Hyderabad: The IIT-H has given up the colonial era custom of wearing black gowns during its fifth convocation ceremony on Saturday. Gaduating men wore colourful handwoven Pochampally capes over white kurta pyjamas while women wore white sareesa and salwar kameez.
The design department of IIT-H came up with this idea. Prof Deepak Mathews, head of the design department said, “Convocation is a memorable event for all students. The black gowns had no uniqueness. So we decided to go for the Pochampally capes carrying the logo of IIT-H which students can take as souvenirs.”
Capes costing around Rs 500 in seven colour combinations were given to B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD, and M.Sc students.
During the convocation 449 students were awarded degrees. 189 received B.Tech degrees, 167 M.Tech, 45 M.Phil, 42 PhD, one M.Phil. This year also saw the first batch of B.Tech civil engineering graduates.
Agam Agarwal, B.Tech in Computer Science, was awarded the President’s Gold Medal for securing the highest CGPA. He scored 9.78 CGPA.
Apart from him three other gold medals and 19 silver medals were awarded.
Prof UB Desai, Director of IIT-H said the institute crossed the 2,000 students mark as it has 2,046 students studying in it currently.
BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT-H commended the institute as all 240 seats in the institute were filled this year, for first time since it was established in 2008.
AS Kiran Kumar, ISRO, Chairman was Chief Guest of the convocation who stressed on IIT students utilising their skills and opportunities in India to stay in the country and work for its upliftment.
