Best Place To BuildProf. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras |"No substitute for hard work to become a great engineer"|Ep.23
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 0:53
Cold open: JEE rank, career paths, and “work hard to make it a unicorn”
A rapid-fire opening sets the tone: JEE success isn’t the only route to success, IITM CS curriculum is designed for clear career paths, and the institute’s innovation stack can take an idea to startup scale—if you put in the effort. It frames the episode’s three recurring themes: rigor, breadth of opportunity, and execution.
- •JEE performance is not a life verdict; long-term outcomes can diverge
- •IITM CS focuses courses to support distinct career paths
- •IITM has an end-to-end innovation/entrepreneurship “stack”
- •Hard work is presented as the non-negotiable differentiator
- 0:53 – 2:03
At the Sudan Kunj/CFI innovation hub: meeting the Director with a 3-part agenda
The host introduces the show’s premise—why IIT Madras is ‘the best place to build’—and sets the scene at the innovation hub. The conversation is structured into three lenses: Kamakoti the professor, Kamakoti the former JEE chair, and Kamakoti the Director.
- •Location and context: IITM’s innovation hub setting
- •Why this episode is “the big one”: IITM’s long NIRF #1 streak
- •Interview structure: teacher/academic → JEE → director
- •Kamakoti’s semiconductor/VLSI prominence highlighted
- 2:03 – 3:50
Research areas and teaching ethos: architecture, VLSI, security—and the “Suprabatham slot”
Kamakoti outlines his core research and teaching areas and shares an unconventional experiment: early-morning classes aimed at peak cognitive productivity. He also reflects on his long teaching journey and the personal importance of being in the classroom.
- •Research/teaching focus: computer architecture, VLSI, information security
- •Early-morning ‘Suprabatham’ class slot experiment and student response
- •Teaching continuity across decades (50th semester at IITM)
- •Teaching as identity and discipline—missing a semester felt deeply unsettling
- 3:50 – 4:58
Founding the RISE Group: building for autonomous, reconfigurable, intelligent systems
The conversation shifts to how RISE (Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering) was formed and why: systems would become autonomous, intelligent, and reconfigurable. Early alumni support and later grants helped scale the lab’s ambitions and outputs.
- •RISE formed around 2005–06 with a future-systems thesis
- •Early faculty hiring context and team formation
- •Initial funding sources: alumni + government grants
- •RISE positioned to deliver large, real-world system outcomes
- 4:58 – 5:40
The Shakti microprocessor: why indigenous chips matter and how the ecosystem is built
Shakti is presented as a flagship RISE deliverable: an indigenous RISC microprocessor family with multiple successful chip ‘tape-outs’. Kamakoti emphasizes that microprocessors matter most at scale in embedded systems, and that national capability requires an entire supply chain—not just a core design.
- •Shakti’s status and progress: multiple successful chips demonstrated
- •Big picture: embedded/low-end controllers dominate volume and are security-critical
- •Processor family approach (E-class, C-class, I-class)
- •National capability requires full-stack: design, verification, physical design, PCB, software
- 5:40 – 10:01
Startups from Shakti: mapping companies to each layer of the chip-to-system pipeline
Kamakoti names startups emerging from the Shakti/RISE ecosystem and explains their roles across the value chain. The point is structural: to ship secure products at scale, you need specialized companies covering core IP, SoCs, verification, physical design/boards, and security.
- •InCore as a core-design/IP-style player (analogies to Arm)
- •Mindgrove as SoC/productization player (system + peripherals)
- •Vyoma for verification and standards compliance
- •Shakra for physical design/PCB integration; SecureWeave for hardware security
- 10:01 – 11:53
India Semiconductor Mission: human capital strength and what ‘Atmanirbhar’ can mean
The discussion broadens to India’s semiconductor ambitions: India already has strong design talent powering global companies, and mission-mode efforts aim to convert that strength into national capability. Kamakoti underscores how Indian engineers already contribute significantly to working global systems.
- •India’s strength today: design talent distributed across institutions and industry
- •Indian engineers’ contribution to global chip/system delivery
- •Mission framing: turning ‘human capital’ into domestic product capability
- •Anecdotes about IITM alumni concentration in major VLSI teams
- 11:53 – 19:39
IITM Computer Science curriculum: three pillars and a ‘NAND-to-Tetris’ systems mindset
Kamakoti explains how IITM structures CS education for clear pathways: theory, systems, and applications. He highlights a distinctive systems-building pedagogy where students learn the entire stack—from logic gates to compilers—so ‘computer science’ is understood beyond surface-level coding.
- •Three baskets: theoretical CS, systems, applications—and how students choose later
- •Undergrad research culture and early publications in theoretical CS
- •NAND-to-Tetris-style progression: gates → architecture simulation → VM → compiler
- •Core sequence emphasis: organization/architecture, OS (hands-on Linux), compilers
- 19:39 – 22:52
B.Tech in AI & Data Analytics: cross-disciplinary AI as the organizing idea
AI is described as pervasive and domain-shaped, not confined to CS, motivating a cross-disciplinary undergraduate program. The program’s ambition depends not just on faculty but on serious compute and storage infrastructure, supported by philanthropy and ecosystem backing.
- •AI differs by domain: bio, finance, engineering design, humanities, etc.
- •Goal: train engineers/scientists who can operate across disciplines
- •Infrastructure reality: compute (TPUs/clusters) and storage drive cost
- •Curriculum positioned as world-class and externally vetted; philanthropic support noted
- 22:52 – 28:59
Medical Sciences & Engineering at IITM: modeling the human body and indigenizing devices
Kamakoti details IITM’s investment in medical sciences, including a BS program accessed via the IISER aptitude route. The framing is a ‘medical stack’: anatomy/physiology, engineering modeling, devices/pharmacology, and clinical trials—aimed at reducing India’s import dependence in medical tech.
- •BS in Medical Sciences & Engineering: admissions, batches, and curriculum intent
- •Four-part medical stack explanation and where engineering fits
- •‘Virtual You’ idea: mathematically modeling the full human body
- •COVID-era Atmanirbhar push and India’s high medical-device import dependence
- 28:59 – 35:18
IITM’s innovation-to-startup ‘stack’: CFI to incubators, patents to ‘Startup Shatam’
The conversation returns to campus entrepreneurship infrastructure: a connected pipeline from student innovation to incubation and scaling. Kamakoti argues patents and IP are foundational for technology power, and celebrates crossing ‘a patent a day’ alongside rapid growth in incubated startups.
- •Physical/organizational stack: CFI, NIRMAN, domain incubators, Deshpande Centre, E-Cell
- •Promise: support from idea to unicorn—conditional on execution and hard work
- •Patents as a strategic national asset (standard-essential patents and royalties)
- •Startup growth milestones (100+ incubated) and emphasis on deep-tech across domains
- 35:18 – 41:19
Beyond placements: ‘Career Pathway Center’ and shifting student preferences
Kamakoti describes a deliberate shift from a ‘placement cell’ mindset to multiple career pathways. Convocation surveys suggest fewer students prioritize jobs alone, with growing interest in entrepreneurship, higher studies, civil services, exams, and even taking time to decide—while insisting rigor and mastery still matter.
- •Reframing: placement office → Career Pathway Center (jobs are only one option)
- •Trend: job preference reportedly down to ~40–50% and decreasing
- •Other paths: startups, higher studies, UPSC and other exams, intentional breaks
- •Advice: prioritize learning depth over initial pay; strong academics correlate with outcomes
- 41:19 – 44:59
Why JEE Advanced is hard: higher-order thinking, multi-concept integration, and ‘hard training’
Drawing from IIT pedagogy, Kamakoti explains JEE Advanced as a filter for conceptual application and cross-topic synthesis—skills needed for IIT-style rigor. He stresses there is ‘no substitute’ for hard training to become a great engineer, and describes paper-setting and the exam’s design philosophy.
- •Difference in questioning: knowing a concept vs using it in new contexts
- •Multi-topic integration (e.g., trig + calculus + vectors) under time pressure
- •JEE Advanced as a proxy for readiness for rigorous engineering education
- •Exam mechanics: bell curve selection and rank sensitivity to small mark changes
- 44:59 – 56:49
Rank vs interest: ‘no bad course’ and practical advice to parents during counseling
The discussion addresses the ‘duality’ of JEE rank: small rank differences can be partly luck, and rank shouldn’t override genuine interest. Kamakoti shares a counseling story where parents pushed CS but the student wanted engineering physics, and urges parents to speak directly with their child to reduce stress and mismatch.
- •Rank dispersion: small marks can swing ranks significantly in the mid-tail
- •Principle: every discipline matters—‘no bad course’ in a modern economy
- •Parents often prioritize perceived ‘safe bets’ (CS) over student interest
- •Counseling anecdote and guidance: talk to the child first; avoid fueling pressure
- 56:49 – 1:03:02
Director’s lens: why IIT Madras stays #1 and what rankings (QS) miss and measure
Kamakoti attributes IITM’s sustained performance to alignment with national priorities, institutional cohesion, and disciplined strategic planning owned by faculty. On international rankings, he highlights learning from sustainability metrics and identifies perception as a large but harder-to-control component.
- •Drivers of NIRF success: national alignment, cohesion, fast issue resolution
- •Strategic plan written/owned by young faculty for long implementation runway
- •QS learnings: sustainability reporting improvements and institutional focus areas
- •Ranking levers: research network/citations/sustainability vs perception as ‘out of syllabus’
- 1:03:02 – 1:05:42
Closing philosophy: ‘Siddhir Bhavati Karmaja’—success through learning and teaching
The episode ends with IITM’s motto and the ethical model of a teacher. Kamakoti interprets success as arising from one’s ‘karma’ of continuous learning and teaching, and adds a second guiding idea: deep subject mastery paired with unwavering concern for student welfare.
- •Motto interpretation: success/satisfaction emerges from right action (learning + teaching)
- •Taittiriya Upanishad reference: obligation to learn and teach continuously
- •Adi Shankaracharya on a teacher: mastery of subject and student-first mindset
- •Faculty hiring emphasis: knowledge depth plus commitment to student welfare
