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EDUCATION /RESEARCH NEWS
FUELLING HIGH END RESEARCH
IN INDIA
IIT
Madras Talks Joint PhDs with US Universities
Move
to improve profile of students & produce globally relevant research
Last
July, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) director Bhaskar
Ramamurthy and external relations dean R Nagarajan set off on a rather
unusual mission: to ask American universities whether they were interested
in offering joint PhD programmes with IIT Madras. The IITs have got the
best undergraduate students in India – probably in the world – but their
PhD programmes were not going too well. Most IIT undergraduates left for
high-paying jobs or management education after their degree and the
remaining went for PhD in overseas universities. All the IITs were working
to change this, and IIT Madras had found its own unique method. Ramamurthy
and Nagarajan went to 20 American universities. These universities were not
picked at random. They had IIT Madras alumni as senior faculty who could be
used to broker relationships. IIT Madras, like many top institutions, had a
number of collaborations between the faculty in many universities. But
Ramamurthy wanted to take the collaboration to a deeper level culminating
in a joint PhD programme in the near future. IIT Madras had one such
programme with National University of Singapore, but it had not gone too
well -- only one student had used it in six years. Ramamurthy wanted to sow
the ground first with US universities before offering joint PhD programmes.
Their tour went exceptionally well. US universities were too keen to
collaborate with IIT Madras. Michigan State University was eager to get to
a joint PhD programme quickly, as soon as later this year. Two others,
Purdue University and the University of Maryland, also wanted to move on to
deeper relationships culminating in a joint PhD programme.
IIT Madras expects more US universities to join this list soon which should
expand to include universities from other countries. Taiwanese universities
are at the top of the list outside the US since they found many IIT PhDs
end up in the Taiwanese semiconductor firms.
THE SHIFT
The IITs are now in the middle of a paradigm shift as they try to morph
from world-class teaching institutions to world-class research centres.
Their PhD students are an important part of this shift. But they have not
been able to persuade their undergraduate students to do PhDs in their own
institutions. Integrated programmes for undergrads have had very few takers
while their masters and PhD students come from other engineering colleges,
and often with inadequate preparation for the rigour of a PhD programme.
Most of them do not get exposed to global trends during their PhDs and the
IITs do not get foreign students to any significant degree. Meanwhile, IIT
faculty has got strong hints about the possibilities of sending students
abroad. “We’ve seen students who go abroad come back transformed,” says
Ramamurthy.
IIT faculty has found that students who spend some time abroad on
collaborative projects are better prepared for continuing their research
work here. They also meet students from many countries and get a better
sense of their own place in the global education ecosystem. Unlike the
great universities, IITs are not ethnically-diverse campuses. Foreign research
students come to India in small numbers but IITs and other institutions are
keen to increase their presence. “A joint PhD is a good way to bring
visitors to our own campuses,” says Ramamurthy.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The IIT Madras brains trust also thinks that the opportunity to work in
two universities in different environments will be a good motivation for
students to pursue PhDs in their institution. Says Nagarajan: “This
programme is not for everybody. Only 10% of the students will be able to
earn a joint degree.” The joint PhD students are to be selected based on
their performance in the initial two years of work after beginning their
PhD programme. Then they will spend one year in the US university working
on a problem – usually complementary to their IITM work – given by the US
professor. The student will then return and finish the degree requirements
at IITM and be awarded a joint degree with the US university. The MoU may
involve an equal partnership where US students will come to IITM for a year
and are awarded joint degrees too. In practice, a substantial number of new
rules have to be worked out by both universities before they can sign a
deal.
IIT Madras has recently seen an increase in the number of external
collaborations, and it had hired a full-time official to look after their
progress. Professors in universities work together often, but in recent
times collaborations have started going up a level in scope and have
resulted in MoUs between the parent institutions. Michigan State University,
for instance, has 160 collaborations with other universities. The Obama
Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative, signed during US President Obama’s
trip to India, now funds some of these collaborations between Indian and
American institutions. Michigan State University is an important
collaborator for IITM, as are the University of Maryland and Purdue
University.
All the IITs have an extensive alumni network in the US and IITM is drawing
heavily on this to pursue collaborations. One such alumnus is Suresh Garimella,
professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology
Center in Purdue University. Garimella is responsible in many ways for
pursing this collaboration with IITM. Purdue is vigorously multicultural
and hosts the second largest number of global students in a US university.
Purdue is keen on pursuing relationships in India. “IIT Madras and Purdue
have good resonance between their missions and capabilities,” says
Garimella.
Michigan State University, on the other hand, is already working on
products with IITM. Syed Hashsham, professor of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, works among other things on the rapid detection of
microorganisms in water. He is collaborating with T Pradeep, professor of
chemistry at IITM, who is a nanotechnologist and has developed filters for
pesticide removal.
The two are combining to develop methods to quickly detect both chemicals
and microorganisms in water. “You have put water treatment plants in many
houses in India,” says Hashsham, “but we do not have any method to test
whether they are working after some time.” Safe drinking water is a global
need and research problems like this tackled by universities are now global
in their scope. They increase the need for collaboration between
researchers, who are now looking for students with all-round capabilities.
The electrical engineering and communication department of the University
of Maryland, for one, works on two areas of interest to IITM: low energy
communication and high efficiency solar cells. But their area of expertise
are different. While University of Maryland faculty is skilled in the
packaging of solar cells, IITM is good at fabrication. The two are
combining to develop highly-efficient solar cells. “We have experience in
the same field but we not the same expertise,” says Prakash Narayan,
professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of
Maryland. Students stand to gain when trained by faculty with different
skills.
One of the aims of IIT Madras is to make sure the funding is just right.
“We don’t want this to be a get-rich programme,” says Nagarajan, “because
the students will then be attracted to it for the wrong reason.”
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