IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras launched the course this year. Three to four more Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are likely to offer the undergraduate B Cyber programme next year, significantly expanding the specialised cybersecurity course, even as the premier institutes plan to drop the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main as an admission route and introduce an aptitude test and a hackathon-based selection process.
The final syllabus and examination schedule are expected to be announced in the next three to four months. “We intend to have an aptitude test in the initial phase and screen the students via that. Then we call a few hundred people, maybe in a few IITs, who are participating and organise a hackathon to select the candidates. The proposed aptitude test will focus on problem-solving and basic computer science skills such as programming and networking. The syllabus is under discussion. This year, JEE Main was used only as an initial cut-off, followed by a hackathon.
“We want to do away with the JEE Main from next year,” said IIT Kanpur’s Wadhwani School of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems professor Soumitra Sanadhya and the B Cyber programme director.
