The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : IIITians go nostalgic

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Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

IIITians go nostalgic

Special Correspondent

PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

All ears: IIIT students listening attentively to an expert’s speech at the institute’s foundation day celebrations on Tuesday. —

HYDERABAD: Students, teachers and administrative staff became nostalgic reminiscing about how they all strived hard in creating the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) marking the decennial foundation day celebrations here on Tuesday.

Rajeev Sangal, Director, recalled how A.P. Sawhney (presently Joint Secretary in the Government of India) called him and convinced him to take up the responsibility of creating the IIIT. He narrated how an all-India entrance test was conducted within a short span and admissions were made. Students were very apprehensive to take admissions, as they were told that they would get only diplomas, and not degrees. After that, there was no looking back, as the IIIT was conferred the status of a deemed university in 2001, even before the first batch passed out.

Sweet memories

Alumnus of the first batch Hemant Rokesh Gogineni recalled the naughty, yet responsible, conduct of the 50 students. He went down the memory lane recapitulating how they enjoyed their stay on the campus, which could not be called one those days, without a telephone to make calls, no-holds-barred lifestyle, collective responsibility demonstrated by students and teachers in creating a lab, networking the university, etc. He reminisced about the first class by Prof. C.N. Kaul at 8.30 a.m. on September 2, 1998. Prof. Kaul too shared his joyous moments amid lusty cheers from students.

To follow him was Vipul Kedia, student of the second batch, who narrated the sequence of events that resulted in the IIITians, sans any basic knowledge of computers, were trained to write difficult programs in just a year.

Nasscom president Som Mittal, Raj Reddy, chairman of the IIIT governing council, lauded the efforts of former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in conceiving and setting up the institute and Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy for turning the IIIT into a world class institution. Narendra Ahuja, Director (international) struck a sentimental chord with the students by turning poetic.

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