IIT Madras Launches New Campus To Accommodate The Increasing Research Infrastructure Requirements Of Students And Faculty.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Discovery Campus in Thaiyur, near Chennai, on February 14. IIT Madras said the new campus will accommodate the growing requirements of students and faculty for research infrastructure.
In the presence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Banwarilal Purohit, and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, and a host of other dignitaries, the virtual opening took place.
This IIT Madras satellite campus will have independent research centers with large dedicated facilities and will have its own support infrastructure, such as research scholars and fellowship hostels, common instrumentation laboratories and conference facilities, among other facilities. In 2019, the state government allocated 163 acres of land to IIT Madras at Thaiyur, which is located about 36 kilometers from Guindy’s main campus.
After it was declared an institution of eminence in 2019, research activities at IIT Madras got a boost. The satellite campus at Thaiyur has been planned primarily as a research campus to create research facilities over the next decade. For the Discovery Campus, two research centres have already been planned and will be operational by the end of 2021. These include the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts, funded by the Government of India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. The second research center on the Discovery Campus is the Centre of Propulsion Technology’s solid propellant combustion modeling facility, which is funded by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
These include the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts, funded by the Government of India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. It will house the first large ‘Shallow Water Basin’ facility for coastal and estuarine research and industrial applications in the country (95mx65m). The entire Gulf of Kutch or the mouth of the Hoogly River, for instance, can be emulated by this basin. The Centre will also have a 360-degree (ship) bridge simulator dedicated to all major Indian ports for studies involving operations.
These research infrastructures will make the Discovery Campus a hot spot of discovery for the most interesting advanced research being carried out anywhere. A steady stream of global scientists and students will see the campus.
Together with the unique Main Campus and the IIT Madras Research Park, the IIT Madras Discovery Campus will take IIT Madras to the top of the world university league.
