MANDI: Indian Institute of Technology Mandi awarded degrees to its 462 graduates including 348 male and 114 female and  64 PhD students, the highest number in an academic year till date at its 10^th Convocation celebrated in its campus here on Monday.   

Prof. Stuart R. Hameroff, University of Arizona, U.S.A. graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. 

Prof. Stuart R. Hameroff, M.D. is the Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. 

Prof. Hameroff is responsible for over a hundred scientific articles and book chapters. He taught a course on science consciousness to establish collaborative research with researchers at IIT Mandi.

Congratulating the students Prof. Stuart R. Hameroff said, “Consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe. An 'inward hierarchy' in quantum brain biology is consistent with Indian Knowledge systems (e.g. 5 Koshas).

Quantum state reduction can occur at various levels of the brain hierarchy- 'Atman from Brahman', he said.

At deeper inward levels, consciousness may exist in spacetime geometry independent of biology, he added.

There are therapies which aimed at microtubule, a narrow hollow tube like structure inside a cell, resonance.  “The painless, safe and pleasant brain ultrasound can treat mental and cognitive disorders”, he observed

Hameroff advised students to consider Quantum Computing and Quantum Biology, which will be the future.

This year 33 female students in undergraduate programme, 49 in postgraduate and masters’ programmes, 28 in Ph.D. programme and 04 in iPh.D programme have graduated from IIT Mandi, surpassing the numbers from the previous years.

Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Secretary, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi, Dr. Kingshuk Banerjee, Director, Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, and Mr. Woochan Chang, Director, KOICA India, New Delhi were the Guests of Honor. 

Prof. Prem Vrat, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Mandi presided over the Convocation event.

Prof. Prem Vrat said, “IIT Mandi has equipped the students with good attitude, knowledge and skill to be a good human being and a successful professional”.

They have received ‘guru dakshina’ and imbibed the values of inclusive and sustainable development.

“Continue to remain a student all life and Keep an open mind, and keep learning from life”, he said in his inspirational address.  

Prof. Laxmidhar Behera, Director, IIT Mandi, said, “Our graduating students will become the torch bearer of the Institute".

"I am sure that their professional competencies and uncompromising character will empower them to lead the society in various ways”, he added. 

“Their success will also be the success of IIT Mandi”, he added.  

Highlighting his vision for the Institute, Prof. Behera said, “In the coming years, my focus will be to encourage faculty members and research scholars to publish impactful research works that are at par with the best Universities across the world”.

“We must be solving real-live problems around us that will impact the lives of the people around”, he asserted.

“To encourage the research ecosystem, we have raised the seed grant to faculty members from 5 lacs to15 lacs”, Prof Behera said. 

Delivering this year’s Valedictorian’s address, Mr. Ashish Anand, a silver Medalist, B.Tech  said, “After joining IIT Mandi, we started to go through the part of life which we lived for the last 4 years".

"We have had experiences ranging from  lectures, labs, assignments and playing games, campus tours or celebrating birthdays at midnight or going on treks and trips or celebrating festivals”. 

The two students Piyush Goyal (B.Tech CSE 2022) and Bhumanyu Goyal(BTech CSE 2022 Batch)  got President of India  Gold Medal and Director's Gold medal respectively for their achievements on the occasion.  

Degrees awarded were: