IIT Kharagpur to launch undergraduate research programme

Kolkata: IIT Kharagpur will launch an Undergraduate Research Programme (UGRP) from the upcoming Autumn semester of 2019-20, to encourage the spirit of research among undergraduate students. The UGRP will fund select research ideas proposed by the students on a competitive basis and each successful proposal will be guided by a member of the institute's faculty, an IIT KGP statement said on Thursday.

"The undergraduate students are extremely talented and motivated. As teachers, we have observed for years that the innovative ideas, they come up with, can address many real- life challenges. "The ability to carry out research is a key capability for all graduates today. Through UGRP we are promoting the idea of research challenge among them, which will germinate their potential as innovators and problem-solvers," institute Director Prof P P Chakrabarti said in the statement.

Twenty such proposals will be accepted each year and a portal is going to be set up for project submission.

The funding for the UGRP programme will be generated from alumni donation fund resources. "IIT Kharagpur launched an endowment campaign in 2012 and every year one or two alumni batches have been raising Rs 50 lakh- Rs 1 crore.

It has been decided that part of the earnings from this fund will be utilized towards funding the Undergraduate Research Platform," Dean Alumni Affairs Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay was quoted as saying in the statement. Students who have completed four semesters at IIT Kharagpur can form departmental or interdisciplinary groups and submit project proposals under faculty supervision.

"The project submission needs to be completed 30 days prior to the beginning of the fifth semester," Dean Prof. Sudhir Kumar Barai said in the statement.