Cream of IIST graduates to join ISRO soon

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: A sweet harvest season is approaching for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). By Juneend, the first batch of students of ISRO's Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) here the first products of the space agency's 'catch them young' policy will exit its portals, many of them walking straight into jobs at various space units across the country."By the third week of June, the first batch will be out. The students are presently in the middle of their projects which should be completed by mid-June. By July, they will be posted to various units," IIST director KS Dasgupta said. All students who achieve a specific cutoff mark set by the IIST will be directly absorbed into various units of the Space Department, he said.The first batch has about 150 students in three BTech courses offered by IIST Avionics, Aerospace Engineering and Physical Sciences. Meritorious students have a job assured at the over 20 spacerelated units of ISRO, including research facilities such as the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).Five of the first-batch students are presently doing their projects at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), US, while one is set to attend an advanced ninemonth course in aerospace engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).Inaugurated on September 14, 2007, by the then ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair, the IIST was ISRO's answer to the acute human resources crunch the space agency expected to face in the immediate future. The USP of IIST was an assured job at some of the most technically advanced institutions in the country. The students also sign a bond promising their services for a minimum of five years.For a time, IIST operated out of a temporary campus at Veli. In 2010, the IIST fully shifted to a permanent campus at Valiyamala adjacent to ISRO's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre.