Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will be launching a Masters Programme in electric vehicles (EV). This Interdisciplinary Dual Degree (IDDD) will boost the students’ engagement with the e-mobility and will be offered for its BTech and dual degree students. The programme will also help enhance the research capabilities in this field.

Students are expected to enrol in this programme from January 2022 during their third year of BTech and Dual Degree programmes. The initial intake is expected to be 25 students, says a release from the institute.

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.

T Asokan, Head, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, in the release said that the course would be the result of nearly eight departments collaborating to induct the skills required for a student to engineer EVs. 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.

While the Department of Engineering Design will anchor the programme, it will be delivered as a joint effort from various departments. “Over the next few years, we are hoping to have more programmes with different structures in the e-mobility space,” he said.

IIT Madras provides its undergraduate students with an option to upgrade to IDDD programmes where 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, giving them the opportunity to take up courses across disciplines, and build expertise in modern interdisciplinary areas that will define the future of engineering and technology.

Karthick Athmanathan, Professor of Practice, IIT Madras, said, “We are now starting this phase where formal programmes for EVs and e-mobility are being offered with very close engagement with the industry. Such initiatives are going to help India achieve and retain the lead technologically in the medium and long term.”