The class of 1994 has undertaken several initiatives as part of its Legacy Project. These include:
IIT Bombay Covid Vaccination Drive
Even as the world battled with the pandemic, IIT Bombay faced an extremely difficult situation when it had to raise funds to secure the campus by vaccinating all its campus staff and residents that could not afford the vaccines. The Class of 94 responded immediately to their alma mater’s call for help and funded the vaccination of more than 200 of the staff on a very urgent basis.
Growth India Telescope
GROWTH-India is part of the “Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen” – an international collaboration spanning sixteen institutes across nine countries. The focus of the interdisciplinary project is to undertake continuous studies of cosmic sources that have rapidly varying properties, like emission from gravitational wave events, young supernovae, and near-earth asteroids.
The Growth India Telescope is a robotic telescope set up in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Ladakh, and is one of the few such facilities outside of Europe and the US. It has helped conduct interdisciplinary research work at the UG and PG levels and is instrumental in the research carried on by IIT Bombay as part of the Growth India Project. Recently, IITB students made a stunning discovery by using this telescope when they realised that asteroid 2020 QG flew extremely close to Earth without impacting it.
Unfortunately, the Institute was running out of time, and for IIT Bombay to retain access to this telescope, it needed immediate funding support with a minimum commitment of Rs. 50 lakhs. The class of 1994 generously agreed to utilise one portion of the donations collected as part of their Silver Jubilee Legacy Project towards maintaining access to the telescope and ensuring the continuation of ongoing research.
Growth India Telescope in Ladakh.
IT Hardware Scholarship (Covid – 19 support)
Another significant impact of the pandemic was when offline classes went virtual. This meant that students needed access to computers and/or laptops and broadband connections. Unfortunately, a number of students were financially constrained and could not afford the hardware needed to continue with their education.
Once again, the class of 1992 came to their alma mater’s rescue. Even though it was not a part of their Legacy Project, the class of 1992 agreed to reallocate the amount to support this unanticipated but critical requirement faced by their beloved alma mater. Around 266 UG and PG students at the Institute benefitted from the IT Hardware Scholarships and were provided with a laptop and broadband connection which helped them attend online classes, pursue virtual projects, and complete their coursework on time.
Please click on the link below featuring a compilation of testimonial videos that were voluntarily shared by the recipients of the scholarship. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QnOO8sUR6YfQ7fpA5e2GlwzVQrOt7tx6/view?usp=sharing