Covid 19 - Unprecedented times

This website has been made to introduce incoming freshers to life at IIT Bombay. Explore this website and use it to make an informed choice about your college and department. The Student Mentor Program has set up this website. We have addressed almost all the important questions on this website, but it might not cover them all. Please feel free to post any query on the Query Portal. Have fun!

Introduction

Hope you are doing well. IIT Bombay as an academic institution can and will teach you a lot of things during your stay here. The important thing is to keep your mind open and keep learning. It's truly a warehouse of opportunities where you can excel at one thing or the other. As you must be knowing, due to the unfortunate pandemic situation that we are facing; IIT Bombay has decided on conducting the first semester of the academic year 2020 - 21 in an online fashion. We totally understand that this situation is new to you and you would want to have your first semester in an offline fashion; nevertheless, we will try our best to make this experience of yours, a smooth and fruitful one.

Academics During Online semester

The academics at IIT Bombay would take place in the following manner in the online semester:

  • Live Classes where professors teach on online video conferencing software such as Google Classroom (Google Meets), Microsoft Teams, Zoom Inc. & Cisco WebEx. The study material for all the courses is shared through different software such as Google Drive (GSuite), Microsoft Teams, and Moodle by IIT Bombay. You will be given access to all software from IITB itself.
  • Alternatively, professors also upload pre-recorded video lectures through Google Drive or Microsoft Teams and there are regular live interaction sessions conducted on the aforementioned video conferencing platforms for doubt solving.


There are basic requirements while studying in an online semester:

- Good Internet connect ion
- Laptop, Personal Computer, etc
- Video Conferencing
- Power Supply

What to do if you do not have the above?

  • Technical Support:
    • IT support scholarship
      The Director, IIT Bombay in collaboration with the generous alumni of IIT Bombay and Dean ACR office has come up with a financial support scheme for the economically weak students. This particular financial scheme finances the students to buy a laptop/personal computer and also provides students with a monthly data pack charge.

      The Eligibility for IT scholarship is the following:
      • ELIGIBLE INCOME CRITERIA Parental income should be less than 5 lakhs/ Annum.
      • The student should be a registered student of IIT Bombay
      Following are the supporting documents required for the IT scholarship
      • Parental Income Certificate Of 20-21 and If Not Available Then of 19-20
      • PREFORMA INVOICE / ESTIMATE from vendor/shopkeeper for purchasing laptop. (This is the document you receive when you ask for a quote from the shopkeeper
      • Copy of Broadband Monthly Bill for a minimum of one month cycle.
      • CPI of earlier years, if you are 1st year fresher, please upload mark sheet of entrance exam
      Some important things to remember:
      • DO TRY AND MAKE AN INFORMED CHOICE WHILE SELECTING FOR SUPPORT, IN CASE YOU REQUIRE ONLY ONE OF THE BENEFITS (EITHER LAPToP OR BROADBAND) PLEASE SELECT ACCORDINGLY.
      • A SUPPORT OF UPTo 40,000/- FOR A LAPToP AND upto Rs. 700/- p.m. for a period of 6 months FOR INTERNET CONNECTIVITY WILL BE PROVIDED
      Please Read FAQ for more clarity
    • There would be orientations conducted to familiarize the new entrants with the existing web infrastructure of IIT Bombay such as Moodle, ASC & Webmail.
    • There are extensive documents prepared for the installation of newly integrated SSO Login and 2 Factor Authorization with Google and having the GSuite access through your institute LDAP IDs.
    • Stepwise guideline documents have been made for all the required video conferencing software such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Zoom Inc. & Cisco WebEx for seamless installation for everyone. PS: You would have premium access to all these platforms through your personal LDAP IDs.

  • Connectivity Support:
    • Appropriate steps are being taken to bring the students back to the institute who are having severe network issues and less academic-friendly environment at their homes. Although the institute is trying best to bring the students back to campus who are having difficulties; it is solely upto the student if they wish to stay in the campus at their own risk. PS: Please reach out to the Student Mentorship Program Coordinators or the General Secretaries in case you are facing these difficulties and willing to stay at the campus. (Contact information is attached at the end of the page)
    • COVID-19 pandemic has caused the in-person lecture delivery to shift to online mode for several educational institutes across the world, including IIT Bombay. A significant number of students were facing disruptions in remotely attending the online lectures due to unreliable/intermittent electrical connection. IIT Bombay has released an assembly manual for solar cell-based laptop charger to help students suffering from prolonged power cut during their online classes:

      Please use the following link: https://bit.ly/2FUu9zs

      This manual provides some low cost, Do It Yourself (DIY) solutions for students to address this problem using off-the-shelf components. The intent of this manual is to provide an alternative, solar-based solution wherein the students could use their existing chargers to charge their smartphones/laptops. The solutions in this manual are presented in such a way that the students themselves can procure the components, and perform assembly and basic maintenance of the systems. This manual is prepared by the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE) at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). Our special thanks to Prof. Narendra Shiradkar and Kedar Deshmukh for creating this manual.

  • Financial Support:
    There are various scholarship schemes available for the economically weaker sections of the society, you can read more about them here.

Facilities of IIT Bombay that you can avail from home

  • IITB hospital
  • Student Wellness Centre (SWC):
    • After securing admission at the Institute and starting your stay here, you may feel that a lot of parameters around you are different. You would have more responsibilities to handle at the hostel and at the academic level. Take heart, you will not be the only one. There are a few issues that almost everyone in the Institute faces initially like academic concerns, social (family and peer) pressure etc, leading to feelings of loneliness, low confidence, anxiety, stress, anger and sadness, to name a few.
    • Due to sudden disruption to the ongoing semester and uncertainty about the future during COVID-19 lockdown, we understand you might be feeling stressed. The Student Wellness Centre is with you at this time. In case you wish to talk to a counsellor over the phone, kindly contact us on the given numbers during the below-mentioned timings.
      Timings:
      • 11 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 6 pm
      • Mr. Shoukath Ali: 8590594136
    • It is important to understand that students often lose their focus and give in to these pressures. If not attended to at the right time, this could lead to poor performance -- both academically and personally.
    • Counselling provides an opportunity for individuals to learn to make better choices, improve interpersonal skills, develop confidence and increase educational effectiveness. In a one-on-one meeting with a counsellor, students are helped to explore and express feelings, examine beliefs and ways of thinking about their present situation, reflect on patterns of behavior, and work toward making healthier and happier changes.
    • For events and workshops, do follow and keep a lookout on www.facebook.com/icareiitb
  • IIT Bombay Central Library: IIT Bombay’s Central Library is like IIT Bombay – user-focused, innovative, and excellence-driven. The library has always benefited from the institutes’ culture, is a pioneer in adopting new technology. Central Library provides knowledge, both in print and digital formats, it ensures seamless discovery and access to these scholarly resources through the website and provides students with professional support to find and use such resources. The plethora of books available in a digital format would be easily accessible to all the students in an online format.
    Library, IIT Bombay also provides premium access to Grammarly for the students of IIT Bombay. Refer to the following link to avail the premium.

  • Student Mentorship Program Coordinators
    • Siddharth Pradhan (+91 77189 79257)
    • Advait Padaval (+91 83901 81711)
    • Apoorva Agarwal (+91 89894 25794)
  • General Secretary Academic Affairs (UG)
  • General Secretary Hostel Affairs

Announcements

  • For Important Updates regarding the UG first-year Students of IIT Bombay, visit this link
  • To stay tuned for further updates follow us on Instagram
  • Contact information for prospective women students: jeew.helpdesk@iitb.ac.in
  • The branch change policy would be the same in IIT Bombay as it has been for the previous years. Visit Branch Change to know more about the same.
  • FAQs and Query Portal