
The birth of India’s tech story: How IITs came into being - vincentchan
http://qz.com/590753/the-birth-of-indias-tech-story-how-iits-came-into-being/
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brudgers
My American provincialism used to assume that "IIT" was Illinois Institute of
Technology...mostly famous for its Mies Van Der Rohe campus, I suppose. Then a
few years ago something on HN referenced the famous IIT, and I came to
understand my neighbor.

His father a professor and Rotarian in Travandrum, he came to the US to study
and chose the world famous Tuskegee University [as did my neighbor on the
other side but from Port Harcourt after living through the Biafran War].
Anyway, over time I realized that building universities is sort of orthogonal
to the goals of colonization and that the history of higher education in India
doesn't neatly map to that of the US or France or Mexico. India's educational
past is much more recent and tangible and the idea of packing up and moving
half way across the world to Alabama for a degree was a lot less the crazy
option than it sounds. He is part of the first generation to have been born
after independence, and that's an experience and point of view that I can't
really ever get my head around.

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tallanvor
It's a good example of why it's dangerous to assume acronyms mean the same
thing everywhere.

IIT will always mean Illinois Institute of Technology for me, but that's in
large part due to the fact that I knew about it first and I went there. But
it's understandable that it means something else in other parts of the world.

Off topic: one of the worst things about going to IIT was the emphasis placed
on Mies van der Rohe. Most of the buildings he designed on the campus are
quite ugly.

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brudgers
Mies was a knockoff of Walter Gropius. Mies took over the Bauhaus when the
Nazis started dictating how it was run...part of which was getting rid of
Gropius. Gropius landed at Harvard where he shaped the Graduate School of
Design for many years.

When it turned out that working with the Nazis was a bad idea, Mies wound up
at the Armour Institute with a big budget. As a practical business matter, it
was a good client to land. But personally, I find Mies's work competent but
not great. Phillip Johnson's glass house predate's Farnsworth and Gordon
Bunshaft's Lever House is a master piece executed with a sense of human scale,
while the bronze I-Beams on Seagram's across the building are a decorative
affectation on a building lacking proportion and it's plaza has all the charm
of a field of fire.

I once worked with a graduate of IIT's architecture program [anecdote is not
data]. All I can say is that 4.5" = 6'-0" isn't a good choice for drawing a
construction detail. It also shows why states require practical experience and
an exam in addition to any schooling in order to become a licensed architect.
Actually, this is what it mostly shows. Architecture education in general is
poor preparation for professional practice and IIT is accredited just like
other schools. But that's a rant for another day.

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chetanahuja
Hah... Perfect HN. The only comments on a post about the Indian IIT are about
the little college in Illinois.

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brudgers
I find that unfortunate too and wish there were more substantive discussions
about India and other parts of the world.

