Brief

IIT Kharagpur institutes tech award

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has announced the institution of Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award. The award is aimed at promoting technical innovation and commemorates the spirit of its illustrious alumna Dr Nina Saxena, who passed away tragically in 2005. Open to all technologists who are Indian citizens, the award was announced at the IIT Kharagpur Foundation Day. It will be conferred every year on the same day on an individual who embodies the drive for technical excellence that Dr Saxena personified.

The award will be funded through an endowment of the Nina Saxena Memorial Fund that has been collected through the IIT Foundation, a non-profit organisation. The intent of the fund is to perpetuate excellence despite all odds. The charter of the fund is to provide facilities, mechanisms and opportunities to enable individuals to rise above expectations and serve society.

A distinguished committee has been formed to help confer the award. The award committee will be chaired by Director, IIT Kharagpur, and will comprise deans and selected faculty members of the institution and well-known alumnus, based in India and the US.

Prof Chakraborty, Dean, Alumni Affairs, IIT Kharagpur said, “Nina was a brilliant person. Her stellar intellectual achievements and technological excellence will always be remembered. Words are not enough to describe the void she has left behind. The award has been set up to keep the spirit of Nina alive and encourage the brightest technical minds in India to come ahead and innovate.”

Nominations for best application of technological practices or a technological breakthrough will be decided on the basis of these criteria; innovation above and beyond well known results, novel application of a well-known result, societal improvement, benefit to India, and application of technology to underdeveloped areas and causes.

Prof Chakraborty added, “We believe that this will be the first-of-its-kind award in technology excellence in India. Nina was a firm believer in the need to identify and recognise breakthrough technical excellence and innovations that benefit India and we want to make this the number one technology excellence award in India, year after year.”