NEW DELHI: IIT Delhi held its 56th Convocation on Saturday, celebrating the achievements of 2,764 graduating students, including a record 530 PhD recipients. The event was graced by chief guest Dr. Tessy Thomas, FNAE —renowned as India’s “Missile Woman,” currently the Vice Chancellor of Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education. Harish Salve, Chairperson of the Board of Governors, presided over the ceremony.
This year marked the first batch of graduates from the B Tech in Energy Engineering and three postgraduate programmes—Interdisciplinary M Tech in Robotics, and MS(R) in VLSI Design and Artificial Intelligence. Among the graduates were 735 women and 43 international students from around 20 countries. Chandan Godara (20), B Tech in Civil Engineering, and Gopal Krishan Taneja (63), PhD, were the youngest and oldest graduates respectively.
Ankit Mondal (B Tech in Computer Science) received the President’s Gold Medal for the highest CGPA, while Jaskaran Singh Sodhi (Materials Science) was awarded the Director’s Gold Medal for best all-round performance. Devinder Kumar (M Tech in Structural Engineering) earned the Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma Gold Medal for academic and extracurricular excellence. Shreyansh Gupta and Soumili Chakraborti were awarded Perfect Ten Gold Medals for a flawless CGPA of 10 in their PG programmes. Sixteen students received institute silver medals.
In her address, Dr. Thomas lauded the institute’s role in nation-building and urged graduates to pursue ethical, inclusive, and sustainable technological solutions. She emphasized India’s transformation from a technology importer to an innovation exporter, citing ISRO launches, DRDO systems, indigenous semiconductors, AgriTech startups, and AI platforms as proof. She called on students to contribute to nation-building through engineering marvels in areas like decarbonization, water conservation, and digital equity, stating that institutions like IIT Delhi are central to realizing the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Director Prof. Rangan Banerjee encouraged students to continue learning with humility, integrity, and courage, adding that the large number of PhDs awarded reflects IIT Delhi’s growing research focus.
The institute recently introduced new programmes, including B Tech in Design, BSc in Chemistry, and M Tech/MS(R) in Photonics, and joint programmes with Sorbonne University. The convocation also saw the announcement of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards and the unveiling of the DAA Wall in the Lecture Hall Complex.