Cover Story – Rendezvous

To Zanzibar, With love

Srivatsan — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 11:04:37 +0000

Six decades after its establishment, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras now has a campus coming up in Zanzibar, Tanzania, reflecting the longstanding friendship between India and Tanzania. The IIT-M Zanzibar is the first significant step towards the expansion of IITs beyond Indian borders, fostering an educational collaboration. Ahead of its launch, we meet the core team of the Zanzibar project to discuss the vision of the institution, its programs, and what the future holds

Srivatsan S

On July 6, 2023, barely a few weeks before marking the momentous occasion of the 60th Convocation Day, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras was etched in the annals

of history for an entirely different reason. For, nearly six decades later, the revered institution, which has consistently been the top ranked IIT in the country, became the first among IITs to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Education (MOE), India, IIT Madras, and Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Zanzibar (MoEVT).

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that Tanzania’s Zanzibar will be home to the first-ever Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus outside of India. Sharing hisexcitement on X (formerly Twitter), India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar wrote, “Witnessed the signing of the agreement on setting up of IIT Madras Zanzibar campus. Appreciate President Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi gracing the occasion, as also the presence of his Ministers. This historic step reflects India’s commitment to the global South.”

The agreement was signed amid distinguished dignitaries from both India and Tanzania including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Zanzibar’s President Hussein Ali Mwinyi. Quietly seated among them were two IIT-M alumni who were instrumental in setting the balls rolling for the Zanzibar project.

One was Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Dean, Office of Global Engagement, IIT-M. The other was Preeti Aghalayam, who, on her part, made history by becoming the first woman Director of an IIT campus. It was a moment that could have been a flash. But Raghunathan clearly remembers the headspace he was in, when he held the MoU in front of Zanzibar’s President and posed for the picture. “It was a historic moment for sure. But the other thing that was running in my mind was the kind of responsibility the team has,” says

Raghunathan, seated in his office at the Sudha and Shankar Innovation Hub, IIT Madras.

Raghunathan Rengaswamy was appointed as Dean of Global Engagement, which facilitates every international collaboration-relation within the institution, ever since it was established in February 2020.

While the conversation around an IIT Madras campus outside India came much later, says Raghunathan, the idea – of an IIT outside India – has been floating around for quite some time.

One way was to go completely online. For instance, when someone takes an online M.Tech course from anywhere in the world and has enough credits, they get a degree from IIT Madras. But it required the approval of the senate. “We have had many user-oriented programs for industries but not a complete online program. This was the initial idea to take IIT outside India and we were going through the process of getting it approved in the senate,” says Raghu.

Everything was set. The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was reportedly interested in facilitating the technical process for an online only program. “I don’t remember his name but one of them [from TCS] talked about the difficulty of remote programs; the fact that students will be attending classes from random places. He suggested that we should tie-up with a college and run our program through them, so that we have students coming to the class even if remotely.” This, apparently, was a working model for several international universities.

Raghunathan saw the potential. Unlike a satellite or offshore campus, the idea was to establish a partnership with universities that will solicit applications for IIT degrees. “In doing so, we get students from their campuses and at the same time, we wouldn’t dilute the IIT Madras quality of education,” says Raghu.

After several brainstorming sessions and multiple site visits, Raghu and Preeti came close to executing this model in Sri Lanka, while in Nepal, they were trying to work out the other model, which was to set up an offshore campus. Both proposals fell through. They were back to square one. Then came hope disguised in the form of a mail from the MoEVT, Zanzibar, Tanzania to set up an offshore campus.

‘An opportunity and a challenge’

For IIT Madras’ Director V Kamakoti, it was a question of need more than anything else. “There should be a genuine need for IIT-M to be fully involved for the institution’s growth. But the need alone isn’t sufficient without the government’s support. And then without a good higher education school system in the country, it would be meaningless. Otherwise, we would become a training institution rather than a School of Excellence,” says Prof. Kamakoti, adding that Tanzania-Zanzibar met these three parameters.

The Indian National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends that “high performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries”. It aims to find ways for “transformational reforms in school and higher education system to make India a ‘Vishwa Guru’.”

During NEP 2020, Kamakoti made a presentation to the Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan, who, in fact, suggested Tanzania. “Our wonderful Minister Pradhan-ji, given his knowledge in the petroleum industry, has a good understanding about Africa. When he mentioned Tanzania, I didn’t know where it was,” laughs Kamakoti.

Director Kamakoti was unsure whether the Government of Tanzania-Zanzibar would show as much interest. But the Government took proactive steps and within a span of weeks, the entire contingent from Tanzania arrived at IIT-M. “From then on, things moved at an astronomical pace with our energetic Binaya Pradhan-ji [High Commissioner of India, Tanzania] involved,” he adds.

It still wasn’t clear whether it was going to be an International Institute of Technology, Tanzania, hand-held by IIT Madras, or an entire offshore campus. This was when Raghunathan Rengaswamy led the delegation to Tanzania-Zanzibar along with Prof. Preeti Aghalayam, Prof. Ligy Philip, Prof. A Mani, and Director of IIT Tirupati, Prof. KN Satyanarayana.

When the team arrived in Zanzibar, all their doubts and uncertainty were addressed. The Minister of Education, Science, and Technology, Tanzania, Adolf Mkenda, made it quite clear that they want an IIT Madras Zanzibar institution and not a campus hand-held by IIT-M.

Raghunathan says the delegation was given the freedom to do “whatever we wanted”. “But at the same time, we didn’t want to promise anything that the Government of India would later say ‘no’ to. Having said that, there was support all the time [from both Governments] and we could always circle back.”

For Preeti Aghalayam, Director-in-charge, IIT Madras Zanzibar, it was about finding an ideological match. She throws caution that the new campus wouldn’t mimic IIT-M in any way. “There are foundational strengths of IIT-M we will retain,” she says, adding, “We want to encourage homegrown talent and be sensitive towards people — whether it is faculty, students or parents.”

She sees the Zanzibar campus “as an opportunity and a challenge” to protect the foundational principles of IIT-M.

What the future holds

The IIT Madras Zanzibar offers two programs: a four-year Bachelor of Science in Data Science and AI, and a two-year Master of Technology in Data Science and AI.

Why Data Science? “We had a push from MoEVT Zanzibar for a computer literacy or computer heavy program. Of course IIT Madras has a very strong Data Science program and globally many universities are moving towards Data Science and AI,” says Raghu, adding that the programs were mutually decided.

The new campus has an Advisory Council chaired by Raghunathan Rengaswamy, while the rest include distinguished names: Prof. Robin Mason, Pro-Vice Chancellor (International), University of Birmingham, Prof. Leonard Wantchekon, Founder and President, African School of Economics, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University, Dr. Mridula Nair, Research Fellow, Distinguished Inventor, Distinguished Alumna of IIT-M, Eastman Kodak Company, USA, and Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder and Chairman, Harappa Education.

There is a Program Advisory Committee comprising Prof. Sharat Chandran, IIT Bombay, Prof. C Pandurangan, IISc Bangalore and Prof. Mark Lee, University of Birmingham.

“We picked international people that we know will contribute or have done similar things in the past. We wrote to them and almost everyone wrote back immediately with a ‘yes’. The notion of a program advisory committee is to take care of the execution part, while the advisory council will look at the institute from a broader, global context, because we want this institute to be internationally recognised,” he adds.

One of the things we keep hearing about IIT-M is campus placements. Are there any measures being taken for campus placements at the Zanzibar campus?Raghunathan has no second thoughts about placements, given that the first batch of students to get their degrees will be in 2025, while the BS students will graduate in 2027.

“What we are trying to do with our teaching is to integrate a project with a company, followed by a longer project. That is how we are going to look at placements. Plus, Zanzibar and African regions are growing. Those companies need manpower and what better than local talent?”

For a relatively new and younger cousin in IIT-M Zanzibar, KN Satyanarayana foresees the key challenge — at least for the next few years — to be the campus culture.

“It is important to set the culture right for the campus and that is not happening anytime soon. Setting up a culture takes a long time,” he says, adding that, because it is a new campus and there is a lot of work to be done that might get overwhelming at times, it is always safe to determine the larger goal of the institution for the next 10 years.

As far as the future is concerned, Raghunathan has the last word. “It’s going to be a trade-off,” he says. The challenges at the Zanzibar campus seem to arise out of a chicken and egg problem: without generous funds for tuition, it is difficult to generate reputation, and without a great reputation, it is difficult to generate funds.

“IIT Madras has a great reputation, for instance, but that is not going to transfer lock, stock and barrel to the Zanzibar campus,” says Raghu.

Naturally, the campus has to develop a reputation by itself through merit, which would take a couple of years easily. So, how does one accelerate to achieve it? “I think we have to be technologically visible in Zanzibar and Tanzania,” he says, “As an institute, we should not just be educating students but bring about a technological change in the country. If that happens, everything will fall into place.”

Q&A

When you got a call from IIT Madras about a possible international campus in Zanzibar, how did you react?

Basically, they wanted my guidance because we established the IIT Tirupati campus. I was a little sceptical initially because I wasn’t sure whether IIT-M is going to be fully involved [like in the case of IIT Madras, where Germany played a major role in setting up the institution in the ‘50s and 60s] or going to assist them. But later when I visited Zanzibar along with Raghu and Preeti, and the kind of warm reception we got from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, I was convinced.

What were your initial impressions of Zanzibar from your visit? Did you have any suggestions from your side?

Zanzibar, I feel, is a strategic location for us to set up the campus. With tourism and a blue economy thriving there, Zanzibar is a central location in Tanzania. One of the briefs I gave them was, if you are going to set up a campus like IIT Madras, you need at least 500 acres of land. Or at least 300-400 acres. But eventually, I think they are getting more than 200 acres for the permanent campus.

As the Director of IIT Tirupati, what are the ways in which you can work with the Zanzibar campus?

Having worked at IIT Madras as a faculty, I have established some strong connections with the mother institution and Zanzibar campus too. I think research is one area where IIT Tirupati can collaborate and work with them in the future.

Prof. KN Satyanarayana

From the horse’s mouth

What was the first thought that crossed your mind when you heard about this idea from the Ministry of Education to set up a campus outside India?

First and foremost, how did IIT Madras come up? Back then, there was a need to establish a highly technical institution in the country. Germany offered us the help so they came to India and set up IIT-M. In fact, we had a lot of German professors as late as the late ‘80s who have contributed to the growth of this particular institution.

Today, some of the best practices we see at IIT-M have the German legacy, which also reflects how closely we work with them even today. We have visitors from Germany almost every week; it is a long standing relationship we have with them. These thoughts came up the moment we talked about Vishwa Guru during the National Education Policy [NEP] 2020. The Indo-German relationship that we enjoy at IIT-M, we wanted to have that with some other country.

Recently we had our 60th convocation and the time has come for us. This was my initial thought.

As the Director of IIT Madras, what do you think would be the ideal short and long term goals for the Zanzibar campus?

Short term for me is five years. I want to get at least three undergraduate and two postgraduate or two undergraduate and three postgraduate programs that would be of relevance to East Africa. Like our next next generation IITs, I would like to see if we can have five programs running in the institution. This is one.

A lot of Tanzanians are coming to IIT-M for their PhDs. So we want to generate local manpower who can become great teachers. We have been recruiting faculty and I didn’t expect five excellent resumes to come in short notice. A lot of our own faculty members are also going to contribute so the institute, as a whole, will be excellent.

My gut feeling is that we should start admitting 250 students every year. So that will be 125 in UG and 125 in PG. We should at least have a thousand students for some 10 years and see how everything turns out. We are now looking at interdisciplinary courses, not conventional engineering programs. That is going to make a major difference in Africa.

The other thing is, within the 215-acre, we want to start a Research Park. Imagine a G20 at the Research Park in Zanzibar. We would also like to expand more on Humanities and Management programs because Indo-african cultural relationships can be defined. That is very important. This is not just an education institution but also a meeting of two different cultures. We have a lot of commonalities and we have differences. While we should address the differences, we should cash in on the commonality.

The other thing is, like how we have a partnership with Purdue University for dualdegree programs, I want something like this in Zanzibar. These are my visions for the new campus.

One of the things we keep hearing about public-funded institutions such as IITs is that the net return is way less compared to the rate of expenditure. If implemented successfully, do you think international campuses will add another layer of revenue to the IITs?

No, I am not looking at revenue at this point. As Indians, we have a very big culture of sharing knowledge. So this is not a commercial proposal at all. At this point of time, whatever money is generated will be pumped back into that campus for its growth.

Any word of advice for Preeti Aghalayam, Director in-charge of the Zanzibar campus?

Preeti has done a great job. I think she is now in a state where she can advise me on how to go about this [laughs]. She has been with our Office of Global Engagement for quite some time and has understood Zanzibar very quickly. Preeti has a complete grip over the situation there. I am very happy that she is managing it so much on my behalf.

We are only a month away from the official launch. Excited?

In the history of IIT Madras, going over six decades back, we are the first to set up an international campus and the first class is going to happen. That is the most exciting thing for me. And that is also a message we are giving out to others. I think we are setting a good example with Zanzibar. It is going to be a learning lesson for us too. And from these lessons, we can help other IITs in the future.

Ready player one

Srivatsan — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 08:06:18 +0000

A decade after its inception, Raftar Formula Racing, the Formula Student Team of IIT Madras, is all set to present its first electric car on a global stage. Ahead of the upcoming Formula Student competition to be held in Hockenheimring, Germany, we look at Raftar’s evolution over the years, and have a chat with its crew members and faculty advisors

Srivatsan S

It’s quarter to three on a painfully sultry Saturday afternoon, where the sun doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. We wipe the sweat from our faces along with the thought that it’s going to be over soon, a sentiment that all of us who have gathered at the Office of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR), IIT Madras, seem to collectively share. Now, it’s just a question of minutes before the demonstration begins.

Amidst all this, we hear chatter emerging from the road that runs parallel to IC&SR where a group of students appear silhouetted against the arms of the banyan trees. They take measured steps mindful of the weight they are carrying along. After all, it’s their baby, born out of a wedlock from ten departments involving cross disciplines.

This is RFR23, the first electric Formula Student car designed and built by Raftar, a team of 40 IIT-M students who share a common passion for automotive engineering and motorsports. Today, we are at IC&SR, where Team Raftar plans to take the car for a quick spin. The moment RFR23 enters the arena, there is palpable excitement among the onlookers who look at the scene with much intrigue. One of the crew members safely jacks the car up from the rear making the RFR23 trudge its way on the road, while the driver, Sai Ashwin, sits in the cockpit like a King waiting to be received by his people.

All of a sudden, the students stop mid-way to discuss something first. Madhav Rajadurai, a third year student of Engineering Design and the current captain of Raftar, goes running to the crew. They all seem concerned. “I don’t understand what’s happening,” Madhav can be heard saying with much disappointment. Something doesn’t seem to sit well.

“I repeatedly told them that, didn’t I? How are we supposed to do it without cones?” Sai Ashwin belts out, before they all laugh sheepishly. Apparently one of them seemed to have forgotten to bring the road safety cones for the run.

A phone call is made and the safety cones are brought. By the time the crew places the cones on the road, the crowd at IC&SR gets bigger. As Sai Ashwin puts on the helmet, prepared to push the throttle, everyone at the venue, including this writer, flips their phone out, ready to capture the moment RFR23 takes off. Until it doesn’t.

There’s some confusion. The audience — mostly students from other colleges who have come for a workshop on Data Science — at the venue, takes a closer look at the RFR23, and has a chat with its crew members. “We don’t have enough voltage to do the run, so we thought it’s better we don’t do it today,” Madhav tells us.

Battery consumption remains a challenge and a vital area of focus, says Madhav. “We always tend to stay between 20% to 80% of the state of charge. There are also smart algorithms implemented in the battery management system to maintain the same voltage and the rate of discharge so that you are still able to hit higher velocities, energy and acceleration,” he says, explaining the challenges in putting together an electric car.

This is certainly not a roadblock but a matter of concern for Team Raftar, as they prep and fine-tune the RFR23 ahead of the upcoming Formula Student Germany (FSG), slated to be held in Hockenheimring, Germany, from August 14-20, 2023.

FSG is an annual international design competition where students from universities across the world build a single-seater, open-wheel race car and compete against participating teams. While the goal broadly is to build the fastest car, the competition evaluates other important aspects such as the construction, performance, and financial and sales. The competition more or less is a platform where knowledge and ideas are exchanged; it gives students an opportunity to network and at the same time, learn from each other.

Reliability first

There are three main categories at FSG: combustion, electric and driverless. Over the years, Raftar has participated in the international competition four times in the combustion category. This will, however, be the first time the team will compete in the EV category.

Ever since its inception in 2012, Raftar, which takes up the monumental task of building a fast yet reliable Formula Student race car every year, has mostly been working on combustion engines. The team has won a number of awards and laurels in national and international competitions including being the first Indian to win an international dynamic event in 2017, and a Formula Bharat champion in 2020.

Given the rapid growth in electric vehicles in the country and as well as the world at large, the RFR23 is Raftar’s latest offering. However, that was not the main reason, asserts R Harish, who is the current sponsorship lead and powertrain engineer of Raftar.

“If you look at teams from Germany, which we want to compete against, we have always been given excuses that Germany teams have accessibility to high power combustion engines while it is not available in India,” he says, adding, “We have always been limited in our performance even if we put the best of our abilities. But we are not limited by this in the electric category; we have the best motors available in India and Europe.”

Therefore, the construction of an electric car will hopefully ensure a level-playing field for both India and Germany, adds Harish. Building an EV, however, was even more challenging than a combustion vehicle since the team has, over the last 10 years, mastered itself in combustion engines.

During the thick of the pandemic, when the nation was under lockdown and when students were at the confines of their homes, Team Raftar decided to draw out a design phase that would last until the students came back to the campus to assemble and build the car. Until then, the design, calibration and prototyping was done in silico.

After several iterations, once the design was finalised, Madhav says that they would go to their faculty advisor, Prof Satyanarayanan Seshadri of Applied Mechanics, for additional inputs and advice. The final design was completed by the end of 2021 and the RFR23 was launched in November 2022.

As soon as Satya was on board, he wanted to reset Raftar’s thinking. “The objective was not to build yet another race car. With the electric platform, it gave us the opportunity to innovate. The way I look at RFR23 is that it’s a technology platform, which will be used for testing various elements of electric propulsion,” says Satya, adding that the team worked with the IIT-M developed SHAKTI processor.

“We are hopeful that the car will be number one in various competitions,” said Director V Kamakoti while unveiling the car. Earlier this year, RFR23 secured third in the Overall category at Formula Bharat, the national Formula Student competition held every year. The FSG, however, will be RFR23’s biggest test yet.

Familiar terrain

The FSG is split into two main events: static and dynamic; the former not only includes technical understanding but also economic as well as planning and communication skills. The dynamic category is where the car’s performance is tested for acceleration, endurance, efficiency and skid pad among others. The team with the most points ends up winning the competition.

“There is also a cost and manufacturing event where you show the bills for all the materials you used for making the car. Even if there is a single material that is not on the list but in the car, you will be penalised. The judges will question your manufacturing decisions, like, for instance, why did you make it instead of buying it. The static events are a rigorous process,” says Madhav.

The initial challenge Raftar encountered was with funds. A lot of money had to be pooled in as investment since they were making an electric vehicle. Harish credits the faculty members for their consistent support and encouragement.

“We have an advisory board that includes Prof. Satyanarayanan Seshadri, Prof. Aravind Kumar Chandran who helps us on batteries and battery technology, and Prof. V Kamakoti (Director), who helps us with software and cyber security. Prof. Krishna Vasudevan and Prof. Arun Karuppaswamy helped us in the motor controller part.”

Satya feels that in hindsight, they could have done a better job with the branding of Raftar; calling it a platform right from the beginning might have changed its perception and helped them with partnerships.

“The moment you say you are building a student’s race car, the perspective changes. People want to sponsor a few lakhs like a donation. But when you say you are building an autonomous electric vehicle platform, you are taken seriously. Because what we do here is a significant amount of technology development,” he says, adding that talks are on the way to partner with Daimler Motor Company.

The other challenge that Raftar had to fix was the anxiety around electric vehicles, especially given that there were numerous reports of electric vehicles catching fire. Additionally, there was a detailed rulebook that FSG had that Raftar had to adhere to. “We wanted to build a reliable car first and not focus too much on the performance,” says Harish, “We tried to make sure the battery can sustain acceleration as high as 20g (20 times the weight of the actual battery pack) and is crash safe.”

There were about four to five prototypes that the crew members worked on. Satya, on the other hand, says that the fundamental input he gave that helped the team was the FMEA (failure mode and effect analysis) approach. The algorithm that they have devised is based on deep learning, which tries to get input parameters and estimates the remaining charge rather accurately.

“We have implemented an algorithm that estimates the charge remaining in the car. To perfect this algorithm took a long time,” says Harish, adding that the battery pack is air cooled, while liquid is used to cool the motors.

Madhav took over as the captain from Karthik Karumanchi, who is now an alumnus. During the launch of the car, Karthik said that the team’s focus was to build a safe, sustainable and reliable electric vehicle by looking at current issues faced in the industry.

Madhav, Harish and Sai Ashwin were all juniors when they joined Raftar. They have all grown with the team. As Harish jokes, “Whenever we find spare time, we go to our classes.” Madhav concurs. “The thing about Raftar is, it is a very committed team.”

Every year, Raftar recruits a fresh pair of drivers as well as crew members. The driver selection, which happens either once or twice a year, is another rigorous process where the first obvious criterion is passion. “Whoever is interested in driving, we give them a shot provided they have a driver’s licence,” says Madhav, adding that drivers are put to test via go-kart. “We can’t obviously give an expensive car to someone inexperienced.”

Go-karting is a common team activity that Raftar does once every two or three months. Their preferred spot is Chennai’s ECR Speedway, but they also go to Kart Attack. Madhav and his team sit back and evaluate the drivers based on their performance in three key areas: speed, safety and consistency.

“If the driver is going fast but is crashing every alternate lap in a go-kart, that is still okay. But we can’t afford to crash even once during the actual competition because all of these are carbon fibre and cannot take the hit. If any of its edges rubs the wall, it’s going to crumble,” informs Madhav.

Go-karting isn’t the same as driving a passenger car because ultimately, the driver drives a lightweight vehicle. This naturally yields a big difference in terms of performance. For instance, when you break and turn a go-kart, it runs the danger of losing grip on rear tires. “Go-karts tend to oversteer so it’s very easy to lose control in a corner. It’s understandable in the first lap but by the third or fourth lap, the driver should be able to adapt to it. It also matters how you combat oversteering during the driver’s selection,” he says, adding that drivers get two 10-minute slots during the selection.

Raftar selects six drivers in total. The FSG allows teams to register four to six drivers and can run all the events with three drivers. The current drivers, Madhav and Sai Ashwin, will pass on the baton to their juniors next year and take up the role of mentors.

A race against time

There isn’t much time left for Raftar, even though the RFR23 requires quite a bit of fine-tuning before they wind down the testing phase. Some of the critical parts are still stuck in customs, while there are a few components that have to be procured. At any cost, the cutoff time is the end of June.

Since it’s a fully-electric vehicle, it runs the danger of shipping hazardous goods on-air, which leaves them a 20-day transit time. The RFR23 cannot be flown in its current assembled state; the crew members have to reassemble the car in Germany before the competition, which gives them a two-week window. Which also means that in the beginning of July, Team Raftar will have to start packing the car.

At the same time, there is an air of excitement among students; some of whom will fly to Germany for the first time. This, however, is not Raftar’s first time at FSG. In 2018, they made it big by becoming the only Indian entrant to participate at FSG. They qualified for the third time in 2019 and came third in Cost and 11th in Business Plan in Static events for the combustion vehicle category.

The RFR23 has been designed to produce a maximum torque of 109Nm and can clock a maximum speed of 150kmph. Madhav says that the team takes the car out to a race track in Chennai’s Padi for the actual endurance and reliability testing, while occasionally taking it for a spin on campus.

Though they are aware of the speed restrictions on campus, Madhav remembers the surreal feeling he had when he sat in the driver’s seat once. During one of the tests in the wee hours on campus, Madhav thought perhaps he should try and push the car a bit more. He ended up clocking 35 to 40Nm.

The difference in power was visibly evident. “Like when you press the throttle and you actually get slammed back in the seat, that is when you realise how powerful the car is,” he says.

RFR23 is the first electric car designed and built by Team Raftar. The Formula Student Germany is scheduled to take place from August 14-20. For more details, check out Raftar’s website: https://www.raftarformularacing.com

What started as an intimate group of motorsport enthusiasts, Raftar has grown to become one of the successful Indian teams in the combustion engines category. In fact, when Raftar built its first car – RFR12 – on par with international standards, all they had was ₹10,000 in hand and a few second-hand parts at their disposal. They went to the Silverstone Formula One Circuit in 2012, where the RFR12 received praise from the judges of Formula Student UK when it was declared the least expensive Formula Student car of the competition. Their faculty advisor then was Prof. A Ramesh.

FORMULA STUDENT

Held first by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1979, Formula Student is an annual design competition for engineering students that puts their skills to test. Every year, students from across the world compete against each other in designing and developing the fastest formula-style small-scale racing car. They are awarded points in two categories: Static Events (off track) and Dynamic Events (on track). The team with the most points ends up winning the competition. Over the years, teams from over 600 universities from over 20 countries have participated in the competition. This year, Formula Student will take place from August 14 to 20 in Hockenheim, Germany.

Where courage takes you

Srivatsan — Thu, 04 May 2023 09:50:32 +0000

An IIT-M student from Afghanistan has come a long way pursuing her passion for Higher Education amidst intense political situations in her country, showing remarkable resilience and courage. This is the story of Behishta Khairuddin

Srivatsan S

When Behishta Khairuddin received the ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) scholarship to pursue her Master’s degree at any university in India, she couldn’t help but feel optimistic about what’s to come. After all, she had been waiting for it for almost a year. All that effort — including moving from her hometown in Jowzjan to Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, to prepare for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam to apply for scholarships — was finally paying off.

She read up on the best universities in India, shortlisting five of the IITs and getting an invite from three including IIT Roorkee, Bombay and Madras; she was selected by the latter two. Behishta picked IIT Madras thanks to the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) rankings: as of 2022, IIT-M topped the NIRF rankings for the fourth time in a row in the overall category, and the seventh consecutive year for the ‘Engineering’ category.

There were personal reasons too. Her eldest sister, Pohanmal Masoda Khairzada, who is currently a faculty with the Chemical Engineering Department at the Jowzjan University, was pursuing her PhD at IIT-M. Impressed by the quality of education and lab facilities, her sister suggested that she give the institute a shot. Behishta hasn’t travelled anywhere alone, let alone going to another country. Luckily, she had Khairzada for company if she got a callback from IIT-M, which she did eventually. The sisters thought they could stay together on campus.

As Behishta’s personal goals were coming to fruition, her country was on the brink of a larger political development: the Taliban, after being out of power for two decades by a US-led military intervention, was on rapid rise, taking control of provinces one after the other. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021; IIT-M’s odd semester began around the same time. There was uncertainty and chaos.

The situation was grim and emotions ran high; thousands of people tried fleeing the country by whatever means they could. And those who stayed back did not have it easy either. For Behishta, it was a rude shock to discover that she lost out on the ICCR scholarship, after the Indian Government invalidated visas for Afghan nationals as a result of the Taliban suspending international flights since its takeover. The ICCR, which gave scholarships to over 650 Afghan students for the 2021-2022 academic year, requested the Indian Government to find a way to bring these students to India. Hope was not lost.

The IIT-M reached out to Behishta through its Office of Global Engagement, which is responsible for any international collaboration-relation that happens within and outside the institution. A scholarship was worked out and a month later, as her classmates turned up for classes, Behishta joined them — albeit remotely, from home, in Afghanistan. She is currently doing her M.Tech in Chemical Engineering.

Her sister, Khairzada, who managed to complete the first semester of her PhD on campus in 2020, was left with no other option but to return to her country in the wake of the pandemic. Since then, she hasn’t been able to come back. She has completed her coursework, but the research still remains a question as the World Bank, which was supporting her through funding, had put a pause.

Home is where the heart is

Behishta’s strength comes from her largely educated family: her mother is a Doctor who works in a clinic supported by an NGO, and her father, a Social Science graduate, also works in an NGO. She has four sisters and two brothers, all of whom are either pursuing higher studies or are working professionals. Her second eldest sister is a graduate in law; third eldest sister is an engineering graduate; younger sister is currently studying medicine and younger brother is pursuing engineering. They all live together as one family.

When Behishta told her parents that she got an admission with a scholarship, they did not know much about IIT-M or NIRF rankings. They just had one thing to say: “We are proud of you. If you need anything, we are here for you.”

Behishta was lagging a month behind the rest when she started the course. Doing a Master’s degree remotely comes with its own share of challenges. “The Internet quality was not good in the initial few months and my camera would freeze invariably,” recalls Behishta, over a video call from Afghanistan. “When the live sessions were over, I would go through recordings and try to understand the parts I may have missed,” she adds.

This was the routine she followed for about two semesters. She slept scarcely for about four-five hours a day; when she did not have classes, she was on YouTube searching for videos related to her course, apart from referring to research papers and books.

There is a stark difference in the quality of education between the two countries, feels Behishta. “When I compare my two-year programme [at IIT-M] with my B.Tech degree, it’s totally different from the education I got here. It felt like I was learning something of high standard. I want to bring that high standard to my country,” she says.

Sitting in the room armed with a laptop, a smartphone and a couple of books, Behishta sailed through two semesters with a CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) of 8.35 out of 10. She had to stick to the process for one more year.

Just when the third semester was about to begin, the Taliban slapped an indefinite ban on university education for women. Scores of women and activists took to the streets to protest the ban. There was uncertainty and chaos. Yet again. According to a report in the Time magazine, before the Taliban came to power, “over 20,000 students at Kabul University, the country’s oldest university, were female.”

Almost there

At home, it took a toll on Behishta. “It’s [political events] not something we would like to talk about. But at the same time, it’s something we don’t want to hide either,” she says, adding, “Things [Taliban’s ban] made it worse for us. There is still a lot of uncertainty [about the ban and when it will be lifted]. Hopefully things might change in spring.”

Taliban’s takeover resulted in bad economic conditions at home. “Three of my sisters who were working in NGOs were left with no salary…only my parents were working and were getting paid.”

According to several media reports, scores of women reportedly have taken remote education, which seems to be the only solution to women’s education in Afghanistan. “As far as I know, lots of students continued their studies online but there are so many who had to discontinue their studies because of visa issues,” she says, adding that her CGPA for three semesters stands at 8.83.

Behishta says that being physically present on campus might have made it easier for her. But she has no regrets — “I learnt a lot from this experience,” she smiles. Anything she missed the most? “Oh yes, the laboratories.”

For her final year project, Behishta selected emulsion fuels. It was an experimental project, which she had to change owing to lack of resources. She switched to ‘water absorption by food grains using image processing tools’ at the suggestion of Prof Basavaraja Madivala Gurappa (Basa). “We discussed this project, which can be done remotely with the availability of image processing tools. The idea is: you take these food grains, soak them in water, and observe and study the grains that can be captured easily on a phone or camera. She can do some image analysis to quantify it. For instance, she can measure the length and diameter, and how they change with time,” he adds.

Behishta, in fact, even set up a small lab at home by borrowing an oven from one of her sisters, a weighing machine from a jewellery shop, some bakery items, and a few lab materials from her previous university.

Prof Basa speaks highly of her commitment. “For someone who is in a situation like this, it is very easy to lose focus. It is very easy to say, “Hey, look, there is only so much happening, so why should I even care?” But I think she’s very brave. She is able to take up the challenge,” he says.

Behishta will complete her course at the end of July. She will probably be among the first women from Afghanistan to earn a degree through remote education, which currently seems to be the only option for Afghan women ever since the Taliban put an indefinite ban on higher education. Getting the degree wearing graduation gowns and hats during the convocation at IIT-M is a matter of great pride and prestige for outgoing students every year. This has been the sentiment in the institution ever since its establishment in 1959, except in 2020, when, for the first time in the history of IIT-M, the convocation went online due to the raging pandemic, and the degrees and awards were handed over to students virtually.

This year marks the 60th Convocation Day. “Of course, I would like to be there,” says Behishta excitedly. She says she would like to do a PhD under her Macromolecules course instructor, Prof Susy Varughese, if she gets a visa to India. “In my country, getting a government job is quite difficult and takes a lot of time. But what I saw at IIT-M is, during the third semester itself students were getting offers from companies. It means that talent has value. That if you are talented in India, you will get a job. But here, it’s not like that.”

Behishta’s journey the last two years pursuing her love for higher education amidst the intense political situation in Afghanistan, despite the public threat issued by the Taliban for women’s education, displays courage and at best, offers a glimmer of hope — for a better tomorrow.

Talented women, like herself, are the need of the hour to rebuild the fractured education system of Afghanistan. “Because India doesn’t need me; it has lots of knowledgeable people. My country needs me. If I can serve my country, then that’s how I want to put my talent to use [and to solve industry problems].”

She catches a moment to correct that statement — and sentiment: “There are lots of people who can die for their country but I want them who live for their country. This is how we can serve our country and build it. I want people to live. I want to live for my country.”