IIT experience changed my career path

Madhu Sudan reminisces about his days at IIT-Delhi

The IITs have by now established a very solid reputation internationally as an institution producing excellent graduates.

As an alum myself (I graduated in 1987) here are some thoughts on what I like about my IIT experience.

When I think back to the single most influential factor which establishes the reputation of the IITs, I think it is simply the quality of students that enter IIT.

Now this may not seem like a very good reason for a high-school student to want to enter IIT. After all if you have to be good to get in, then you could probably prove yourselves to be good in other places.

However, one should take into account the quality of life at IIT, thanks to the excellent quality of the others around you. The knowledge that every student gleans from the classes is enhanced by the quality of the questions raised by the others.

But this experience goes well beyond the classroom - the IITs are after all a residential institution.

So every part of your day -- starting from the reading of the newspaper in the morning and the crossword solving experience, to debates about cricket contribute to the expansion of your mind.

Indeed some of my closest friends even today, twenty years after I graduated, are from the IIT days.

The next most influential factor in the IIT experience was the presence of some of the very dedicated professors.

This feature can alter one's experience in many ways. In my personal case, it changed my entire career path.

I was well on my way to becoming a professional engineer, with some thoughts of heading towards management schools when I had my career changing encounter, with Prof Sachin Maheshwari.

I took a couple of courses with him and he induced me to read some mathematically intensive papers and soon, I found myself drifting towards a very theoretical topic in computer science.

In his case, he took a very inspired approach to teaching. When faced with complaints that exams didn't give the students enough time to answer the questions fully, he gave us an open-ended exam.

We could sit in the exam room for as long as we wished and he would happily spend that time in the room waiting for us to finish.

In one amusing anecdote, one of the students got so engrossed in the questions that he didn't notice the passing of time. When he finally looked up and around, the entire room looked empty and it was dark outside. He heard a voice from right behind him saying "So, you think it is time to go home?" That was Prof Maheshwari who had settled into the seat right behind the student and was waiting for this last student to finish!

While, the incidents and the experience here is very different for different people, overall most students end up having a close interaction with some member of the faculty, thanks to the small class sizes.

Finally some advice for students wishing to enter the IITs. The IITs used to (and I expect still do) run an Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) which is essentially their sole criterion for admission (they do need you to have a senior school certificate also).

This exam used to be quite different in style and structure than the standard secondary school exam and so requires different preparation.

I took a correspondence course with Agarwal's classes (based in Mumbai) to prepare for the JEE. I would advise other students to try the same.

However, I would like to caution against over-preparing. It is very easy to get burned out with all the exam preparations in the eleventh and twelfth grade.

It is much more profitable to understand the nature of the questions you are likely to see, and then to make sure you attack them with a fresh mind. Good luck if you plan to take the exam in the near future!

(An IIT-Delhi alumni (1987 batch), Madhu Sudan teaches at the EECS Department, MIT and is a member of Theory of Computing group in CSAIL.)