IIT Bombay Faculty supports Professor Suryanarayana Dulla following student incident

Amidst the concern surrounding the death of student Sahil, the IIT Bombay institute publicly apologized on social media for its previous statements. The institution admitted that it was irresponsible and inappropriate to comment on the circumstances or causes of the incident before the police investigation was complete.

Furthermore, according to available information, the institute has met several demands from students. A decision was made to suspend the activities of the professor involved in the case.

IIT Bombay News:

The recent sudden death of student Sahil on the IIT Bombay campus shocked the entire community. Immediately after the incident, the IIT administration released a statement mentioning certain circumstances related to the incident that had not been officially proven.

Questions began to arise regarding this stance of the institute and the hastily made statement while the investigation was ongoing. As a result, the administration found itself in a defensive position and was forced to issue a public apology on X (Twitter).

What was in IIT Bombay's apology?

Posting on the official IIT Bombay account on X, the institute wrote: 'We apologize for the statements made in our previous post regarding the circumstances of Sahil's tragic death.' The administration acknowledged its mistake and added that the details and circumstances leading to this case are currently under investigation by the relevant authorities. They emphasized that it was inappropriate to provide or determine the details of the events before establishing the facts within due investigative procedure, given the ongoing investigation.

Why is this U-turn so important?

After such an unpleasant incident on any campus, the truth is established only through forensic examination and official investigation. Any statement by the institute before receiving a report can influence the direction of the investigation.

Action taken against the professor

While IIT Bombay was forced to publicly apologize for its initial statements regarding the death of student Sahil, the administration also took decisive steps amid growing dissatisfaction and protests on campus. Following disputes and questions on social media related to the case, administrative action was taken against the professor from the relevant department. Students claimed that the situation escalated due to administrative negligence and indifference, after which the institute stated its confidence in an impartial investigation and took these measures.

The institute also officially denied rumors circulating on social media amidst campus unrest and protests that the Director of IIT Bombay had resigned. The institute issued a statement clearly stating that the Director of IIT Bombay had not resigned, and that such reports were completely false.

It should be noted that following Sahil's suicide, students have been holding demonstrations on campus, demanding the resignation of the director along with their '18-point charter'. Local police and investigative agencies are currently conducting a thorough investigation into all aspects of the case. The true cause of Sahil's death will only become clear after the release of the official investigation report.

In 2001, Arjun Jain arrived at the JEE exam in his classmate's father's car, accompanied by a security guard. However, he realized that the exam results could not be changed by special privileges, and he noted his experience in a LinkedIn post.

He shared that he was only able to answer a few questions in the examination hall, which immediately showed him a very low level of preparation. For two years, Jain focused all his efforts on preparing for the JEE, giving up hockey, quizzes, and debates. When his JEE performance was unsatisfactory, he planned to continue his preparation in Kota, but his family's financial situation did not allow it. Therefore, he enrolled in computer science studies at RV College of Engineering in Bangalore, and this decision became a turning point in his life.

At RV College, Jain did not limit himself to studying computer science only within his group; he actively sought knowledge outside of the curriculum. He took research papers from IEEE journals and began studying this field independently. After a year, he decided to retake the JEE directly from his hostel room. This time, he achieved a rank of 3363 and secured a spot in IIT. However, a snag arose: he was offered a position in petrochemical engineering at IIT-BHU, which he declined.

The reason for the refusal was that he had already completed a one-year course in computer science and did not want to start over in a field that did not interest him. He decided to finish his degree at RV College. For him, starting over would mean additional time and money spent on studies that would not excite him. Ultimately, this decision moved him away from the IIT he once dreamed of attending.

Jain's journey did not stop there. He obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Saarland University. Following this, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Courant Institute at New York University (NYU). At NYU, he worked on research related to deep learning and human pose recognition. He collaborated with researchers such as Yann LeCun and Chris Bregler. His work was presented at major conferences, including ICLR, NeurIPS, and CVPR.

The results of his research found application in industry, leading to the creation of the company Perceptive Code. Later, Mercedes acquired the intellectual property of this company. After this, Jain's career continued at Apple, where in 2015 he worked as a senior researcher in the Project Titan team, focusing on computer vision and sensor systems for vehicles, including driver and passenger monitoring technologies.

However, an event occurred in 2016 that may have touched him deeply. Approximately 14 years after his first JEE attempt, Jain began working at IIT Bombay as an assistant professor. He felt the irony of fate: he was called by IIT Bombay not for an appointment to any position, but for teaching. Now he was teaching students computer vision, taking an exam in which he himself had failed to succeed.

For many years, Jain taught at IIT Bombay and mentored two postgraduate students. One of these students, Rishab Dabral, later became a professor and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, where Jain was interning. In his post, Jain noted how striking this similarity was: his student teaches where he studied, and he taught where he could not study. Today, Jain is the founder and chief scientist of Fast Code AI, working in both academia and AI research.