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Chief Editors: Adarsh Prajapati (adarsh.p@iitb.ac.in), Shivam Agarwal (22b2720@iitb.ac.in)
Mail to: insight@iitb.ac.in
Institute Systems
The incoming batch of 2022 witnessed numerous ‘firsts in insti’ after a period of gloom due to COVID. While freshers vividly remember events such as cramped semesters and the introduction of a new curriculum, the entire institute witnessed the digital change, marked by growing inefficiencies and mounting concerns. Post that, the year was also marked by dysfunctional operations (such as short circuiting of the server, which resulted in the halt of the working of Instiapp and Resobin for half a year), a 6-month-long re-wiring of the LAN cables in the institute to build reliable network, and, of course, an introduction to Main Building Bureaucracy (our version of MBB).
Most of us have our bouts of frustration with the digital (and the accompanying physical) infrastructure of the institute. These frustrations are not necessarily due to a single bug or crash, but rather a sense of unaccountability and lethargy within the system, as these problems have been passed down from one batch to the next. While it’s easy to dismiss these ‘hiccups’ as symptoms of an old codebase, it does little to understand the root cause.
Insight categorised these failures into two major categories.
The first is technical problems, which stem from outdated technology or systems that consistently malfunction under specific conditions. These types of issues also persist because the digital infrastructure was never built/updated to cater to a large population, such as that of the institute presently.
The second one is design issues, and we can broadly divide the design issues into two parts:
The first one is where poor user interfaces make the systems difficult to use. Irrespective of the availability of technical support, the friction in accessibility results in one of the reasons for not working of a few systems of IITB. For example, the UI/UX of a platform is such that it is very difficult to navigate the functions of the portal.
The second category of design issues is the existence of systems that are not widely required or cater to the needs of the institute population. In a few cases, the digital platform is just an added step in the process. Tasks that could be solely executed digitally, or have a digital alternative, are still forced to be carried out manually after first going through the digital process. This issue emerges due to misalignment between physical and digital systems. While digital systems are meant to reduce manual effort and handle large-scale tasks, this purpose is lost when the connection between the two is weak.
To make these points of failure more tangible, we take the Application Software Centre (ASC) as an emblematic case study.
ASC:
Each semester, the course registration portal experiences disruptions, with the scheduled start time frequently being pushed ahead. As a result, students often face uncertainty when attempting to enrol in courses, particularly those with limited seats and high demand. These delays have persisted across multiple cycles, indicating a recurring problem that has yet to be properly addressed.
When Insight reached out to the now ex-ASC head, Prof P. Sunthar for comments, he responded:
“Despite multiple efforts, the backend team has not been able to pinpoint the exact cause behind this persistent problem. Something unknown happens specifically during the first couple of hours of registration”
The lack of a clear diagnosis, even after repeated instances, points to a broader gap in the institute’s resources to troubleshoot and resolve infrastructural failures. This gap not only affects the stability of crucial systems like ASC but also slows down progress towards a more efficient and user-friendly digital environment for the entire campus community.
When asked about alternatives to fix ASC’s frequent failures, a former Institute Systems Administrator (ISA) responded,
“By hiring more skilled people to work on the ASC portal, it can be solved to a large extent. Currently, the team lacks adequate technical knowledge to resolve the hurdles that arise.”
In conversation with Prof. Sunthar, he mentioned that to reduce the load on ASC, the institute introduced a pre-registration system two years ago. Currently, only around 30 courses use it, as enabling pre-registration is up to the instructor, which contributes to the slow uptake. Since almost every student must register for core courses, the system load remains high regardless.
For a long-term fix, the ASC team has developed a new portal that separates submitting a course registration request from the process of evaluating and approving it. This shift was expected to prevent breakdowns during peak load. Explaining the change, Prof. Sunthar, then-head of ASC, said:
“The new model collects requests in a queue and processes them in order separately, unlike the current system, which processes one request before accepting another request. ”
Insight feels that this approach, implemented in the autumn semester of 2025, was promising and the interface was more user-friendly. However, it led to similar problems, such as the timeline of registration being pushed forward.
Moving forward to the design problems, the existence of two ASCs – internal and external often makes features difficult to navigate. External ASC was originally designed to provide out-of-campus access to students and freshers, for functions such as online payments, before internal ASC was made available through SSO. Currently, some information is available in the internal ASC and some in the External ASC. This leads to confusion about the location of specific functions, such as pre-registration and registration, which are available on different platforms. This separation illustrates a design issue, as a unified portal would offer a streamlined, one-step access to all tasks.
Similarly, when the interim course retagging portal was opened for the current final year students, many faced significant difficulties. Several reported that they were unable to tag courses as HASMED due to missing options in the dropdown. With no official forum to report these issues and no clear point of contact, student representatives could only advise using the limited tags which were available and wait for the final retagging to resolve the rest.
Such issues reflect enduring inefficiencies in how these systems are designed: problems that could be resolved with simple fixes, yet remain unaddressed. Here, relying on the final retagging to fix everything is risky, as there was no official statement or changes that would reassure the students that the system won’t fail again. For many, retagging can highly impact their CPI or transcript, which in turn affects placement opportunities between the two retagging phases.
While we agree that other FCFS systems like Tatkal bookings, BookMyShow and other ticket booking platforms often crash when a large number of people use the platform. A few possible solutions to make the process of registration more streamlined could be shifting the core courses under pre-registration. A similar process is followed by Harvard University, where students only have to register for electives. This will not only make the procedure of registration easier but also cut down the first-year students as they only have to register for core courses.
Below is the link to the process followed by Harvard
Another solution can be allotting different points based on the year and programme of the student, and bidding for the courses each individual ought to complete. This similar process is followed in MBA and law schools, where students receive bid currency/points to participate in the course bidding process. The timings and durations of the bidding rounds are communicated, and students log into the course bidding software portal to bid for their preferred elective courses. This process will limit the number of students registering for high-demand courses, as the number of credits allotted will be limited. The link for the same is provided below.
Another pressing concern where flaws in system design are evident is in the implementation of LAN and Wi-Fi systems.
LAN and networks
The hostel Wi-Fi network, installed in most of the hostels to support growing student needs, continues to face issues such as insufficient network speed in the rooms, frequent failures of connection to the network, and abrupt non-working of the Wi-Fi. These concerns are common across hostels, rather than being specific to a particular layout or building. While a similar system operates reliably in the Lecture Hall Complex and academic areas, the hostel implementation has encountered several hurdles during installation and operation.
Upon asking the Institute Systems Administrator (ISA) about the reasons for these failures, they responded:
“The vendor was changed, and the new routers did not work well with the rest of the system in hostels because of compatibility and range-related hardware issues. These are being worked on by CC on a case by case basis.”
When comparing the pre-existing LAN system to the newly installed Wi-Fi, the LAN has proven more stable, with most of its issues stemming from malfunctioning switches or ports. It has also been reported that the staff which comes to fix these issues happen to show up at their convenience and not in the slot filled in the online portal, leading to the room being locked and the issue remaining unresolved.
This conveys that the staff allocated to cater to the needs of network problems is not sufficient for all the hostels. The Hostel System Administrators are also not able to address these issues in a timely manner. This reflects the misalignment between physical and digital systems, where the digital portal is not well executed physically.
Additionally, when Insight talked with an ex-ISA regarding solving the hostel-level network issues, they pointed out:
“Hostel SysAd position is mostly a promised position, and that is the reason they are technically incompetent; people who deserve it do not apply as they see no gain out of it.”
It has been nearly a year since the Wi-Fi was installed, yet network issues persist. Insight believes it is essential to find a reliable system for networks to avoid repetitive disturbances, either by replicating the network infrastructure found in academic buildings or finding another alternative.
Beyond these examples, numerous institute systems continue to struggle with both design inefficiencies and technical limitations, affecting their overall effectiveness:
Webmail:
One persistent challenge students face is the flood of spam or unsolicited emails, especially those related to internships and job offers. It is common to receive repeated emails about Wipro internships or other external opportunities that have not been officially verified. Since these emails come to our official institute accounts, channels we trust as authentic and academic, they can create confusion. Naturally, most of the students feel compelled to open and consider every such message, not wanting to miss out on genuine opportunities.
While spam blockers exist to help filter unwanted emails, an ex-Institute System Administrator commented that,
“Spam filters are outdated and insufficient. These tools can’t handle the growing number of spam messages, especially since many have evolved to avoid the few keywords the blockers use.”
Moreover, because some external emails are important, a blanket block is not a viable solution. As a result, students are left manually sorting through cluttered inboxes, adding unnecessary stress and confusion. This highlights the first category of issue, where the system lacks technical advancement to solve the problem. Adopting premium spam filters and proprietary software instead of open-source platforms to address the spam issue better can be one of the solutions to stop spam emails. Additionally, providing users with the option to block emails containing certain keywords or from specific senders, while not a complete fix, could significantly reduce the volume of unwanted messages.
Another issue with Webmail is the constant influx of irrelevant emails. The institute maintains over 35 active mailing lists (refer: https://lists.iitb.ac.in/), but most users are unaware of them or find accessing targeted lists challenging. As a result, broader mailing lists are often used even when messages are intended for specific groups. For example, surveys meant only for a particular batch are frequently sent to all students via general student notices. This causes inbox clutter from repeated irrelevant emails, making important messages easier to miss. It can also reduce trust in the message’s relevance.
In a recent update, the Dean of Student Affairs has proposed introducing event notices on InstiApp, a feature currently under development. Under this plan, student-organised events will appear in the app’s feed, and a mail will be sent to the student-events mailing list, which students can choose to permanently unsubscribe from. This aims to keep only important updates on student-notices. However, since event mails would still be sent by default, and unsubscribing from student-events would mean not receiving any event-related updates on mail, concerns about inbox clutter remain.
Attendance recording
Biometric scanners are often sidelined in attendance recording due to practical challenges in their usage. This is mainly because they are installed inside the classrooms where teaching happens, rather than near the entrances or in separate areas. As a result, students often crowd around the few available scanners, especially since the LA classrooms have only eight devices, many of which frequently don’t work. Moreover, many classrooms like LTs don’t even have biometric scanners. The scanners also make loud noises that disturb the class. In large classes, it becomes a major distraction. This is yet another case where technology exists but becomes ineffective due to flaws in system design.
To address these issues, SAFE was introduced as a complete replacement for biometric attendance, with the added feature of enabling in-class quizzes. However, SAFE has its own set of problems. It frequently malfunctions, often failing to verify attendance even when marked during class hours and from the correct location. Additionally, students have found ways to mark proxies, making the system unreliable.
As a result of this poor design, attendance in most classes ends up being taken the old-fashioned way: on a sheet of paper passed around the room.
In comparison, several other IITs and NITs have adopted a simpler method: using portable biometric devices that are passed around the classroom. These devices function silently, avoid disrupting lectures, and eliminate the need for students to crowd around fixed scanners. Since the professor can begin teaching without waiting for attendance to finish, and the device continues circulating during class, this approach also helps prevent proxy attendance and missed entries.
During Insight’s conversation with Prof. Sunthar, he shared that upcoming updates to SAFE will include continuous location tracking throughout the class duration to ensure students remain present and don’t mark attendance and leave. This update demonstrates that the system can be improved, and Insight believes that further development in this direction is both possible and necessary.
Non-acceptance of AMS
The Application Management System(AMS) is a system created for the purpose of digitising paper workflows in IIT Bombay. Despite its intent, adoption remains inconsistent, as some sections, like the academic section, still reject digitally signed documents.
When asked about this uneven acceptance, the GSAA explained:
“This is less about official institute policy and more about the preferences of individual administrators. Some continue to believe that paper-based processes are more effective, partly to maintain administrative control and partly to filter out frivolous student requests that could be resolved at lower levels. The students’ requests usually come on the last day, and in their impatience they start tagging higher authorities for minor issues.”
Insight, however, believes that here a wider issue is illustrated, stemming from unclear guidelines for students on where digital signatures are accepted versus where they are not. This lack of clarity creates extra work for all stakeholders and often results in students moving back and forth between buildings due to confusion over what is permitted. It also highlights instances where a digitally signed AMS adds little value, exemplifying the second category of design issues: digital systems that exist but do not effectively serve their intended purpose. This points to the need for clearer policies and better integration to streamline the process.
Conclusion
Due to multiple issues that arise in various systems, student representatives form the sole point of contact for the students to relay their concerns: the DGSecs for department-level issues and GSs for institute-level issues. However, the number of such cases popping up in recent years and the lack of a systemic process that can handle the grievances have become so large that it can no longer be considered an exception. It highlights a larger issue that the digital system is not capable of handling such a large number of students and needs an update.
In conversations with some student representatives, we found out that the core issue here stems from the lack of knowledge about the best person to contact for resolution. To address grievances centrally, the institute has developed a system called “Chatapp” that will accept queries, forward them to the concerned authorities and relay their responses back.
IIT Bombay’s digital infrastructure is rooted deep in everyday campus life, yet it continues to be a point of contention between students. The institute is definitely equipped with advanced machinery and high-tech tools, but repairing IIT Bombay’s technical infrastructure isn’t a matter of improved software or higher speeds. It’s a matter of building systems that actually facilitate the academic and daily lives of all people on campus. As these systems are the key to the overall functioning of the institute, there is a need for a clear roadmap and timeline to update and replace the ones that are outdated according to the growing needs of the institute population.
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