IIT Madras gears up for Shaastra 2026

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) volition big Shaastra 2026, its yearly method festival, from January 2 to 6, 2026, connected campus.

The five-day festival is expected to gully implicit 80,000 visitors, featuring 80 events, 130 stalls exhibiting innovations of IIT Madras, and a divers programme of competitions, exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and shows.

It is wholly student-managed and ISO 9001:2015-certified. This year’s theme, ‘Artifacts of Arcade’, reimagines the festival arsenic an interactive, game-like ecosystem wherever each contention oregon store feels similar a caller level to conquer, blending hands-on learning with nostalgia-driven engagement.

One of the cardinal initiatives this twelvemonth is VidhyaVahak. Under this program, 150 teachers from agrarian areas volition beryllium equipped with modern teaching technologies including AI tools. Mith R Jain, Student Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary, IIT Madras highlighted different inaugural called ‘Hear4You’. The run aims to rise consciousness astir preventable and treatable proceeding nonaccomplishment and beforehand inclusive connection

Murugaiyan Amirthalingam, Co-Curricular Advisor, IIT Madras, said, Robowars, Shaastra’s flagship combat robotics title volition spot planetary information this year. Teams from Malaysia, Brazil, and Russia are participating.

V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras said that the archetypal 2 weeks of January 2026 is filled with events astatine campus. “We person our unfastened house, Shaastra 2026 and past Saarang 2026. We are besides opening our IIT Madras Global Research Foundation. This volition beryllium inaugurated by Minister for External Affairs S. Jaishankar connected January 2, 2026,” helium said.

Shaastra 2026 volition besides diagnostic spotlight lectures by eminent scientists, administrators, and thought leaders including Jeffrey Ullman, Turing Award laureate; Subra Suresh, erstwhile Director of the US National Science Foundation and Vidita Vaidya, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize-winning neuroscientist.