S. Vishnu Sharma
IIT Madras has admitted five athletes with National accomplishments under its ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA) category for the academic year 2024-2025.
This initiative is offered through two supernumerary seats in each of its undergraduate programs for Indian Nationals, of which one will be exclusively for female students.
The first
IIT Madras became the first IIT in the country to introduce admissions for sportspersons in its undergraduate programmes.
This initiative is to recognize and reward talented students who have excelled in sports, say sources from IIT Madras.
This program encourages deserving students to pursue higher education while continuing to excel in their sports.
Director of IIT Madras
Welcoming the Five Athletes with National accomplishments to the Institute, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said the sports excellence admission is an initiative of IIT Madras primarily to send the important message that young children must be encouraged to play during their childhood. I sincerely hope this reaches to all concerned.
The athletes
The Five athletes admitted under ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ during the 2024-25 Academic Year are:
1. Ms. Arohi Bhave, (Volleyball Player) from Maharashtra – Admitted into BS (Medical Sciences and Engineering)
2. Mr. Aryaman Mandal (Water Polo and Swimming) from West Bengal – Admitted into B. Tech (Computer Science and Engineering)
3. Ms. Nandini Jain (Squash Player) from Delhi – Admitted into B. Tech (Computer Science and Engineering)
4. Mr. Prabhav Gupta, (Table Tennis Player) from Delhi – Admitted into B. Tech (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science)
5. Mr. Vangala Vedavachan Reddy (Lawn Tennis Player) from Andhra Pradesh – Admitted into B. Tech (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science)
CESSA at IIT Madras
Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Head, Center of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics (CESSA), IIT Madras, said, “The ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ Program was conceptualized about two years ago.
Our Director, Prof. V. Kamakoti, is very keen to see diverse and meritorious talent come into IIT Madras, he said.
After a lot of deliberations internally and with various stakeholders, the Institute admitted the first cohort of Sports Excellence Admission students in July 2024 to our undergraduate programs, he said.
Applications
Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, who is also Dean (Emeritus), IIT Madras said they had several applications but finally, they were able to admit Five Students of excellent standing and yet academically qualified.
They have passed JEE (Advanced), like any other IIT student.
In that sense, there is no compromise on the relative quality of academic merit that is expected but at the same time, rewards sports pursuit and excellence, he said.
Delight
Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula said it is a delight to speak about what sporting excellence can do, specifically through CESSA.
Our endeavor is to bring technology into the world of sports to help athletes and coaches improve their performances, said Prof Mahesh of IIT Madras.
We are also focused on making sure that sports is mainstream by offering courses in the domain of Sports Science through Sports Physiology, Sports Psychology, Sports Biomechanics and many other research areas, he said.
CESSA is at the forefront of working with a lot of sports federations and agencies to help our National athletes excel on the world stage, he said.
Admission process
The admission process for SEA is through the JEE examination and requires candidates to qualify JEE (Advanced) but would not be through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) portal but rather through a separate portal operated by IIT Madras.
Further information can be found on this website – https://jeeadv.iitm.ac.in/sea/information.html
Eligibility
To be eligible for admission through this program, candidates must have secured a position in the Common Rank List (CRL) or category-wise rank list in the JEE (Advanced) and must have won at least one medal in any National/International-level sports competition in the last four years.
A separate ‘Sports Rank List’ (SRL) will be prepared based on the total score obtained by the candidates based on their performance in a specific list of sports. The seat allotment will be done based on this list.
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