IITM has several opportunities for B.Tech and Dual Degree students to immerse themselves in research. Apart from choosing to do a project in their final year, undergraduate students can opt for an undergraduate research project and experience research by working under a professor. Aerospace and Electrical Engineering departments also offer mini-projects which also give exposure to research. IITM also has a Young Research Fellowship (YRF) program, which is a two-semester program open to all B.Tech and Dual Degree students in their fifth semester. Students can apply to professor-led research projects and awardees are provided with a monthly stipend and the program covers research-related expenses during the fellowship year. It also provides funding for travel to high-quality international conferences relevant to the research area. To know more about the YRF program, check this article. IIT Madras B.Tech. and Dual degree students also participate in international research internships such as Mitacs, Charpak, and DAAD WISE. Some students also publish research papers and present their results at national and international conferences.
IITM also supports and promotes student entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Cell (ECELL) is a student-led community of entrepreneurship enthusiasts, which organizes workshops, networking events, talks from celebrated entrepreneurs, and E-Summit, an annual fest.
Nirmaan, the pre-incubator, at IIT Madras, offers students the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship first-hand. Since its inception in October 2015, Nirmaan has selected and mentored close to 150+ start-up teams. They have 25 startups that have graduated, and 40 active startups at the ‘Sudha and Shankar Innovation Hub’. Nirmaan has helped the startup teams raise more than 65 crores in the past 7 years since its inception with a combined evaluation of 1000+ crores.
IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC) is the umbrella body for nurturing and overseeing innovation and entrepreneurship at IIT Madras. IITMIC seeks to nurture technology and knowledge-based ventures through their start-up phase by providing the necessary support to help entrepreneurs survive in the competitive market and reach a stage where they can scale up their ventures further. The IC aims to build and share resources including space and infrastructure, access to business support services, mentoring, training programs to enhance the skills of entrepreneurs, and seed funds. Some of the startups incubated at IITMIC are Plansys Technologies, Mindgrove Technologies, Ceratattva Innotech Pvt Ltd, and NeoMotion.