Highlights
- Elite Indian engineering institute holds convocation in virtual reality mode
- Virtual avatar of each student was created for the ceremony
- The convocation was broadcast live on public broadcaster
Thousands of university graduates have missed out on lavish, traditional convocations throughout the world due to the pandemic.
One institute in India, though made it special for its graduating batch.
The Indian Institute of Technology, one of India’s top-ranking engineering institutes held a VR convocation for the graduating students on Sunday.
A personalised avatar of each graduate received the degree certificate from the personalised avatar of the Director of the Institute, Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri.
“The Institute thought it best to arrange such a VR-convocation for the graduating students as we did not wish to put their health at risk but at the same time, we did not wish to deprive them of the sense of achievement and pride of passing out of India’s premier engineering Institute,” Director Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri said.
“Providing a virtual reality experience to all our graduates needed not only highly innovative steps but also a tremendous effort by our professors and staff. They did it for the students. Hopefully, this will enthuse our graduates as well as other engineers in the country to think big and think innovatively”.
All medal winners received their medals from the personalized avatar of the Chief Guest, Prof. Duncan Haldane, co-recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, and a Professor of Physics at Princeton University in the US.
Among the medal winners, the ‘President of India Medal’ was bestowed on Sahil Shah, a (B.Tech) student from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Thrilled to have received the honour, Mr Shah said it was overwhelming to see his avatar receive the medal from the Chief Guest.
“It was overwhelming. Due to the convocation being nationally televised and being the first of its kind, it garnered much media attention and was seen by all my friends and family. While it was extremely gratifying to see the fruit of four years of hard work, I was also nostalgic and disappointed to see such an incredible chapter of life come to an end so suddenly.
“I think it was a great initiative by the college administration and student volunteers. Besides allowing students to share the momentous day with all their loved ones, an e-convocation also provides much-needed closure since the abrupt departure from campus made coming to terms with the end of college life extremely hard.
"I am sure every 2020 graduate would wish to be reunited with their batchmates one last time but under the circumstances, a virtual convocation is the closest thing one must settle for,” he told SBS Hindi.
Mr Shah has scored a job with a high-frequency trading firm, Tower Research Capital in Singapore.
“In light of the pandemic, I am currently working remotely from home but I plan to join the company in Singapore soon,” he said.
Of 381 PhDs and other dual degrees awarded, an additional 33 joint PhD degrees were conferred to students who graduated from the IITB-Monash Research Academy, an academy formed under a special partnership with Melbourne-based Monash University. The degrees were conferred by the Vice-Chancellor and President of Monash University Prof. Margaret Gardner, on the occasion.
