CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has admitted five athletes with national accomplishments under its ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA) category for the academic year 2024-25, according to an official statement.
In February 2024, IIT Madras became the first IIT in the country to introduce admissions for athletes under the SEA category in its undergraduate programmes. This initiative is offered through two supernumerary seats in each of its undergraduate programmes for Indian nationals, of which one will be reserved for female students.
The five students who have been selected for admission at IIT Madras are: Arohi Bhave (volleyball) from Maharashtra, admitted into BS (medical sciences and engineering); Aryaman Mandal (water polo and swimming) from West Bengal, admitted into BTech (computer science and engineering); Nandini Jain (squash) from Delhi, admitted into BTech (computer science and engineering); Prabhav Gupta (table tennis) from Delhi, admitted into BTech (artificial intelligence and data science) and Vangala Vedavachan Reddy (lawn tennis) from Andhra Pradesh, admitted into BTech (artificial intelligence and data science).
“Sports Excellence Admission is an initiative of IIT Madras primarily to send the important message that children must be encouraged to play. I sincerely hope this reaches everyone,” said V Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras.