Premji calls upon IISc students to give back to society

During the convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Thursday, Wipro chairman Azim Premji took the opportunity to detail two high-profile technology projects while trying to infuse graduates with the spirit of giving back to society.

After pointing out Wipro’s 40-year association with the institute, Premji detailed two projects, which are being jointly developed with IISc, including a driverless car and a programme to build India’s first indigenous Metal 3D printing machine, which he said was in an advanced stage of development.

The Wipro chief later dodged questions related to these projects, but the crux of his subsequent speech, to those graduating, involved describing the importance of collaboration across different sectors, be it education, research, institutions, industry, civil society and government.

He also called on students to give something back to society to help those less advantaged.

Several of the graduate and gold medal winners that DH spoke to appeared to take this message to heart.

Deval Karia, who was recognised as the Best Master of Development student this year, said he was working on an affordable insulin pump, which will better the lives of diabetes patients.

He added that although he can get a job in the private sector, he will stay with the IISc as a project associate, to bring his insulin pump to the market by next year at the earliest.

Another medal winner, Dr Satyapaul Singh, who was awarded for best PhD thesis in chemical engineering, said he was in the process of working with nanotechnology to bring solutions for environmental protection and water purification, which he described as urgent problems which the country is facing.

A third medal winner, Dr Neena K K, recognised for her research on a new class of Boron-Nitrogen Components, also said she was staying back in IISc to do post-doctoral studies. “I am helping to develop an organic light-emitting diode (Led), which will not only save power but will be cheaper than current-generation LEDs,” she said.

A total of 883 students graduated from IISc
this year.