Nellore: Stage is set for establishing a Centre for Innovation (CFI) soon at IIT Tirupati on the lines of IIT Madras, which is a mentor for Tirupati IIT. CFI would be a forum for creative output of the budding engineers of IIT Tirupati.
CFI provides students the necessary platform for realising their ideas. It will have a great workspace, a comprehensive inventory, ample guidance from faculty & senior-students, said senior faculty in IIT Chennai and In-charge of Tirupati IIT Prof K.N. Sat-hyanarayana while speaking to this newspaper.
He said CFI has successfully evolved into a hub which encourages thinking and provokes students to generate novel ideas making it truly the "centre" for innovation.
With respect to new campus for IIT Tirupati, he said that they decided to construct laboratories for undergraduate courses as a first step for the benefit of students in the site allotted at the Merlapaka village in Yerpedu mandal of Chittoor district though it may take sometime for the construction of the campus.
It may be recalled that classes have been started in a temporary campus near Tirupati in August last year.
Instead of investing on the labs at the temporary campus, the authorities have been proposing to build the lab facility only for undergraduate students at their own site. There are also plans to speed up the building works of the institute.
The authorities have been contemplating to complete the construction of the laboratories within next nine months.
As of now, land has been handed over to IIT and compound wall is being constructed by the state government around the site.
The process of hiring a master plan architect to prepare designs and estimates for the new campus is in progress and it may take at least 3 years for the completion of construction of the campus, the senior Professor said.
With respect to first batch of students in IIT-T where final year exams are in progress, he said that the first year programme went very well with the support of adequate teaching staff including some leading retired faculty members of IIT Chennai and the students are very responsive.
