This Sunday, the students who will be graduating from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay would be experiencing a convocation ceremony they had not anticipated. While amid the current pandemic, the students will miss out tossing their hats in the air and walking up to the stage to receive their degrees. In a virtual ceremony the institute director, Dr Subhasis Chaudhuri will be giving degrees to each of the 2,714 graduating student’s “avatars”.
In the country, among institutes of higher education it is a first-of-its-kind move. 58th convocation ceremony, will be conducted by IIT Bombay virtually. In view of the COVID-19, the degree shall be received by the students’ virtual images, that has been created using their photographic details. On August 23, on various platforms such as DD Sahyadri, YouTube and Facebook the broad cast will take place from 1.30 pm.
From the avatar of chief guest Nobel laureate professor Duncan Haldane of the Princeton University, medals winners will receive their awards in the virtual ceremony . At the end of the ceremony, from students all across the country, a synchronised pledge will also be taken.
Dr Chaudhari, stated that this virtual ceremony for students has been a huge operation which involves proper planning, technology development and implementation. It is the first time, we are doing it. No other institute has ever done it. For every student getting into and through IIT is one of the most memorable event, and we wanted to give students something worth to remember .
Professor P Sunthar of the institute said that in a normal year, a day prior to the convocation the students arrived with their parents on the campus. Department events would be held after the convocation, and thereafter students would take their family on a campus tour.
Professor Sunthar added on to the information that, “ On Saturday, from 6 pm, the students and their families can take a virtual tour of the campus. On Sunday, as soon as the convocation ceremony ends, from 4 pm to 6 pm departmental online events will be held, followed by which the virtual tour of the campus will be enabled again for the students as well as parents” . With the help of the URL, that has been shared with the students, they can join us.
The guest of honour, Chief guest prof Haldane and founder and CEO of Blackstone Group Stephen Schwarzman, will address the students online. Immediately after the event ends, electronic copies of the degree certificate will be made available to the students.Later, the physical copies shall be couriered to the students .