The Indian Institute of Technology Madras is known both nationally and internationally for excellence in technical education, basic and applied research, innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial consultancy. A faculty of international repute, a highly motivated and brilliant student community, excellent technical and supporting staff and an effective administration have all contributed to the pre-eminent status of IIT Madras.
In 1956, the German Government offered technical assistance for establishing an institute of higher education in engineering in India. The first Indo-German agreement in Bonn, West Germany for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras was signed in 1959.
The Institute was formally inaugurated in 1959 by Prof. Humayun Kabir, Union Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs. The IIT system has sixteen Institutes of Technology – the first of these to be instituted were at Kharagpur (estb. 1951), Mumbai (estb. 1958), Chennai (estb. 1959), Kanpur (estb. 1959), Delhi (estb. 1961), Guwahati (estb. 1994) and Roorkee (estb. 1847, joined IITs in 2001).
A globally recognised Institute
IIT Madras is a residential institute with nearly 550 faculty, 8000 students and 1250 administrative & supporting staff and is a self-contained campus located in a beautiful wooded land of about 250 hectares. The campus is located in the city of Chennai, previously known as Madras. Chennai is the state capital of Tamilnadu, a southern state in India.
The Institute has sixteen academic departments and a few advanced research centres in various disciplines of engineering and pure sciences, with nearly 100 laboratories organised in a unique pattern.
IIT Madras has been the top-ranked engineering institute in India for four consecutive years as well as the ‘Best Educational Institution’ in Overall Category in the NIRF Rankings of 2019 put out by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Insti Lingo
Any visitor to IIT Madras who spends a few minutes in the campus will find themselves in the midst of conversations that are happening in a different tongue. This is our very own Insti lingo – the IIT Madras lingo – which include words that extend beyond the realm of the bulkiest Oxford Dictionaries or the most exhaustive Websters.
Over the years, our students have developed their own indigenous vocabulary that symbolises the two traits of an IITian that distinguish him from the average guy next door—creativity and brevity. Simple phrases , such as “I crashed da...”, “Psued da.. ” or “Don’t put psued macha!”, will eventually come to make sense to a resident, who will marvel at the ingenuity of the lingo as they come to terms with it.