Students have been missing out on their graduation and convocation ceremonies this year, all thanks to the ongoing pandemic but, IIT Bombay planned something special for their students. 

They held their 58th annual convocation ceremony in virtual reality mode on Sunday 
(23rd August) keeping the current scenario in mind. 

While students couldn’t make it to the ceremony physically, their digital avatars received the degree certificate from the personalised avatar of director professor Subhasis Chaudhari. 

The medalists also received their medals from the personalised avatar of Nobel prize winner Professor Duncan Haldane who was invited as the chief guest.

The institution gave away medals, awards and degrees to the virtual avatars of the students for the first time in 62 years. The IIT- Bombay in a statement said:

Keeping in view the safety measures during the ongoing pandemic, the institute held its convocation in virtual reality mode for its graduating students.

The 2-hour long convocation was live streamed and the chief guests addressed the students virtually. 

IIT-Bombay in its statement added that it did not wish to deprive the students of the sense of achievement and pride of passing out of the premier engineering institute, which is why, they came up with this innovative idea. 

Even international news channels covered this story. 

The internet was quite impressed. 

IIT Bombay was also one of the first institutions to scrap face-to-face lectures this year amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Quite creative!