Set on a sprawling 45-acre campus some 25 km east of Thiruvananthapuram, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) appears a sedate place at first glance. The buildings are mildly futuristic and the green hills, gently rolling. But it comes as no surprise that this place has, in a matter of eight short years, contributed a little over 400 promising young scientists/engineers to various units of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
With two BTech and a new dual degree programme, and over a dozen Master’s courses and PhD programmes, IIST has come a long way since September 2007, when it was inaugurated in a temporary campus next to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thumba, a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram. By June this year, IIST will kick off the BTech admission process for the 2015 batch once the JEE-Main conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and JEE-Advanced (conducted by the IITs) — the qualifying examinations — are over and the rank lists published.
Tens of thousands of youngsters apply from across the country, but only 140 — the finest of the finest, promise IIST officials — will make it to Valiyamala, where IIST is located. These are the boys and girls who hold the future of India’s space programme in their hands, says IIST Director KS Dasgupta, himself an ISRO veteran.
ISRO’s own achievements — Chandrayaan, the moon mission and the more recent Mangalyaan Mars project especially — have helped bolster IIST’s own credibility as Asia’s first space tech institute. And the institute has done much since 2007 to attract the best brains in the country. The best example is the BTech programme. It started out with three branches, Aerospace Engineering, Avionics and Physical Sciences — with 60, 60 and 36 seats respectively. From 2015, IIST has remodelled the Physical Sciences programmes into a five-year dual degree course, which offers the student both a BTech and either an MS or MTech in a chosen discipline.
BTECH AND DUAL DEGREE ADMISSIONS
BTech aspirants have to sit for the JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced and then register online for the IIST admissions. There are two big attractions for the BTech and dual degree programme — the financial assistance given by the Department of Space and absorption into ISRO after graduation. Conditions apply for both, and in bold. Every semester the student has to secure “a minimum” 7.5 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) to get the financial assistance for the next semester. Otherwise s/he will have to pay the fees. Likewise, absorption into ISRO after graduation hinges on the vacancies available that year and only if the student has a CGPA of 7.5 out of 10. Even then, the jobs will be provided in order of merit.
Since ISRO has the first right for absorbing eligible students, the condition is that the latter should serve with ISRO for a minimum of three years, or pay `10 lakh. In a bid to strengthen its BTech programmes, IIST had made some fundamental changes in 2013. Up till then, the condition was that IIST graduates with a CGPA of 6.5 would be absorbed into ISRO where they had to work for a minimum of five years. In 2013, IIST raised the bar to 7.5 CGPA but reduced the residency period from five years to three years. “We wanted to create a sense of competition. But it has also become a win-win situation for all,” Dasgupta says.
MTECH AND PHD PROGRAMMES
Presently, IIST offers 13 MTech programmes and one MS course under six departments. The former includes Propulsion, Aerodynamics, VLSI and Microsystems, Earth Systems Science, Geo-informatics, Solid State Technology and Optical Engineering. The MS programme is in Astronomy and Astrophysics. In addition to this, IIST has a strong PhD programme which is basically of two types, high-value scholarships with a monthly stipend of `35,000 and the standard scholarship based on University Grants Commission norms.
HISTORY
The future — specifically the availability of capable hands — has been a matter of concern for ISRO over the past several years. This was the primary reason for establishing IIST under the Department of Space in 2007. Then ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair inaugurated IIST on a temporary campus next to the VSSC, Thumba, in September 2007. The institute moved to a permanent home near the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiyamala, on August 15, 2010.
BN Suresh, a senior ISRO hand and former director of VSSC, was the first director. Shortly afterwards, after it won ‘deemed to be university’ status, former President APJ Abdul Kalam took over as Chancellor.
LIFE AT IIST
At 7.25 pm on May 12, 2012, a 2.31 metre-tall sounding rocket (a sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight) lifted off from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). Since the 1960s, hundreds of sounding rockets have whizzed skywards from this spot, but this one was different. ‘Vyom’ was built by IIST students with the help of VSSC scientists. It was the also country’s first ‘student rocket.’ “It was a perfect launch. All flight parameters matched,” then VSSC director PS Veeraraghavan had said after the launch. Now, a student-built nano-satellite is on the cards, say IIST officials. “It’s the place to have fun while doing hard-core research,” says Mofeez Alam, a fourth-year Aerospace Engineering student. A regular space buff, the youngster from Bihar is looking forward to a career with ISRO. So is Shirisha Bethi, from Andhra Pradesh, a fourth-year Avionics student. “I had got admission to IIT-Madras. But I preferred IIST,” she says with a smile.
— tikirajwi@newindianexpress.com
New Dual Degree
From this year onwards, ISRO’s space academy in Valiyamala, Thiruvananthapuram, has a juicy, ‘best of two worlds’ offer for undergraduates. The IIST has overhauled its four-year BTech Physical Sciences course into something substantial; a ‘dual degree’ programme which promises students both a BTech as well as a Master’s. “It’s a five-year programme at the end of which a student gets a BTech degree in Engineering Physics. S/he also stands to get either an MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics or Solid State Physics or Earth System Science or an MTech in Optical Engineering,” says Dr Raveendranath P, chairman, BTech Admissions, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIST. The course, however, does not come with an exit option at the end of four years.
On the undergraduate side, IIST has been offering four-year BTech programmes in Aerospace Engineering, Avionics and Physical Sciences. While the first two has 60 seats each, Physical Sciences had 36. With the latter metamorphosing into the five-year dual degree programme in 2015, the number of seats has plummeted from 36 to 20. The total student intake has dropped from 156 to 140 on account of it, but that notwithstanding, the new programme definitely adds to IIST’s growing appeal, feels IIST director KS Dasgupta. “We converted the Physical Sciences course to create more job potential. Students who complete this course will be far better than any regular MSc. In fact, they’ll have the best of two worlds,” Dasgupta says. “With this course, IIST hopes to create a strength-focused intellectual community, which will be able to take on the challenges in space science and other R&D programmes of the country,” he says.
Director Speak
Challenges are what the ISRO is all about,” says senior space scientist KS Dasgupta who took over the reins of IIST in December 2010, just four months after the academy moved to its permanent campus. Grooming future space scientists for an organisation which he had joined way back in 1974 has indeed been a challenge, and a pleasure, he says.
The primary aim for establishing IIST — supplying capable scientists and engineers for ISRO — is being met wonderfully, he feels. “We are addressing the resource needs of ISRO. Every year 105-106 students are being absorbed in various ISRO units. The batches from 2007 to 2010 have graduated and 400-odd students have joined ISRO so far,” he says.
“We wanted to follow the Caltech-JPL model here. In fact, since 2013-14, the toppers of the BTech Aerospace Engineering programme have been getting an opportunity to pursue their Master’s at Caltech. Aditya Chipalkar, who was the first student to do his MS there has already joined the VSSC. The second student Pranav Nath has already left for Caltech,” Dasgupta says. The agreement with the United States Space Research Association (USRA) also allows toppers of all three UG branches to do their projects outside the country. “They get an opportunity to work with the top scientists in the field. Their confidence levels go up phenomenally,” he says.
Dasgupta, who belongs to West Bengal, himself had joined the Space Application Centre (SAC) , Ahmedabad, in 1974 after doing his MTech at Jadavpur University. He later completed his PhD at IIT-Bombay, and held several important posts in ISRO before moving to IIST. “ISRO is a place you get addicted to it. It keeps egging you on to do new things and experiment. It’s a learning process,” he says.
