To cater to the growing demand for professionals in emerging domains, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have launched many new BTech programmes this academic year. The admissions will be done on the basis of JEE Advanced scores.
IIT Hyderabad will offer three new BTech programmes in Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, Computational Engineering & Industrial Chemistry from this year onwards. All three BTech programmes have a capacity of 10 seats each for this year.
Murty added that the UG level curriculum should be able to deliver what industries want. The institute plans to launch BTech programmes in Systems Engineering and Tech Entrepreneurship by 2023.
“We are doing away with the provision of branch change from this year onwards as a student should have some clarity about their career path with the availability of courses in almost every field of engineering,” he said.
When asked if IITs are trying to upgrade their reputation by becoming ‘industry-ready’, Murty said that the premier institutes are among the top ones in the country and do not necessarily have to prove their mettle but they do have to constantly evolve and upgrade to offer relevant courses that align with dynamic industry requirements.
IIT Delhi has also launched a new BTech programme in Energy Engineering with 40 seats. KA Subramanian, who is working as a professor and currently the head of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi, said that energy engineering is not a new domain but the current needs have propelled the commencement of this programme.
“The field has been in existence for more than 40 years now but now we have come to a stage where we need to discover ways of generating and utilising clean and renewable energy. We aim to address the human resource challenges being faced in the upstream and downstream energy domains. Elective courses can only make students learn about some aspects of a field, but full-fledged programmes are needed to produce employable professionals who can meet the requirements of the complete supply chain,” he added.
