IIT Madras offers host of new initiatives for students of 2016-17 | Kalvimalar - News

IIT Madras offers host of new initiatives for students of 2016-17 - 9-Aug-2016

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Chennai: Life at Indian Institute of Madras (IIT Madras) is way beyond classes to exploring opportunities and discovering new talents.

Encouraging the new batch of students to take up these activities for better physical and mental health, Prof. M.S. Sivakumar, Dean Students, IIT Madras said, "At IIT Madras, many exceptional students apply to physical education and recreation with the same passion and attitude as they do in academics to reach their complete potential. Intensity and commitment to excellence can be found among all students. Whether it's taking part in a group activity, playing on one of the institute’s sports teams or taking time to learn new dance moves, Institute life has no boundaries".

IITM Student General Secretary , Purab Jain said, "It's really great to see how things are evolving here in our campus. Everyone here, that is the students, secretaries, administration, all are trying to come up with more and more initiatives to help students for an all round development . I want all the Freshers to open their eyes, look around, and take part in all the activities going around from LTAP to hostel activities".

Apart from the usual sports activities (all the usual games, swimming, squash, weightlifting, etc.), and the literary and cultural activities (debating, drama, music, etc.), we have Co-curricular clubs as part of Centre for Innovation (robotics, aero, motor racing, etc.). Some of the activities are listed below. We have plans to make many more such offerings - based on student interest and availability of resource persons in the city.

Some of the new initiatives one can look forward to in this session are as follows:

Leisure Time Activity Program (L-TAP) is an initiative by IIT Madras aiming to enrich personality of the students by giving opportunities to identify, self-assess and learn various skills during their leisure time. There is a choice of activities from - Basic Business Sense, Behavioural Skills, Various Classical &Western Dance forms, Carnatic, Hindustani & Western Classical Music, Clay modelling & Terracotta Jewellery, Film Making, Instrumental Music, Meditation, Tai Chi, Traditional Indian Philosophical Systems, Web Application Development & Yoga. A total of over 2000 students registered for various courses in 2015-16, and more than 400 of them have demonstrated affirmative learning from the program. Starting this year, IIT Madras will also offer L-TAP courses in Short Weekend/Extended weekend workshop modes.

New Student Clubs
In addition to several existing students club, the Institute is starting some more clubs to foster creativity among the students. The new clubs are as following -
a. Cooking and Baking Clubs
b. Programming club
c. Techno -Entertainment Club
d. Formula Student Electric: The counterpart of team Raftar. This team is working on a student car that is completely ‘green’ i.e. it runs on an electric engine. They were inspired by the IITM Startup, Ather Energy.

Amateur sports tournament
The coming academic year will see many students who have learnt some sport or the other eager to complete in simple tournaments and they will get an opportunity to participate in this Amateurs tournament where institute team and hostel team players are barred from participation. They are allowed to coach the amateur teams and it will be held as an inter-hostel competition to encourage many more students to take to sports.

New Hostels
IIT Madras has recently also added two new hostels - Bhadra and Tunga. This has added 800 more seats and has taken the total capacity to accommodate around 8000 students. The institute has also allocated 10 rooms in each of these hostels for PwD (persons with disabilities) candidates. All hostels on Campus have been equipped with ramp facilities.

Besides the 8 messes operational under the two central dining facilities Himalaya and Vindhya, two more mess halls will be added this year near Krishna hostel. These will be pure vegetarian eateries.

The Institute has furthermore renovated some of the sports facilities on Campus and is adding few more this year.

The Institute stadium, renamed as the Manohar C. Watsa Stadium (renovated with a generous donation of an alumnus Prem Watsa) now boasts of a synthetic track, additional gallery and all paraphernalia related to athletics. A new basketball court and Volleyball Court were recently added and three more badminton courts are likely to come up during the new academic session. A new Tennikoit court is also being added for women candidates this year. All basketball courts on Campus have been furbished with a synthetic flooring.

YourDOST
IIT Madras has also launched YourDOST, an online emotional wellness platform that aims to increase awareness regarding mental wellness and break the prevalent social stigma attached to seeking psychological help. This online platform enables you to get guidance on ONE-to- ONE basis from 350+ experts consisting of psychologists, life coaches and career coaches for a productive lifestyle.

SAATHI (another wing of Mitr)
In the new session, Saathi team will be involved in creating awareness and sensitizing the students about skills pertaining to the overall well-being of all students. It will also manage platforms to support enhancement of skills beneficial for personal and professional growth. Saathi will now provide logistic support to Mitr (guidance and counselling team of IITM) and work for the initiatives drawn by Mitr. Advised by a faculty member, they will organize mentorship programmes, academic buddy and language buddy programs, organize awareness related events for understanding crucial issues pertaining to the well-being of students.

IIT Madras has also acquired three battery operated vehicles for PwD students and is likely to obtain few more in the new session. The Office of Dean of Students is also extending assistance to visually challenged students, in their day to day activities.

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