On September 18, IIIT Bangalore celebrated Foundation Day as it entered the silver jubilee year. It was on September 18, 1998 the institute was officially registered with the Karnataka Registrar of Society and thus was born India’s premier institution which was envisioned to play an important role in IT education in India. To mark this day, the celebrations were held at the institute auditorium. The event started with an invocation by our PhD student, Kartika and lamp lighting by our Director, Deans, Registrar and Students all key officials of IIIT Bangalore.
Our Director, Prof. Debabrata Das took us down the memory down the lane by sharing the journey of IIIT Bangalore from the conceptual stage to the implementation phase. It was very interesting to know that the Government of Karnataka formulated a comprehensive industrial promotional policy for the information technology industries in Karnataka in the year 1997. The important component of this IT Policy was to establish an autonomous Institute in Bangalore with the main objective of promoting research in software engineering and productivity and conducting short-term courses for the IT industry. Incidentally, Karnataka became the first Indian State to promulgate an IT policy. Prof Das said, “The institute as envisioned by the Government of Karnataka was expected to function as a nodal agency for the planned growth of IT education in the state. Before setting up this institute, which is one of its kind in Karnataka, various agencies of the government, officers, leading industry associations, IT industry experts, and academicians were involved in the IT sector. The recommendations evolved as a result of these discussions were examined by the government and it was proposed to set up an institute that would be an industry-driven initiative. Thus, the government of Karnataka passed an order on July 18, 1998, to establish the Indian Institute of Information Technology along the lines of IITs, with an objective to make it a globally recognized, specialized institution of higher learning in IT and establish Bangalore as the global centre of excellence in the software industry.”
The Foundation Day lecture was delivered by our Chairman, Mr. Kris Gopalakrshnan. While congratulating everyone responsible for creating a successful journey so far for the institute he said, “IIIT Bangalore was created by the industry and Government of Karnataka with a mission to support the innovation ecosystem in Bangalore. The institute has played a key role in research work, talent that has contributed to the industry. Faculty members have also played important role in consultation with industry and government, shaping policy, shaping strategies and thought leadership in the ecosystem”. He stressed upon the importance of chalking course of action for the next 25 years which interestingly coincides with India reaching 100 years after independence. He suggested that we weave our strategies, our role as in individual as well as collectively in building India at 100.
Unveiling of silver jubilee logo made the celebrations more festive. A logo was created to represent happiness and appreciation for togetherness and commitment for the last 25 years, providing motivation and encouragement for everyone involved. The logo for the silver jubilee year for IIIT Bangalore was selected on the basis of a competition conducted for the best silver jubilee logo which was open to faculty, staff, students and alumni of the institute. There were eight submissions and the selection committee selected the logo created by Mr. Manoj HP, Designer of IIIT Bangalore, who won a cash prize of Rs. 10,000. Our Director, Prof. Debabrata Das and Chairman, Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan unveiled the logo.
Mr. K Subramani, staff member known for his mathematical wizardry, recently created the ‘Largest Latin Square Using 1000 pi numbers’ in MS Excel. The interesting fact about this table is, the sum of each row, column and diagonals adds up to 4470. For this extraordinary feat, Mr. Subramani was awarded a certificate and a medal.
As a part of Foundation day celebrations, students, faculty and staff members set the stage on fire by entertaining the audience. The cultural programmes began with a song by Ms. Bhagya, a staff member from the Finance department followed by a classical music piece by Prof. Priyanka Das. Prof. Chandrashekar Ramanathan joined Symphony group of Music Club where he played jazz drums. A comedy play by the Theatre Club, ‘Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja’ tickled everyone’s funny bone. A dance performances of students, Praseeda and Vamshi and dance club was a visual treat.
