Festivals E-Summit IIT Madras E-Summit by the Entrepreneurship Cell E-Cell of IIT Madras is IITM's annual flagship event and the only ISO 9001:2015 certified entrepreneurship summit focusing on young entrepreneurs and their ventures.
Shaastra Shaastra is the annual technical festival of IIT Madras. It is held in the second week of January and is an ISO 9001:2015 certified student-organised festival. It consists of various engineering, science and technology competitions, summits, lectures, video conferences, exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops. The festival is traditionally held over four days and four nights during the first week of January. It has so far seen twenty-one editions, having started in its current avatar in the year 2000.
Saarang Saarang is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a five-day-long event held in early January every year and attracts a crowd of 70,000 students and young people from across the country, making it the largest student-run fest in India. Saarang events include speaking, dancing, thespian, quizzing and word games, professional shows (nicknamed Proshows) and workshops on music, fashion, art, and dance.
Paradox Paradox is the fest organised for the IIT Madras Bachelor of Science degree students. It is held 3 times a year. Paradox in Saavan and Paradox in Margazhi are held hybrid around August and December respectively and consist of various cultural, sports, professional events, and hackathons. The main annual fest is held at the IITM campus. It's the largest physical gathering of IITM Online BS students that takes place in May every year, marking the start of the summer vacation for students.
Department festivals Several departments organise department festivals. Samanvay, Biofest, ExeBit, Wavez, Mechanica, CEA Fest, ChemPlus, Amalgam and Forays are some of the festivals organised by the Department of Management Studies, Computer Science and Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and Maths departments, respectively. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences hosts the Annual Academic Conference.
The Entrepreneurship Cell The Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Madras believes that entrepreneurship is not just about starting companies and building businesses, but a pathway towards India's socio-economic development. E-Cell was earlier known as C-TIDES and was rechristened in 2015 as the Entrepreneur. E-Cell IIT Madras is an active non-profit, an entirely student-run organisation to help encourage entrepreneurship.
Centre For Innovation (CFI) Set up with funds donated by the batch of 1981. CFI was started in 2008 as a student-run lab for the creative output of the budding engineers of IIT Madras. It provides students with the necessary platform for realizing their ideas. It houses 13 clubs and seven competition teams, representing IIT Madras in various technical events. Clubs have started summer School to teach freshers popular topics during the summer vacation. CFI houses the workspace of student teams such as Avishkar Hyperloop, Raftar Formula Racing, Anveshak, Abhiyaan, Abhyuday, Agnirath and iGem. The annual flagship event of CFI, the Open House displays the projects of all CFI clubs, along with the works of the Competitive Teams.
Extra Mural Lectures (EML) Launched in 1980 by a group of students with support from the then director of IIT Madras, the late Prof. P.V. Indiresan, the main aim of the Extra Mural Lectures series is to expose the IIT Madras community to the ideas and experiences of eminent personalities from diverse backgrounds. Over the years, lectures included the late former president of India
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Nobel Laureate The
14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Laureate
Kailash Satyarthi, Chess Grandmaster
Vishwanathan Anand, filmmaker
S.S. Rajamouli, Honourable Governor Shri.
E.S.L. Narasimhan, Honourable Minister of Railways Shri.
Suresh Prabhu, former vice president of India, Shri.
M. Venkaiah Naidu, music composer
Ilayaraja, co-founder of Infosys, Shri.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ambassador of Japan to India H.E. Mr.
Kenji Hiramatsu, then defence secretary of India Mr.
Ajay Kumar (civil servant) and former ISRO chairman
S. Somanath have been hosted at IIT Madras for Extra Mural Lectures, to motivate the students and broaden their perspectives.
Extracurricular Activities The Sustainability Network (S-Net) is an alumni-student-faculty initiative launched in May 2009 to help preserve the unique niche of one of the best educational campuses in India. S-Net was envisioned to work towards developing and deploying solutions for making a self-sustaining campus (focusing on energy/electricity, water, and waste management), which could eventually be replicated across the country through tie-ups with other educational institutions. blackbuck at IIT Madras, IITM is also home to Endangered Species of
blackbuck The Fifth Estate is the official media body of IIT Madras and gives an insight into the happenings inside the campus and important news related to the institute. The Open Air Theatre hosts the weekly movie, a Saturday night tradition, besides other activities. It seats over 7,000. NSS in IIT Madras has been noted for taking up socially relevant initiatives, taken up as individual projects to create an impact on society as well as the students. The wing of NSS at IITM has over 400 students every year, contributing to the cause of the scheme. Since its inception, it has achieved many milestones in its history as a unique, student-run organisation. Linked with several NGOs and social organisations both within and outside Chennai. By working out projects from Braille magazines to technology interventions, from teaching children in urban slums to educational video content, NSS (IITM) seeks to challenge mediocre thinking and reach out into the darkness, to pull a hand into the light. Student bodies such as Vivekananda Study Circle (VSC), Islamic Study Circle, IIT Christian Fellowship, Genesis and Reflections focus on spiritual discussions. Regional groups include, Marathi Mitra Mandal (MMM), Hindi Mitra Mandal (HMM), Karka Kasadara (Tamil), Kerala Kala Samithi (KKS), Garvi Gujarati Sangathan (GGS), Telugu Samskruthika Samithi and Kannada Samskrutika Sangh, North-east Students Association (SADINER), and African Students Association (AFSA) by students from the African Continent. The campus has evolved a slang, called Insti Lingo, attracting a published Master's thesis at a German University. A mix of English, Hindi, Telugu (Gult), Malayalam (Mallu) and Tamil (Tam), aspects of the campus slang have been adopted by some other Chennai colleges. Unlike its sister institutions, IIT Madras has no single Indian language used among its students:
Tamil,
Telugu,
Malayalam,
Marathi,
Kannada,
English and
Hindi are all very commonly used. All student participatory activities, such as quizzing, debating, dramatics, short-film making, and others, are held in English. This is even reflected in the slang that uses more English and other Indian regional languages than Hindi, unlike in IITM's northern counterparts. Prakriti Wildlife Club at IIT Madras was founded in April 2002 by students, faculty, staff, residents, and alumni who are wildlife enthusiasts. On April 17, 2026, IIT Madras introduced
OmegaBall to India for the first time, hosting an inter-college tournament and proposing the establishment of a National OmegaBall Club
IIT Madras Heritage Centre The Heritage Centre was formally inaugurated by
Dr Arcot Ramachandran, former Director IIT Madras on 3 March 2006. The centre is located on the ground floor of the administration building. The actual idea of a Heritage Centre was mooted in the year 2000 and has become a reality due to the efforts of the Professor-in-charge, Dr Ajit Kumar Kolar, and his team. The centre will function as a repository of material of heritage value and historical significance of various facets of the institute. The exhibits include photographs, documents, publications, paintings, portraits, products developed and other articles. Information regarding important events, laboratory development, visits of important dignitaries, Indo-German cooperative activities, and academic achievements of faculty and students is also included. Aspects of IITM campus features and development, campus life and student activities are also included, thus broadening the scope of the centre in the future to non-academic activities. ==Notable alumni==