dining Hall in September 2012 (6 months)– Hostels, classrooms, labs for 200 students, residences– About 10,000 sqm by Oct 2013 ~Rs. 55 crores

3.Permanent concrete/steel buildings 1. Start of construction in Oct 2013

2. Use from August 2016

3. Construction continues up to 2019

4. ~2,20,000 sqm ~Rs. 900 crores

1713/7/18

NKN Electronic Classroom

100 Mb/s Connectivity

Rigaku XRDRs. 1.75 crores

Phase 1: Renovated Stable

in Kamand31

2nd BTech shift to Kamand23rd Sep 2012 32

Campus at Kamand: Plan B

33

18-month setback in Phase 3 construction•Adopted LGSF technology- Light factory-made steel frame- Double wall of boards and insulation

- Cost: 30-50% of RCC

- Time: 3 months (ideally), 6-9 months

- Life: 20-50 years- 7,000 sqm, Rs. 20

crores

34

LGSF

Renovated+LGSF

35

North campus

South campus

Kamand Oct ‘14

Uhl RiverKamand

26/5/12

2017: IIT Mandi Campus

26/5/12

2017: South Campus

Adversity Opportunity• Bitter cold in December-January, semester

from mid-Feb to mid-JuneFaculty from other IITs visit for May-June

• Difficulty in travel from rest of India

Even VIPs spend 24 hours with us

38

Students

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 20190

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

97213

321436 457 455 480 512 544

627

767

6

14

20 27 3127

30

33

49

46

16

36

6788

117155

234

231

278

283

38

2787

177

325

1028

57

94

133

193

6

11

17

17

31

MAI.PhDPhDMSM.ScM.TechB.Tech

UG 49% PG 51%

Alumni: 80 PhD, 44 MS, 792 B.Tech, 89 M.Tech, 123 MSc 15/06/2019

39

97

235

371

523572

616

704

871

1006

1281

1st BTech girls: 35/19219% – 1st among IITs

1687

Degrees

• 4-yr BTech programmes:– Computer Science & Engg– Electrical Engg– Mechanical Engg– Civil Engg

Minors in many areas

• 2-yr MTech/MSc/MA programmes:Energy Engg, Mech Engg, Chemistry, Physics,

Biotech, Maths, VLSI, Power, SP, Dev Studies

• MS (research) and PhD– Engineering, sciences and humanities

40

New BTechs from Aug 2019:

➢Bio Engineering (DD)➢Data Science & Engg➢Engineering Physics

Some Achievements

41

● 100+ highly qualified faculty, mostly young● Nature Index 2017 (60+ science journals):

● IIT Mandi ranked 5th among IITs(normalised by number of faculty)

● Sponsored R&D worth Rs. 85 crores● 1,140 alumni in industry, academia, public

sector – in India and globally● Pradeep Seervi: GATE(EE) topper, 2015● Aamir Khan: Civil Services 2nd rank, 2015● IITians Tech – 1st startup in 2014, several others

since● Strategic partnership with TU9, Germany● Catalyst – technology-business incubator

26/5/12

2019: IIT Mandi = 1,500 students, 110 Faculty, 150 staff, 1,140 alumni,

Rs.85 crores Research Projects

Performance Measure Rank:8 New IITs

Rank: all 23 IITs

Outreach and Inclusivity (NIRF)

1 1

Scopus publications per faculty

2 6

Teaching, Learning, Resources (NIRF)

3 8

Research funding/faculty 3 12

Engineering Overall (NIRF)

4 13

% female faculty 1 1

ISTP spinoff – EWOK

44

Skills training, village-scale businesses by village women

Using Internet and pervasive mobile network

Serving local and global customers

45

Kamand campus activities

Scalin

g the heights

Define a compelling vision and missionCapitalise on our unique locational advantage

A modest beginning on the arduous journey to making Mandi a household name globally

www.iitmandi.ac.in