Throwing health guidelines to the winds, students passing out of the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay could be seen walking up the podium, receiving their certificates, all this while not wearing any mask whatsoever.
Except, there’s a small catch – none of the students or the 58 senate members seen in videos from IIT Bombay’s 58th convocation were actually present at the venue. Instead, virtual avatars were created for each of the students and the senate members to give them an almost-real experience.
According to The Times of India, a team of about 20 people put together the entire ceremony in which personalised avatars of each student first walked up the stage, received their certificates and smiled a little as the camera zoomed in.
The chief guest for the convocation, professor Duncan Haldane, a co-recipient of the 2016 Nobel prize for physics and guest of honour, Stephen Schwarzman, who’s the chairman & CEO of Blackstone, too, participated in the event virtually.
Not just this, students were also sent a link after the convocation through which they could go on a virtual tour of the campus, hang around in their classrooms and even catch a last glimpse of their hostel rooms.
The decision to go for a virtual convocation was taken as the premier institute did not want to risk the health of students.
“We did not wish to deprive them of the sense of achievement and pride of passing out of India’s premier engineering Institute.”IIT Bombay in a statement
According to The Indian Express, a total of 498 students graduated out of IIT Bombay this year; this includes 33 joint PhD degrees in association with Monash University.
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