IIT Bombay graduates got the opportunity to be at their convocation and receive the degree from the Director or Chief Guest amid the coronavirus pandemic. Over 2,000 graduating students received their degrees on August 23, during the 58th convocation.
Institute director Dr Subhasis Chaudhuri gave away degrees to student’s virtual images, created using their photographic details. A team of 20 has worked for two months to make the virtual convocation to reality. The event was telecasted live on DD Sahyadri Channel at 1:30 PM and YouTube, Facebook pages.
“Our professors and students have worked hard over the last two months to create a first-ever, to the best of our knowledge, a virtual reality based e-convocation where personalised avatars of each student will be collecting their degrees or medals from the personalised avatar of the Director and Chief Guest,” wrote Dr Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay, on his official Facebook page.
Nobel laureate for Physics in 2016 and professor of Physics at Princeton University, Duncan Haldane was the chief guest of the ceremony. Medal winners received their awards from the avatar of the chief guest.
Co-convenor of the convocation committee P Sunthar said that the entire IIT Bombay campus has been replicated in virtual reality. The departments, hostels, and popular meeting points for students have been created virtually for the students so that they can engage and experience the convocation as they would have physically.
