Hola, freshies! Starting this year, IIT Madras has introduced several significant changes to its academic programs, aiming to provide greater flexibility in course selection and a balanced approach to academics and extracurricular activities. Here is the gist of all the new initiatives.
New Program – B.Tech. in Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics
Starting this year, IIT Madras will offer a B.Tech. in Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA). This degree is being offered by the newly inaugurated Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The WSAI aims to bring all the ongoing efforts in AI at IIT Madras under one umbrella. It has several affiliated research centers, such as:
- The Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI, which comprises one of the country’s largest active groups in network analytics, reinforcement learning, natural language processing and deep learning. This center has grown to encompass over 14 IIT Madras departments doing both foundational and applied work in AI.
- AI4Bharat, a research lab at IIT Madras that develops open-source applications for Indian languages.
- The Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), an interdisciplinary research centre for research in the domain of Ethical and Responsible AI.
Credits and Grading System
Credits, often called credit-hours or units, represent the number of hours a student is supposed to spend in class or studying per week. One credit indicates an effort of 50 minutes (1 credit-hour) per working week. One credit-hour of lecture maps to two credit-hours (1 hour 40 minutes) of study outside the classroom to fully engage with the material and complete the assigned work. Thus, a course with 3 lectures a week is usually a 3 + (3 x 2) = 9 credit course, indicating that a student needs to put in 9 credit-hours (7 hours 30 minutes) of work a week on this course in total. This covers time inside and outside the classroom put together.
Course grades are worth a certain number of points. A student’s Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is calculated based on the grades received and the number of credits each course is worth. The grade system followed is:
| Grade | Grade Points |
| S | 10 |
| A | 9 |
| B | 8 |
| C | 7 |
| D | 6 |
| E | 4 |
| U | 0 |
| I | Incomplete Course (Will be converted into Pass (E to S) or U in the same semester) |
| W | Insufficient Attendance (Discontinued from the Jul-Nov 2024 Semester) |
| P | Insufficient Attendance (Jul-Nov 2024 onwards) |
The CGPA is calculated by multiplying each course’s grade points by its credits, summing these products, and then dividing by the total number of credits.
Assume a student takes four courses in a semester with the following grades and credits:
- Course 1: Grade S (10 points), 3 credits
- Course 2: Grade A (9 points), 4 credits
- Course 3: Grade B (8 points), 2 credits
- Course 4: Grade C (7 points), 3 credits
Reduction in Number of Credits Required
The number of credits a student must complete to obtain an undergraduate degree has been reduced from 432 to 400, slightly more than a 7% reduction in the total credit requirement. This move was introduced to help alleviate the academic workload on students. Via this move, the administration aims to ensure that students have ample time for in-depth learning as well as extracurricular activities and exploring the other opportunities the institute has to offer.
Provision to Change ‘E’ Grade to ‘D’ Grade
Students will now be provided with an opportunity to change their ‘E’ grades to ’D’ grades through a supplementary exam. Faculty will be using specific guidelines to approve or reject requests for such grade changes. In particular, the supplementary exam can only be taken up in the immediately succeeding offer of the exam. A combination of a make-up exam followed by a supplementary exam will not be permitted. Core courses and electives will differ in the manner in which they support this facility.
For Core Courses:
Supplementary exams will be offered in a course if any students have obtained a ‘U’ grade in the course. This will then be the ONLY option for those who earned an ‘E’ grade to apply to change it to a ‘D’. A faculty member will not need to offer a supplementary exam if the course has not registered any ‘U’ grades. Then, he/she will identify an equivalent NPTEL course that the students with an ‘E’ grade can complete and earn a ‘D’.
For Elective Courses:
Since it is not mandatory for a faculty member to offer a supplementary exam (even if there are ‘U’ grades in the course), those with ‘E’ grades will do an equivalent NPTEL course (identified by the faculty member) to improve it to a ‘D’. In case the faculty member is willing to offer a supplementary exam for those with ‘U’ grades, then those with ‘E’ grades MUST take that exam for improving to ‘D’; they will not be allowed to do an NPTEL course.
The supplementary exam is another end-semester exam; hence, the sessional marks (Quiz 1/2 plus assignments/projects) will remain as they are.
Discontinuation of ‘W’ Grade and Introduction of ‘P’ Grade
The ‘W’ grade, which was earlier given on grounds of insufficient attendance, has been discontinued from the July-Nov 2024 Semester. Instead, a ‘P’ grade will be allotted if the attendance is below 75% as prescribed by the administration. A ‘W’ grade prevented the student from completing the course. With a ‘P’ grade, this will no longer be the case.
- A ‘P’ grade will exclude the student from a make-up exam, supplementary exam, grade improvement exam.
- A ‘P’ grade will prevent application to Positions of Respondibility (PoRs)
- Repeated absence during a semester, or getting two ‘P’ grades in the same semester or adjacent semesters, will result in escalation of the issue, and action, as found appropriate.
- In some courses, attendance may be treated as class participation and may be suitably incentivized.
Branch Change Discontinued
Up until last year, a few students were permitted to change their branches based on their CGPA after the first semester. This system has been discontinued starting this year (2024-25). It has been deemed unnecessary because the existing curriculum is flexible in terms of selecting both professional and free electives.
- Professional electives are those typically offered by the student’s own department and are designed to complement the student’s core curriculum and provide deeper knowledge in their chosen field.
- Free electives can be chosen from any department at IIT Madras. This allows students to explore diverse subjects and interests outside their core department.
Students take 40%-50% of their courses through electives. Taking 4 free electives from a specific department entitles the student to get a Minor from that department, helping them make career plans and prepare for placements.
Students can also switch to an ‘IDDD’ (Inter-Disciplinary Dual Degree) after their 5th semester. IDDD is a unique academic program that allows students to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree simultaneously in different disciplines. Through this program, one obtains a B.Tech in their original branch and an M.Tech in the IDDD branch. The IDDDs currently offered by the institute are:-
- Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
- Complex Systems and Dynamics
- Biomedical Engineering
- Computational Engineering
- Cyber-Physical Systems
- Data Science
- Electric Vehicles
- Energy Systems
- Robotics
- Quantum Science and Technology
- Quantitative Finance
- Public Policy
- Tech MBA
New Initiatives for Freshers
New compulsory recreational courses to be taken in the first year are being introduced for the upcoming batches. All of these are ‘Pass/Fail’ courses (no grades assigned upon completion) and are 2 credits each. These are broadly classified into:
- Sports
- Cultural
- Co-curricular
- Self improvement
For years, IITM has had the NSO/NCA/NSS/NCC system, which is a 3 credit mandated course for all freshers in their first and second semesters. NSO involves sports, NCA involves cultural activities, NCC is the National Cadet Corps, and NSS is the National Service Scheme and deals. The newly added recreational courses are intended not to have any pre-requisites and to students to try out the various activities that interest them.
The Life Skills Courses (GN1101 and GN1102) that have been part of the curriculum fall into the realm of personal and professional development. These courses were previously worth 0 credits each, but are now being converted to 2 credits each and will continue to remain Pass/Fail courses.
Workshop sessions, which used to take place for two weeks each during the summer break and winter break following the first two semesters, are being integrated into the semester, with the addition of two more weeks of vacation.
New entrepreneurship courses have been added in the third and fourth semesters. Students can pick from a basket of courses according to their interests. This is aimed at exposing them to entrepreneurship and enabling them to explore their options.
Elective Semester
The sixth semester (eighth semester in the case of dual degree) has been structured across all departments such that there are no compulsory courses. This is aimed at providing students with greater flexibility to pursue their interests including taking preferred free electives from other departments, an exchange semester in another university or a semester-long internship.
These pursuits can be planned accordingly by students. Currently, a semester has about 54 credits on average, with a maximum cap of 66 credits or 75 credits to obtain an Honors degree (applicable after fifth semester). With the inclusion of 8 ungraded credits in the form of Life Skills and Recreational Courses, the total number of graded credits comes down to 392.
Early Exit
In cases where students feel, after coming here, that engineering is not their calling and want to switch paths, they can now exit early in their third year with a B.Sc degree after satisfying a minimum credit requirement set up by their respective departments. This can either be a degree in General Engineering or a specialization in their respective department, e.g. ‘B.Sc in General Engineering with specialization in Mechanical Engineering’. The criteria for specialization are set by individual departments.
With these reforms, the administration aims to reduce the academic burden on students. New initiatives such as the B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics have been introduced, while old procedures such as the branch change and the ‘W’ grade have been discontinued. Other changes have also been introduced with the aim of improving the balance between academic and extracurricular activities, and permitting students to have more say in their coursework.
Edited by Kavya Swaminathan
