Faculty Perspectives on LEEE
Ex-Director’s Perspective: Why LEEE?
Prof. P J Narayanan, Ex-Director of IIIT Hyderabad, in his own words:
“IIITH is keen on research-led education both for a master’s/PhD student as well as to undergraduate students. Students who missed the JEE the first time can apply to us and join the four-year program which will give them a B.Tech from IIITH and MS by Research based on a thesis. In today’s world it is not enough to be a B.Tech. You need a specialization - an MD or a super speciality - to be really at the top of your profession. Same holds for IT areas also. You want to be a specialist in AI or algorithms or VLSI or communications or robotics and this kind of areas to be a leader in the future.
These are people who realize they wanted to be researchers, missed the giant maybe in the first time but now are eager and that really shows. Students have done very well in higher studies, in companies, and startups and different professions. You will work with the top leaders in the most emerging areas related to computer science, hardware, software, etc. at IIIT Hyderabad.”
Prof. C.V. Jawahar (CVIT) on LEEE
Prof. C.V. Jawahar, founding faculty at IIIT Hyderabad and head of CVIT, in his own words:
“Lateral entry program is a unique dual degree program at IIIT Hyderabad aimed at undergraduate students with a passion to do something different, passion to research, doing something very different that matters to the society at large. Once they join IIITH they spend a year refining their thoughts, narrowing down their research areas and choosing a specific problem and an advisor. From then they have three years of time to complete the master’s, complete the requirements of the bachelors and to do an impactful thesis.”
CVIT research areas (for aspirants researching the lab):
- Scene text recognition and document understanding
- Video analysis and sports analytics (including fine-grained annotation of cricket videos)
- Multi-lingual/multi-script recognition
- Medical image analysis
- Computer vision, ML interpretability
Prof. Kishore Kothapalli on Bridge Courses
Prof. Kishore Kothapalli, in his own words:
“The program is designed for motivated students who have completed two years of undergraduate education elsewhere. It leads them to a B.Tech degree along with a Master of Science by Research degree in a span of four years. Students stand to benefit from a research-led undergraduate education in preparation for their master’s degree.
Leveraging on the courses these students already do, we run a small set of bridge courses that aim to bring these students on par with their counterparts at IIITH.
The quality of education and training these students in the lateral entry program receive is directly leading to visibly better outcomes including admissions to PhD programs at prestigious universities across the world.
We are finding that the program is adding a lot of value to the students and to us as well and hence we plan to increase the intake into these programs.”
Prof. Lalitha Vadlamani on Student Outcomes
Prof. Lalitha Vadlamani (faculty in Signal Processing and Communications), in her own words:
“In lateral entry mode students are admitted into dual degree programs in ECE and CS. Students get admitted into second year and pursue second, third, and fourth years of the B.Tech program. They carry out research and submit a thesis to complete the requirements of the MS degree.
This is a unique opportunity for admission into a top class university for those who missed one earlier. An experience of a vibrant undergraduate research environment.
We found based on our past experience that since the students are already pursuing B.Tech in their respective programs, they come informed about the prospects of a research career.
There have been several cases of lateral entry students who published in various prestigious conferences. Also some of them who graduated in record times. Lateral entry students get their dream jobs in companies like Samsung Research, TI, Ola and many more.
I strongly encourage eligible candidates to apply through this unique mode of admission.”