From the Editorial Desk . . .

A number of years have passed by since the inception of IIT Kanpur. Many changes have been proposed over these years on how to conduct academics on the campus; some were accepted readily and others were declined with formal reasoning. Every time a change was brought in, the style of academics was re-moulded, which on occasion, has been substantial. But, one flavour of this Institute, which has indeed remained untouched is the openness of the system. The faculty, staff and students of IIT Kanpur have always demonstrated the courage of looking into the eye of any problem. Even in the closed-door gatherings of various academic bodies, there is transparency; the whole truth has always been said, by at least one person. Most importantly, members of the IIT Kanpur family clearly agree to disagree.

A glimpse of the above mentioned openness is evident from the history of the past three undergraduate curriculum reviews, wherein some decisions taken after the first review were annulled by those taken after the third. Upholding the very spirit of the openness at IIT Kanpur, DIRECTIONS introduces a new feature called "View Points" to provide a forum to bring out the different points of view prevailing on campus on issues of common concern.

Research projects, both big and small in the amount of deliverables, are underway at the Institute. Unfortunately, sometimes, the importance of a particular project is measured only by the amount of funding it attracts. Clearly, there are ongoing projects that are not the consequence of a single large grant. These "small" projects funded through smaller grants, evolve in a logical sequence, often resulting in a single major technological leap into the future. It is these projects that instill confidence in our researchers, who then graduate into taking up larger and multi-disciplinary projects. DIRECTIONS invites the IIT Kanpur community to come forward with fresh initiatives in research, however small, for . . . drop by drop, an ocean forms.

[back] [next]