VOX POPULI
Freshers’ Edition
Student Journalism Body of IIT Kanpur
August 2016
Been there? Page 2
www.voxiitk.com
Campus Lingo 101 Page 4
SnT Teams Page 5
www.facebook.com/voxpopuli.iitk
Inter IIT Page 6
Scholarships Page 6
Nostalgia Page 8
IIT Kanpur: A Glorious Journey by Krutika Kalkal, Pratyush Garg & Siddhartha Saxena
A leading light of Indian education, a pioneer, a flag bearer. These are often the words used to describe IIT Kanpur (IITK). Y16, you are entering a new phase of your lives and you are heirs to this rich heritage of IITK. Unlike this new journey of your lives which has just begun in an emphatic fashion, this institute has had a very humble beginning. It was in 1960 when that historic day arrived. The classes of the first batch of 100 students comprising toppers of their respective states commenced. There was an air of uncertainty around this place instead of the aura you see today. It was the time when IITK was run from a small building in HBTI Kanpur, it was a time when there was nothing but villages and forests in place of our beautiful campus. These were the times when people were sceptical, asking whether IITs could come close to the standards set by the institutes built during the British reign, let alone eclipsing them. But even then there was one man certain of realizing his vision, a man who shared his dream with all the students on that very day. That man was none other than Dr. PK Kelkar, the first director of IITK. As recalled by Mr. Abhay Bhu-
shan, a member of that pioneer batch, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and a great building starts with a mound of dirt.” were the words of that visionary. Dr. P.K Kelkar reminisced, “When I came to Kanpur first to join as the Director of the Institute, almost everybody I met in Kanpur asked me if I had wanted to commit professional suicide, I did not at all worry about this because I was no longer myself but an instrument of a historical process” and a historic process it certainly was. The foremost barrier on this path was to establish a campus capable of sustaining one of the best institutes of the country, housing some of the finest minds. This began in 1959 when the U.P. Government acquired 1055 acres of land from three villages of Purwa Nankari, Barasirohi and Naramau Bangor (which is the reason why we are blessed with so many mango trees inside the campus). The biggest step since the inception of IITK was taken in 1961 when Dr. P.K Kelkar persuaded Professor Dahl, Louis Smullin and Brueckner from MIT to provide USA’s technical expertise to help nurture the growth and development of IITK. Impressed with the open-mindedness
of Dr. Kelkar, Professor Smullin once said “He prays to the same Gods we do.”, highlighting the resonance in their ideologies. This led to a consortium being set up through the Kanpur Indo-American Program (KIAP) which comprised 9 world renowned universities including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley and Princeton. These universities proved to be excellent models to develop our institute around. They also provided their invaluable experience to the young faculty and helped in equipping them with world class research facilities. But the most important of all was the vision of giving immense freedom to students which is still the essence of IITK. The American influence can still be seen in our campus, from the numbering of floors in our buildings to the system of Senate itself. 1963 was a landmark year for IITK. In late July, an american military DC-7 aircraft flew into the airport at Chakeri in Kanpur. Inside it was the beginning of a new era. It was carrying the IBM 1620. The computer was mounted on top of a bullock cart which captured something iconic, it showed what our aspirations were in the face of our limitations. This computer became the