NEW DELHI: In order to meet the requirement of professionals for the semiconductor sector and to skill a workforce who could teach mathematics better as well as to tap rural talent, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) is planning to introduce four-year bachelor of science programmes in electronic system design manufacturing and mathematics-computing along with BEd in online mode from the next academic year.

Speaking to TOI, professor V Kamakoti, said: "In India today, there is a big need for people who understand semiconductor electronics. Therefore, we are launching a four-year bachelor's online degree programme in electronic system design manufacturing, which is not just semiconductor, but chips, applications, embedded systems and so forth. We have already started working on it.

What makes this initiative interesting is that the IIT is not just launching the degree programmes, but also has started working at the school level to generate interest among school students towards these emerging areas.

Kamakoti said: "We made a very small A4 size electronic kit with which you can do hundred plus experiments. With the help of the Tamil Nadu government, we got 50 girls and 50 boys from government schools across Tamil Nadu and brought them to Chennai for a week and trained them on this kit. Now, we are making 2,500 such kits and have identified 250 large schools. We are training two teachers from each school and will send 10 kits to each school. This means 100,000 students each will get education on electronics at the school level. Even if 10% of these kids join and get into STEM we are done. Through this programme, IIT-Madras alone can satisfy a big need of the country.

The other online degree IIT-M is planning to launch is in mathematics and computing along with BEd. "If the country has to grow we need good mathematics teachers," said Kamakoti, adding that both these programmes will be launched by July 2023.