Roorkee (The Hawk): While commemorating the 175th year of its foundation, the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee), organizedan international get-together, on August 9, 2022, at Skylight Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This meet, while bringing its Ethiopian alumni together, featured several policy makers including those from the government and prominent universities of Ethiopia.
While the linkages between IIT Roorkee and Africa started with the construction of the first Aswan dam (across the Nile) the legacy is still sustained as evident from IIT Roorkee spearheading the India-Africa S&T initiative to build African Centers of Excellence. Thousands of Ethiopian students and in-service engineers have studied at IIT Roorkee. Five top universities of Ethiopia actively collaborate with IIT Roorkee within the framework of MoUs. Many other universities collaborate through quality improvement and short-term training programs. Besides these academic collaborations, researchers, and faculty members from IIT Roorkee have contributed significantly to the areas of Water Resources, Hydropower, Planning, and Urban Development. While bolstering the expertise in these traditional areas within the stronghold of IIT Roorkee, the new collaborations are aimed to spread to the novel areas like Applied mathematics and computing utilizing the new supercomputers at IIT Roorkee, Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence, Photonics & Quantum communication, Semiconductor devices, Renewable energy, and Design. The new avenues like the Masters in VLSI and MBA for working professionals also will be open for Ethiopian students. The knowledge sharing in startup masterclasses, innovation, and incubation will also be opened.
The event focusing on increased global engagement witnessedthe participation of Mr Robert Shetkintong(Ambassador of India to Ethiopia), AnegagregnGashawFerede (President, Debre Tabor University), Senior officials from the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, Arba Minch University, Haramaya University, Wollega University and the University of Gondar. From IIT Roorkee, Deputy Director, Prof. M Parida; Dean of International Relations, Prof. Arumugam and Dean of Resources and Alumni Affairs, Prof. Partha Roy joined the event.
The renewed MoU with Wollega University was signed during the event while Haramaya University, Universityof Gondar, and Ambo University signed a new agreement.
While expressing his gratitude on the occasion, Shri Robert Shetkintong, said,"Education has been one of the visible components in India-Ethiopia relations, especially our contemporary relations. During imperial times, we had thousands of school teachers from India who taught in secondary schools in Ethiopia. Today, we have large numbers of Indian faculty in public universities in Ethiopia. Ethiopian students form one of the largest groups of students from Africa studying in India. Also, large numbers of Ethiopian students/scholars have studied at IIT Roorkee. Last month, 15 Ethiopian nationals had left for India to study in IIT Roorkee. These Ethiopian students/alumni are an important linkage between our two friendly countries."
Prof. Ajit Chaturvedi, Director IIT Roorkee, said, “The get together of a large number of our alumni in Ethiopia along with participation of our partner institutions made this celebration of 175 years special.”