delighted that prof raghunathan rengaswamy is going to be the first occupantprof s pushpavanam head department of chemical engineering read the citation for prof raghunathan rengaswamy delivering the welcome address shuba kumar president iit madras alumni association said the alumni association has found that the alumni is interested in reconnecting engaging and giving back to the institute the association andor the society at large reunions are the biggest event on reconnecting the alumni to the institute in the last two years chapters have been inaugurated in singapore europe and kerala with more smaller clubs in the works there is a lot more engagement and energy going onmarking the occasion an iitm a tech expo was also organised with several student teams and iit madrasincubated startups demonstrating their innovation to the alumni the event featured 12 project teams and four competition teams from the centre for innovation cfi a student lab at iit madras established with funds from alumni in addition some startups incubated by iitm incubation cell also participatedhighlighting alumni giving in the us girish muckai 1990 batch president iitm foundation us said we are the fundraising arm of iit madras in the us started about four years ago an endowment is needed to take the institute into the global landscape iit madras has been on the top in the country for four years now and the institute wants to go beyond that institutions in the us have large endowments that help them go above and beyond the academic curriculum the class of 1994 and others who are here today have done a lot for the institute a number of gift options are available from scholarships for students chair professors establish interdisciplinary centres of excellence and modernising hostels among many other vital thingsthe cfi teams and startups that participated in iitm a tech expo include eplane ghost vision involve avishkaar hyperloop anveshak abhiyaan cvi horizon envisage electronics club ibot club and the preincubation cell nirmaan besides ecellspeaking about alumni key stakeholders in iitms growth aspiration m subramanian chief executive officer office of institutional advancement iit madras said we engage with the alumni and raise funds for the institution fundraising started in a small way with a professor doing it as part of alumni engagement and now we have a fullfledged dean this office started five years ago and have raised around 400 crore so far among the best for an educational institution in india around 4000 alumni have contributed to the institute apart from scholarships alumni funds support student teams to take part in international events faculty paper presentations and augment campus infrastructure among other things alumni contribution go a long way in helping the institute leapfrog in capabilities and facilities to attract talented faculty researchers and students and achieve global recognition