‘IIT Hyderabad made me humble, exposed me to new opportunities,’ shares BTech student | Life in an IIT

After cracking JEE Advanced 2022, I got admission to BTech in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT Hyderabad). I chose this programme over branches like electronics and material science in most IITs and NITs as Biotechnology and Bioinformatics fascinated me more. I am glad that my hard work and motivation bore fruit.

JEE journey, coaching, board exams

I started my preparation for JEE Main from Class 11 in 2020. I enrolled in an offline coaching in my home town Delhi, but in my case, it did not help much in my studies. However, the teachers in my coaching guided me well.

JEE Main and JEE Advanced preparation had ups and downs. Some months I made enough progress, while for some, I did not put much effort. My focused and dedicated study started in January 2022 when the dates for JEE Main were announced and the exam was near. I went through a lot of previous years’ question papers which indeed helped a lot. I learned concepts and topics from previous years’ papers.

Focusing on NCERT during and before boards helped my JEE Main preparation and strengthened the basics.

Life in IIT Hyderabad

As I completed my entire school life with my family, it was for the first time I was living away from my family. I was worried about how I would cope in a new place. Adjusting took some time and everything is so far good. Although I am still not very fond of the mess food IIT Hyderabad serves, the campus and the life here feel like home now.

Living away from home and eating mess food made me love my parents more and I became more humble than I used to be two years ago.

I do not have a daily routine as such. I try to finish essential tasks on priority. If club work is important, I do that as a priority and if academics is my focus for that day, I study for that.

Certain aspects like sports are fixed and I try to do those daily but with too many things going on I often have to skip something or the other daily.

I am also enrolled in Entrepreneurship Cell, Sunshine (Mental Health Club), ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). I am in the management roles in most of the societies.

In the first year at IIT Hyderabad, I was associated with the Tinkerers’ Laboratory as the outreach manager.

To manage my studies and the societies simultaneously, I compromise most time with my sleep schedule. Time blocking and prioritising also help.

‘Vast canvas of opportunities’

IIT exposed me to what I can achieve and provided a vast canvas to hone my skills. Also by what others have been doing in the institute, I feel motivated and driven to work harder and be more ambitious.

The professors here are very encouraging. One day, I randomly pitched an idea to one of my professors, Suhanya Dwaryaswami, for the Vishwakarma Awards. Vishwakarma Awards is organised by Maker Bhavan Foundation (MBF) and focuses on encouraging students from Indian STEM colleges to develop scalable solutions that contribute to solving critical issues and bolster India’s economy.

JEE Main 2024: The IIT Hyderabad BTech student while receiving the Most Innovative Solution Award

Professor Suhanya Dwaryaswami very compassionately listened to my idea and gave me the go-ahead. Vedant Sanghavi and I teamed up to design a prototype of a bio-filter to treat carbon dioxide gas exhausts. The prototype sought to revolutionise the way air pollution is reduced by degrading air pollutants into cleaner and greener products instead of storing them like conventional air purifiers. Our team won the Most Innovative Solution Award.

I hope to work on something I like to do after my BTech is over. I am still figuring that out.