The Indian Institute of Technology Madras will launch a Master’s Programme in Electric Vehicles. An Interdisciplinary Dual Degree (IDDD), it will boost the students’ engagement and enhance the research capabilities in this field.

Students can enrol for this programme from January 2022 during their third year of B Tech and Dual Degrees. The initial intake will have about 25 students. The students graduating from this programme will have the skill sets required to pursue job opportunities in EV Product Development, including EV Integration, Vehicle Aggregate Engineering, Communication and Calibration, Verification and Validation, and Product and Portfolio Planning.

Prof T Asokan, Head, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, said, “The course will be the result of nearly eight departments collaborating to induct the skills required for a student to engineer Electric Vehicles. The content offered is carefully curated to build sufficient depth in each domain, starting from vehicle basics and going to very specific EV aggregates including batteries and motors.”

IIT Madras provides its undergraduate students with an option to upgrade to IDDD programmes. The students will study for five years and obtain B Tech in a parent discipline and M Tech in an interdisciplinary area. The objective is to provide greater flexibility to students, allowing them to take courses across disciplines and build towards expertise in modern interdisciplinary areas that will define the future of engineering and technology.

Prof Karthick Athmanathan, Professor of Practice, IIT Madras, said, “These are exciting times for the eMobility sector. We are clearly at the tipping point. It is important to have more resources skilled in various aspects of EV Engineering and eMobility. IIT Madras has had a dominant presence in this sector through various initiatives and centres for the last few years. We are now starting this phase where formal programmes for EVs and e-Mobility are being offered with very close engagement with Industry. Such initiatives are going to help India achieve and retain the lead technologically in the medium and long term.”

Over the years, IIT Madras has been at the forefront of building capabilities in the country for eMobility, through its various centres and programmes, including the Centre for Battery Engineering and Electric Vehicles (CBEEV), as well as incubating a host of start-ups in the eMobility space over the years through the IIT Madras Incubation Cell.