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Best Place To BuildProf. Raghunathan, Dean, Global Engagement | “Everyone successful wears multiple hats”| Ep. 11
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At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Professor Raghu on global campuses, AI, and academic multitasking today
- Professor Raghu contrasts IIT Madras student life in the late 1980s—fun, security, and low pressure—with today’s higher-stakes, higher-pressure environment.
- He explains chemical engineering as the discipline of scaling chemistry to safe, efficient bulk manufacturing, and describes his early pivot into AI via expert systems built from rule-based “knowledge shells.”
- He outlines his academic career across IIT Bombay and multiple US universities, emphasizing mentorship, departmental culture, and the practical tradeoffs that led him back to IIT Madras.
- As Dean of Global Engagement, he describes four operating verticals—academic programs, research collaborations, international conferences, and Institute of Eminence administration—shifting from “bringing the world to IITM” to “taking IITM to the world.”
- He details IIT Madras Zanzibar as a full-stack microcosm of IITM (teaching, research, skilling, consultancy, innovation) plus a newer IITM Global initiative aimed at exporting IITM’s research, IP, and startup ecosystem via international outposts.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasChemical engineers turn lab reactions into scalable, safe production.
Raghu frames chemical engineering as “making things in bulk,” where mixing, heat transfer, safety, and scale effects change dramatically from test tubes to industrial reactors.
Early AI in engineering often started as rule-based expert systems.
His entry into AI came from building an expert system with ~150–200 rules for selecting vapor–liquid equilibrium models, illustrating how “old AI” enabled structured decision-making before modern ML.
Great teaching can be built around a unifying ‘central principle.’
He wrote his process control book after repeatedly refining the course to revolve around one core mathematical idea (partial fractions of transfer functions) and only adding concepts when necessary.
Writing technical books demands accuracy pressure beyond classroom teaching.
He notes that mistakes can be corrected live in class, but persist “forever” in print, requiring years of iteration and painstaking example-checking—often during rare time windows like COVID or jet lag.
Global academic strategy should prioritize intent and excellence pockets over rankings.
He argues against rigid rank-based partnering, because niche strengths and the right collaborators can exist anywhere, especially in emerging or interdisciplinary areas.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesChemical engineers make things in bulk.
— Prof. Raghunathan
He was like a catalyst.
— Prof. Raghunathan
In a book, it’s there forever.
— Prof. Raghunathan
Most successful faculty have to wear multiple hats.
— Prof. Raghunathan
We’ve not gone… with the idea that I’m coming to uplift people… we are learning from each other.
— Prof. Raghunathan
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
