 is that we are going to talk about a new program that has been launched by IIT Madras. So we were not sure if our local chapter spokes have heard about it. Perhaps some of you do. But we thought, OK, this is a nice time to introduce this program to our local chapter SPOC so that you can, in turn, pass it on to your students. And as a special offering, we are giving some discount to local chapter students. So we'll discuss all that in today's session. So let me share my screen now. OK, I hope you can see my screen. Yes, Divya? Yes, OK. So you can see the title. IIT Madras offers BS in data science and applications. Enter IIT without JEE, anyone, anywhere, any time. So I'm sure you are interested to understand what this is all about. Entering IIT without JEE. Whenever we think of IIT, joining IIT, the three letters comes to our mind, right? JEE, joint entrance examination. If you want to enter IIT, you have to write JEE exam. You have to go through the main exam, the advanced exams, and so on. And if you fall within a certain cutoff rank, you get admission to the IIT Madras or any other IIT, so to speak. But here is a unique opportunity for students, as well as those who are working, to join an IIT Madras program, that is BS, Bachelor's of Science in Data Science and Applications. This is a four level program. You can get into this program without a JEE. So let's see how we can do this. So as you all know, why did we choose Data Science as the subject, as the topic to offer a degree? This is the world's first undergrad program offering online. So why did we choose this particular topic? Data is everywhere. We all know that, right? You have heard of apps and how in health industry and education industry, in energy industry, in public services, everywhere we use data these days. So what is data and why do we use data in practically every field? So we come across data everywhere these days, right? Including sports. We can see all the analysts giving us some numbers on TV while watching cricket or tennis or the Commonwealth Games that's going on right now in UK. In sports, in health sciences, during Corona, every day we could hear these numbers, right? These many people recover. These many people are in hospitals. This particular zone has these many numbers, all kinds of numbers. Then data science and finance. They use data in practically every aspect of finance these days. Risk analytics and consumer analytics and they look into analytics every single day, every single aspect of finance is now data oriented. Similarly, social media. Of course, all of us use Google and other social media apps and so on. Everywhere you can see that what we search today is data for Google tomorrow. The next day you can see that similar things are coming up on your mobile screen and so on. You again, then 35% of Amazon's revenue is generated from its recommendation engines and so on. Data, we can see that it is generated a lot and we come across every single day. So this is the right time to take up a course such as this. How to understand data, how to analyze data, how to get good data from the amount of data that we have in our hands and study the data and give what the company wants. So this is a course that focuses all that. Now, this course has various levels and how does one go about getting into this program of IIT Madras. Again, this course or this program is offered by IIT Madras. It is a four level course. It has four levels. The first level is a foundation level. The second level is a diploma level. The third one is BSC and the fourth one is BS. So how will we enter the program? So there's an exam called qualifier. So how does this qualifier process work? So students have to apply to the foundation level qualifier. You go to our website. I'll show it to you a little later. You go to our website. You click on the apply button. You fill the form and you pay the fees and you apply to the foundation qualifier. This involves studying of four weeks of four courses. English, Mathematics, Statistics and Computational Thinking. These are the four subjects that they will be studying online. Just like an NPTEL course or any watching a YouTube video, they will be given access to video content for four weeks. So unlike a JEE exam where the topics are given and you are asked to prepare on your own. You go for coaching class. You study on your own, etc. Here what we are saying is the four weeks of content that is prepared by us, we will give you access to that content. You watch the videos and you learn from this content and the qualifier exam will comprise of questions only from this content. Again it involves four subjects across four weeks. The subjects are English, Mathematics, Statistics and Computational Thinking. So video lectures are watched. Just like NPTEL videos, they will be accessible any time. Once you have paid the fees and you get access to the videos, you can watch it any time. All these video lectures also come with practice problems with solutions. So those of you who are watching the video lectures, you can also practice using these questions. Then we have doubt clearing sessions, we have live sessions, we have discussion forum just like an NPTEL course where students can post their questions, people will be answering there. We also have other live sessions which the students can join and ask and clear their doubts. Again just like NPTEL course, every week there will be assignments. Students have to submit the assignments and based on the marks that they get in the assignments they become eligible to write the qualifier exam. So to write this qualifier exam, they have to watch videos and they have to submit assignments. Those are mandatory. They have to submit assignments and based on the marks available in the assignment that they are submitting, they become eligible to write the qualifier exam. Then the qualifier exam will happen. The exam will be for four hours. Each subject one hour each. All four subjects mandatory for students to write exams. Again the exams they have to come to an exam center like an NPTEL final exam and they have to write the exam. And each subject has a cutoff. So the student has to score more than the cutoff for each subject and also the overall cutoff and then they are now qualified to enter the program or join the program. So this is an entrance exam, but the study content is made available to the students from us and the exam will comprise of only students, only questions from the content that we get. Now what is the advantage of writing this particular exam? Unlimited seats. You all are aware that in a college there are number of seats, right? You can take in only 100 students or 200 students or 1000 students. Even in JEE, after the advanced exams results are announced about 10,000 students can get into the various IITs. Beyond that, if your rank falls beyond that number you will not get admission simply because there are no seats in IITs, right? Here the seats are unlimited because the learning happens online. So if 50,000 students get eligibility so be it, we will take in all 50,000 students. Again, there is no ranking. There is no such thing as rank one, rank two, rank three or 1000 ranks and things like that. It is a cut-off mark. The moment the student scores that cut-off mark he or she is now eligible to get admission to the IIT Madras program. That means you are qualified to get admission to the program. So because of this no seat limit and there is no ranking it is open to everyone. It is open to anyone who is interested. This does not apply to just college students or just school students. It applies to anybody who is currently working, et cetera. Okay, so as I told you there are four levels. So typically a four year degree program what we'll say is it's first year, second year, third year and fourth year, right? Here we refer to them as levels. First level is called foundation. Second level is diploma. Third level is BSc and the fourth level is BS. So in the first level year one you will have to complete eight subjects. Then the second level there are two diplomas, one in programming and one in data science. There will be six subjects plus two projects in each of them. Level three is the BSc level where you have to finish seven subjects and again BS also you have to complete seven subjects. Now at each level you have, you can see here underneath the boxes exit with foundation certificate, exit with one of both diplomas become an IIT Madras alumnus. So at each level if the student or you if you are joining the course you decide that okay I am not interested in continuing this course, this program. You can decide to drop at that level. You complete the first eight subjects you will get a certificate saying that you have a foundation certificate from IIT Madras. If you decide to leave at the diploma level you get a certificate with a diploma from IIT Madras. If you leave at the BSc degree you get again a degree level certificate and so on. So only when you complete BSc or BS you get an IIT Madras alumnus status. So again the bullet points at the bottom of the screen these are very important. So in a typical college how do we go? We pay the fees for a semester. There will be four, five, six subjects each student has to study and they have to study those subjects. If they don't pass the exam their ideas will be there and so on. Here the place is determined by the learner. That means if the first semester or the first term I am interested in taking up only say one course out of the eight subjects I want to take only one subject. Then I pay only for the one subject and I study only one subject in that particular term. So there is that flexibility. You are not forced to take all four subjects or all five subjects in a term. You can choose to take one subject or two subjects depending on how free you are that particular semester and so on. You can take a term break. In between terms if something has come up in your life you are a college student you have other things to worry about that particular term or you are a working person you have something major happening during that term you can take a term break. Let's say you are a student here you are now going abroad to study. You can take a break you can continue this program even abroad. And we also have a lot of fee waivers for those with income level less than five lakhs less than one lakh and so on. So there are so many flexible aspects to this program. So many students as you know even parents all have the dream of getting into an IED right. Now this is the chance for learners to join IED. So the admission program admission process as I told you it's very simple it is just a qualifier exam there is no JEE. So of course the doubt comes to one's mind right. For JEE you have to study computer science and maths and physics and so on. Here anyone any stream somebody who is doing a BCONG somebody who is doing a BCA somebody who is doing engineering law medicine any stream any age any place you can join this program. You can write the exam. It can be done along with any other degree because UGC has come out to the notification that one can do another online program simultaneously along with the regular college degree. So this can be done along with another degree. So we have many students who are in the program who are already pursuing a degree and they are doing the BS degree as a second degree. Now the faculty these are all faculty from really the best faculty across institutes such as IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur and so on. Excuse me. So the teaching and learning will be very rigorous. This is after all an IIT Madras program. So there will be assessments. There will be online programming exams and so on. Once they enter the program and all exams that is all quizzes and final exams will be in person. They have to come to an exam center and write the exam. So there are certain programming exams that we do conduct online also. So the idea is the students must learn everything hands on. So we have programming assignments. We have programming exams for students to understand and learn the data. They learn different types of programs and they finally they come and write the exams in person at exam centers. These are the same centers that students come and write the exams. So most of you are familiar with the exam centers. We also will give placement and internship support to all the students who graduate from our program. From diploma level, there is a second level itself. We start placing them. We start giving internship opportunities and so on. So you can see the diversity in the student community that we have. We have students who are less than age 20, two people who are 70, 75, almost 80 years. So currently actually these numbers are old. We have about 13,500 students in our program right now. And the second box you can see we have students are the highest numbers 8,600. We have employed people. We have homemakers and so on. Then the categories you can see field engineering technology we have max 5,000 plus. Then art science we have 2,500 and so on. So we have students who are currently pursuing say BSc, Swology, Botany, et cetera who are doing the course with us. So it doesn't necessarily mean this is only for those who study maths and physics when they are in school. The eligibility that we are looking for is 10th grade maths and English. So most students who are either in arts and commerce and management fields must have done their mathematics and have studied some English in 10th standard. That is sufficient. So again, this is the spread of students. You can see Tamil Nadu tops. Then we have Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Visbenkala, Delhi, Telangana, Bihar, Antapuradesh, these are the top 10 number. But you can see across states and unit areas we have so many students taking up this program. What is the fees for the program? So this is a self-financed program for IT madras. So there is no funding coming for this program. So the qualifier exam for a general category student it is 3000 rupees. But there are waivers for SESC as well as PWD candidates. They pay only 50% that is 1500. Fee per credit in foundation level. So if you have to take four subjects, you can see that there are eight courses in the foundation level in one year. For each credit it is 1000 rupees. For the 32 credits it will be 32,000 rupees in year one or level one. Similarly, at the diploma level it is 2500 per credit. Then similarly in the degree level also it goes slightly up. But we do have a lot of waivers that applies for students. 50% fee waiver for those with family income less than five lakhs. And also those who belong to SESC PWD categories. 75% waiver for those with family income less than one lakh. So you can see that a lot of students will benefit from this. So just like NPTEL we also have CSR partnerships with many companies. So they are sponsoring some students. They are even offering to buy computers for certain students if they submit the family income certificate and so on. The students who are learning online, definitely there is this handicap of not being able to mingle with students. When if a student goes to college, of course they are going to be able to mingle with students, they come to learn with the friends in classes and so on. So what we have done is to mimic that. We have something called houses. There are 12 houses in this program. Each house is named after a national forest in India. So you can, you will recognize some of these names. Names, Bandipur, Corvette, Gir, Kanha Forest, Kaziranga, Nalla Mala, Wynard, Sundarbans, Saranda, Pichabaram, Neel Gris and Namdafab. So these are the 12 houses that we have and the houses are again divided into 30 groups and so on. So all students are divided into groups and houses where they can seek support from their friends, they can study together, they can form clubs and so on. So this is very closely mimic the program that they usually have in a college. So they have so many clubs that students have come up with. You can see in the Indian society, there are auditory clubs, music clubs, poetry clubs, literature clubs, hackathons. A lot of competitions happen between the clubs and houses. So it is a wonderful community of students who learn from each other, who compete against each other. Now imagine this, in a typical college, the classmates are all about the same age, perhaps friends who studied with them in school and so on. In our learning community, in a particular class, we are having students from different areas, different age groups also. So similar to NPTEL, in a classroom, you have people who are probably the CEO of a company, somebody who works in the Navy, somebody who is a doctor, a lawyer, somebody who just got a job. So they are all mentoring each other and helping each other out. So it is a wonderful community to be part of and to learn from. These are some of our current leaders, mentors, members. You can see, these are all, we can see software developers, founder of startup company. Then we have students, we have leaders, a lot of people who are already employed. So a different variety, a variety of students who are part of our leaders also in these groups. Some job opportunities that we can think of are data science jobs, you can see in retail, in healthcare, in automotive, digital marketing and so on. Data science, data scientists, data architect, business analyst, data engineers, all this. So what will IATM do? We help place all our students for internships as well as jobs. We have a dedicated placement team. We also offer soft skills training for our students. We conduct mock interviews, we conduct hands-on projects. So at the diploma level, when the students are submitting their projects, they are supposed to submit one or two projects per diploma, these projects are evaluated by people from the industry. And then there will be a Viva after the project and the industry people will be asking the questions. They will be handling the Vivas. So this way they will get hands-on experience as to what actually happens in the industry and what kind of questions they can expect in a potential interview. So this is the certificate that the students will get once they complete the program, Bachelor of Science in Programming and Data Science, the Bachelor of Science, where we are changing it to the fourth level, which is Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Applications. So students, you can see that we are not mentioning the word online in the certificate. So if you submit this certificate anywhere, it is acceptable by all other institutes. So some questions that typically come to your mind, is this degree valid? Just like any other degree awarded by IIT Madras. So the answer is yes, this degree is just as valid as any other degree awarded by IIT Madras. IITs are given special powers by an active parliament wherein they can award a degree. They do not require the permission from UGC or any other such bodies. So the degree awarded by IIT Madras is just like a BTEC awarded by IIT Madras. This will be called as a BS. You can do this program as a standalone degree or with any other degree. Yes, you can do it with any other degree. Weekly content, usually it's about three hours of duration and there will be assignments also. You can also attend live sessions to clarify doubts. Exams will be conducted only on Sundays and in Pital, you are familiar with it. It will be across cities in India. Some exams are conducted in outside centers also, outside India centers. Learners can be of any age. If I am a retired person, yes, I can do this. I am just finishing 12th standard. Can I do it? Yes, you can also do this course. Learners from only science at mainstream, can they only apply? No, the answer is learners from any stream. It can be engineering, it can be commerce. We have students from who are doing CA and they are doing this program. Those who are studying NBPS, they are doing this program. Those who are doing studying law, they are doing this program. So it can be students from humanities, medicine, management, any other degree. Or fields, as you know, data applies. As we saw in the beginning couple of slides, data applies everywhere, whether it be medicine, whether it be law, whether it be any other field. What is minimum qualification required? What we expect is the students should have completed standard 10 in studying maths and English. That is all. So students who have completed 10 who are studying 11, 10, 12, if they are in the commerce stream, they are in the management stream, they can also take up this because we are only asking you that the students should have completed maths and English in class 10. Students in colleges, working professionals, people on a break, anybody can apply for this program. Now special discounts to LC students. For female students, if the family income is less than 5 lakhs per annum, this applies only to local chapter students. Full scholarship, that is, qualifier, foundation level, and one of the diploma or degree levels, we will cover full fees for female students if their family income is less than 5 lakhs. So just like NPTEL fee waiver, they have to complete the level and then we will reimburse the amount. Scholarships for up to two students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds can also be covered by our funds. This again applies only for LC students to eligible students. It can be male or female. If they, we can fund up to two students to one diploma level. We have funds for that. So we can cover for one or two students. This can be any category students, okay? Till a diploma level. So why are we doing this? We want to make sure the students, deserving students, you know, economic constraints should not be a reason. Okay, I don't have the fees to pay for this course. That is where we help. That should not stop you from studying. That should not stop you from pursuing this course. And to make students more aware that they can get a diploma from IETM. For students, they can even, you know, decide to pursue up to diploma level. That itself will be worth a lot more and they can apply for a job. This will definitely enhance their skillset and improve their employability. So we invite on local chapters to partner with us as an online program local chapter, OPLC. Just like NPTEL local chapter, we are calling this as online program local chapter, OPLC. If you are interested in partnering with us, please write to oplc at onlinedegree.itm.htc.in. Okay, if you don't remember this, send a mail to the usual local chapter mail ID, they will forward that mail to this ID and our team will help you. So we have a dedicated team to cater to the online program, local chapter program also, the OPLC also. Please write to us if you have any questions. Now those of the SPOCs who have children at home for school students, please note that even in 11th standard, they can apply for this course and write the exam. And if they qualify in the qualifier program, that means it's guaranteed that they are getting admission into a program. There is a BS program in ID. Now there are people who ask, through this program, if they write the qualifier exam, will they be eligible to join ID Madras? No, they are eligible to join only this program. That is data science and applications. Students who have completed means and they are eligible to write J-Advanced, they are also directly admitted to this program. Okay, so those of you who have students, the school going students at home or you have some neighbor, somebody who your colleague has, can please refer, I mean, inform them about this program. This is a wonderful opportunity. So this is our website. The last date is, I mean, the date that is shown is incorrect because it's an old screen. The last date is August 19th. So there are only a few days to apply for the qualifier. The applications are now open. Please share this information with everybody. You go to our website. It's onlinedegree.itm.ac.in. You can see it here at the top, onlinedegree.itm.ac.in. You just have to click on the apply button and let me quickly show onlinedegree website. So this is our website. You can see, you can click on apply now. So there are some intro videos here. You can come down here and there are several details, LGBT details, et cetera, et cetera. You can come down here. You can see the messages here. There are several videos also. If you need any help, these are all help videos who can join, what is being offered? Are these official diplomas? What is the qualifier process? Everything is explained in text as well as videos. You can watch this. You can go to academic space. You can watch sample videos, et cetera. Then under admissions, you can see a lot of important dates and eligibility apply and everything. All the details are given here. So you can see who can apply the application process. So you can see the general category, OBC applicants, 3,000 fees. The CST, PWD, et cetera, it's 1500. SST and PWD, it will be 750. Then JEE based entry, how it works, all that is given here. So minimum required, the marks. General category, you have to score 40%, 50% and so on. So if you write this exam, it will be valid for up to one year. So when you write the qualifier and let's say you want to wait for another term to join, that is fine. It will be valid for a year. JEE based entry information is there. If you're an international student, the details are given there. Then again, under resources, you have help videos. You can click on help videos. You can see why, what should you learn? You can see all these videos are prepared by our professors. Who is the program? You can see Andrew Sir's videos, a lot of Andrew Sir videos here. Fee structure of the program, admission process without typical entrance, qualifier exam and qualifying criteria. There are quite a few videos here, about 12 videos. So please take your time, watch this and then decide if you want to apply. So I'm going to stop sharing now. And if there are any questions, please type in the chat window or raise your hand. We'll be happy to answer your questions. If there are any questions, please raise your hand or enter in the chat box. Okay, so we have a question, can graduate students apply for the program? Yes, the answer is yes. Graduate students can apply, as I told you. Students, when I say students, learner, any learner, whether you are in college, whether you are working, whether you have retired, whether you are in school, doesn't matter, you can apply. Okay, it is a four week content that you have to go through, write the assignments, submit the assignments and then you can go and write the final, the qualifier exam. If you pass the qualifier exam, passes 50% marks. If you pass the qualifier exam, then you are going to get admission to this prestigious IIT program. Can I apply now? Yes, you can apply now. The application form is open till August 19th. Yeah, August 19th. Okay. We will explain this, please. Yeah, so let me see. I'm seeing some, I'm sorry. Free waiver. Yeah, free waiver, I think I already explained for the qualifier exam, the SCSE students, PWD students will get a waiver. Beyond that, it is given in our website. I would suggest that because there's a lot to explain. So please go and check it out on our website. Okay. Do not call us for money, please. Yeah, local chapter, just like other, you know, activities that we do for MPTEL, if you can promote this amongst your students, tell them that there's a program called BS in data science and applications. We are telling you this because it applies to all categories of students. That is whether they are commerce students, whether it's arts and science college, management college, science college, you know, engineering doesn't matter. It applies to all your students because data science applies in every field that we see now. So anybody who thinks, you know, I'm studying zoology, so I can't apply to this program, they are wrong. They can also study. Is there a maximum duration for the program? Yes, the maximum duration is, you can take up to six years to complete this program. So those who want to take it slow, that is fine. Any other question? So, Sparks, if you have any questions, please raise your hand or put it in the chat window. I hope this has been helpful for you. Please go and visit, Divya, and you put the link there, onlinedegree.iatm.ac.in. So that is the website, onlinedegree.iatm.ac.in. You go there, you can click on the apply button and apply for the program. Or if you want to just browse through the website, understand the program, that is also fine. Every level as I told you, there's an exit way. So you can either, you know, decide to just stop at the foundation level or you can pursue diploma and then stop. Or you can pursue BSE, BS. What is the total cost? So it is just about the cost that there's for, you know, the typical college program. So as I told you, for each credit, we have given them out. So for the first year of the foundation level, for one credit, it is 1,000 rupees. That is, it comes around 32,000. So I think that overall it comes to around two and a half lakhs or something like that for the entire program. Two and a half to three I would say. Any other question? I hope you understood the process. You have to fill that form and then watch videos, submit assignments, write the qualifier exam. These are the four steps, okay? One more time, you fill the form by paying the fees. Okay, go to the website and do that. And then you watch videos, submit assignments and then you get qualified to write the exam, write the qualifier exam. The exam is called the qualifier exam. How many study hours? We are say 15 hours per week. And the subjects, we already mentioned the four subjects that they have to cover to write the qualifier exam are mathematics, English, computational thinking and statistics. These are the four subjects. I think I'm again getting the same questions cost. I would suggest that you go and check it out in the website because those who have already listening to it, it's repetitive for them. So those who are joining late, please go and check it out on our website. It's onlinedegree.iatm.ac.in. And the first level subjects are computational thinking, English, mathematics and statistics. And throughout the weeks, every week, we will be having live sessions, live interactive sessions where our course instructors will be helping them solve problems, thereby making them easier to attend the exams. So we are not seeing any more questions. So I'll be available here. If you have any more questions, please let me know. So we'll stay for five more minutes. For an offline exam, is there option for multiple exam dates? So the exam dates are decided ahead of time. We will publish it one year ahead of time. All exams will be on Sundays. And there will be no clash with NPTEL exam dates. So you don't have to worry about it, okay? So all exams will be on Sundays. Exams alone, they have to come and write at the exam center. Shivakumar sir, do you have a question? I'm here but we didn't get any mail from your segment. Mail from your segment. About what, sir? MOU. Oh, okay, sir. So we will send it out. So there is no MOU, just like NPTEL local chapter only. We just signed, you know, fill a form and then we will give you a letter. No, we have already sent it, but we didn't get it. It's it, okay, I'll check it out, sir. I'll check it. Okay, thank you, sir. Yeah, Manjushan, please go ahead. Yes, ma'am. Actually, is there an eligibility, attendance eligibility requirement for the students to write the examinations? Yes, attendance is that they have to submit the assignments. Other than that, any watching the video, monitoring or live session attendance? Yeah, so all this accrues points for them. So nothing is mandatory, but more than this, the more they are going to lose. Okay, so yeah. Other than that, so there is no requirement. Yeah, but we all, the students will start realizing that those who are attending the sessions are actually, they are able to crack the exam. So why I asked is because for the online programs, there is a UGC requirement of 75% attendance. It's given in the online regulations, so that's why I'm asking. So this one, no, we don't have any such numbers, but yeah. So there will be some, some consequence because some points are there, so that we get. Okay, man, thank you. Okay, Shivakumar sir, I will look into it, okay, thank you. Thank you. So I hope this was helpful for you. Please go back and tell your students, okay, about this new program. I don't know how many of them have heard about it. As you know, in IITs, they don't advertise anywhere. So this is a unique opportunity. We started this only two years back. So students who will join now and complete, they'll be the first, you know, two, three, we belong to the first two or three batches. So that will be very unique for them. So, please. One question, ma'am. Yes, sir. Why you have converted to BSE to BS degree now? Yeah, so it started out as a BSE program. At that time, we got permission only for that, sir. Okay. So now we have gotten permission to do it as a four year program, BS. So BSE has been changed to a BS program. So, you know, the last level, there will be some courses, but it will be more and more projects and they will do apprenticeship with companies and so on in the final year. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay, I think we can close the session now. So this session is available on YouTube also. You can go and search. Okay, minimum marks, everything is given in the website. So it depends on subject, depends on the year. You can, because it's a vast program. So each question, you know, you can go and explore in the website itself. It's all details are given in the website. So it's just a matter of clicking and finding out, okay. Thank you so much. Thank you all for joining. Thank you.