IITH to introduce novel industry-oriented BTech

Hyderabad: The Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH) announced the first of its kind industry-oriented three-year B Tech programmes in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Computational Engineering and Industrial Chemistry from the academic year 2021.

In a statement here on Saturday, IITH authorities said that the BTech curriculum provides the opportunity for students to take courses from all branches of sciences, viz., maths, physics and chemistry in the first two semesters. Apart from the special curriculum of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, Computational Engineering & Industrial Chemistry, students will have an opportunity to increase their depth in the subject by undertaking selective courses from any other department and can also get a minor in areas of their interest, outside the department, like entrepreneurship, computer science, etc., by completing 12 additional credits in that area.

In the VI semester, students can opt for the semester-long projects which provide an opportunity to work and gain experience in Biotech/Pharma/Manufacturing/IT/Data Analysis/Chem Informatics. In turn, it helps in the gradual transition to full-time jobs, it said.

Prof BS Murthy, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said, "IIT Hyderabad believes in career-oriented programmes both at UG and PG level. These industry-oriented BTechs are one such step in this direction and have been designed to keep the future and current needs of the industry. Students, who are interested in pursuing further studies or research after their BTech, will have plenty of options to choose from national and international universities."

Adding the merits of BTech in Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, Prof Anindya Roy said that the curriculum is designed to train the students with in-demand bioinformatics skills, including AI and soft computing, web technologies, structural biology, biological data mining, image processing, modelling and simulation, systems biology, and biostatistics to ensure the complete industry readiness of the students.