Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati made breakthroughs in 2021. Here are the highlights for the year:

Research and innovation

· Researchers at IIT Guwahati have developed technology to provide drinking water free of iron, arsenic, fluoride and other contaminants to rural populations in Assam using their various prototype units and innovative technology. Several of these units are being installed in Assam and other northeastern states.

· The institute invented a low cost biodegradable composite wound dressing film.

· Researchers at the institute have reported a new behavior of electrons in a conductor. The study is expected to lead to exciting results in the future and will have implications in several technologies.

· Institute researchers have also made fundamental contributions to memory architectures by preventing redundancy of data values ​​and improving slow and frequent writes in multicore processor systems.

· It has developed a ‘nanoscale thick superhydrophobic coating’ material to modify ordinary fabric or silk masks that maintains its comfort but offers better protection against infections caused by aerosols such as COVID-19.

· A group of researchers have successfully developed hydrogel-based electrodes that could improve the performance of an energy storage device.

As an innovative solution to deal with the environmental crisis, IIT Guwahati researchers have developed a new highly porous and hydrophobic superhydrophobic cotton composite material containing a metal-organic structure (MOF), which can absorb oil from selectively the oil-water mixture.

It also developed a new water repellent material which can be used for real time monitoring of human movements. The material developed is flexible, non-stretchable and environmentally friendly, capable of detecting low stresses with high sensitivity.

· Researchers have successfully developed new materials that can use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

· It has also developed perovskite-based hybrid solar or photovoltaic devices to generate electricity from sunlight, which are highly efficient, cost-effective, easy to manufacture and easily recyclable.

New infrastructures

· Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma inaugurated a new Center for Disaster Management and Research (CDMR) at the institute.

· In September 2021, IIT Guwahati launched the Center for Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems (CICPS), aimed at developing indigenous technologies. The center aims to develop a minimum of five technologies per year.

In November 2021, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education, Skills Development and Entrepreneurship, visited IIT Guwahati and inaugurated the state-of-the-art Nanotechnology Center (CNT) building and Indian Knowledge System Center (CIKS) as well as two hostels. CIKS has also launched a course on the Assamese language spoken on campus.

In November 2021, General VK Singh (ret), Minister of State Civil Aviation of the Government of India, inaugurated India’s first university center for drone technology, skills development center and airport in drones at IIT Guwahati. Called ‘AHOM Droneports’, it will be used to support cargo drones delivering urgent / medical and emergency / valuable supplies to remote areas in the northeast.

· Construction of a 1,000-bed hostel was completed this year. In addition, several other infrastructure projects such as a research park, the expansion of academic complexes, an EWS hostel for female students, the increase in HVAC facilities are underway as well as the extension of other blocks. major academic.

· With the support of the CM, the State Cabinet approved the establishment of a Faculty of Medicine and a Super Specialized Hospital at IIT Guwahati.

OPP and investments

Students at the institute received up to 179 PPOs in the 2021-22 academic year, which was the highest in the past three years.

· IIT Guwahati set a new all-time high in all investment fronts. So far, a total of 843 IITG students have been placed. Last year around this time, a total of 610 students were placed. So far, students have received five offers (including one international offer) of over Rs 1 crore per year.

Rankings

· IIT Guwahati maintained its position in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) by achieving a 07 ranking in the “Engineering” category this year and 08 ranking in India in the “Global” category of the NIRF 2021.

· IIT Guwahati was ranked 41 (world rank) in the Research Citations category while increasing to 395 in the QS world rankings. The institute was also ranked in the top 51-100 in the Petroleum Engineering category while also being ranked high in 10 other subject categories internationally.

Launch of new courses

· Academic activities in five new schools and four new centers at IIT Guwahati were launched, including bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.

In October 2021, IIT Guwahati launched a new B.Tech program in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, IIT Guwahati launched its business school for various MBA courses.

Collaborations

The first group of international MTech students from India and Japan graduated from IIT Guwahati-Gifu University in 2020-21. As of 2019, this program is the only such degree in India that allows an enrolled student to receive an international MTech degree with a mutual participation program.

· IIT Guwahati and Mizoram University have collaborated to jointly develop educational programs and foster R&D activities in addition to promoting student exchange.

In September 2021, the institute collaborated with the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in the implementation of the AICTE-GAINER program (Grant for Augmenting Infrastructure in North-East Region). Under this program, financial support is provided to technical institutions in the northeast to help solve water and energy problems.

· The institute has also collaborated with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (AVV), a reputable private university based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, in education and research activities. This will help enrich the academic programs and promote the exchange of students between two institutions.

IIT Guwahati collaborated with Oil India to develop new technologies for energy and related sectors and focus on transfer of existing technologies, knowledge enhancement, innovation partnership, training and skills development

· IIT Guwahati and the Brahmaputra Board of Directors have joined forces to resolve river issues and also to use rivers more effectively for the benefit of people. The collaboration should help evolve with innovative technology that will contribute to better management of rivers like the Brahmaputra.

The institute works in close collaboration with the government of the State of Assam on several projects related to the health sectors, infrastructure development, improvement of science education in the northeast region, to communications, water resources and management, application of drone technology to various sectors, agriculture, COVID management, vaccine delivery, etc.

Reforms

In order to enhance the international reputation of IIT Guwahati, the institute launched “ART of an institution”, where “A” represents administration, “R” represents research and “T” represents teaching, with the firm hope that a beautiful collaboration between the three and an environment conducive to the growth of individual and collective talents is encouraged to advance IIT Guwahati to the highest level of international achievement and better service to society.