Chennai

Meeting people at IIT Tirupati

IIT Tirupati moved fully onto its 548-acre campus at Yerpedu, near Tirupati, in January 2024, and its students build social life around Tirutsava, the February cultural fest, and a long list of clubs from robotics to trekking.

The story of IIT Tirupati

IIT Tirupati was founded in 2015 and began operations on 5 August 2015, mentored by IIT Madras. Classes started at a temporary campus in Krishna Theja Educational Institutions in Chadalawada Nagar, and later moved to the Chadalawada Group of Institutes on the Tirupati-Renigunta road.

The Andhra Pradesh government allotted a 548-acre tract near Yerpedu, between Renigunta and Srikalahasti, for the permanent campus. Prof. K.N. Satyanarayana was appointed director in 2017 and reappointed for a second term in 2022.

The Stage 1C North Campus was completed in December 2023, and all operations shifted to Yerpedu by January 2024. The institute offers BTech in chemical, civil, computer science, electrical, mechanical engineering and engineering physics, along with postgraduate and PhD programmes.

What the campus is like socially

With the move to Yerpedu, IIT Tirupati finally has a campus built for it, and student life is still settling into the new space. The batch is small and friendly, and clubs are where most people find their crowd, with weekly debates, monthly quizzes, star-gazing sessions and dance practice filling the evenings.

Festivals like Onam, Diwali and Holi are celebrated on campus by the cultural clubs, and the trekking club takes big groups to spots like Tada Falls. Tirupati town and the hills around it are close by for weekend trips.

Traditions every IIT Tirupati student knows

• Tirutsava: IIT Tirupati's annual cultural fest, organised by students every February, with coding challenges, debates, cultural performances and comedy.
• Intra IIT Fiesta: An October competition with more than two dozen cultural and literary events, fought out between campus houses.
• Sanyog: An inter-collegiate sports tournament, whose first edition brought about 500 students from 13 colleges to campus.
• Kridan: The intra-IIT sports meet, which ran from February to April in 2024 with around 400 participants.
• Campus 5K: The fitness club's 5K run in April 2024 drew more than 400 runners from colleges across Tirupati.

Campus lore and insider spots

• A first Inter-IIT medal: Roopa Sri Ganga won silver in the high jump at the Inter-IIT Sports Meet, the institute's first ever medal there.
• Host of the 58th Inter IIT Sports Meet: IIT Tirupati went from winning its first medal to hosting the 58th Inter IIT Sports Meet.
• Astrofest with IISER: The astronomy club, Gagan Vedhi, has run an Astrofest with neighbouring IISER Tirupati, with star quests and astrophotography.
• From Renigunta Road to Yerpedu: Older batches remember the years at temporary campuses on the Tirupati-Renigunta road before the move in 2024.

How to find your people here

At IIT Tirupati, a hobby club, technical society, or the fest organizing crew is the fastest way to meet people outside your own department.

Fests and societies at IIT Tirupati

Signature fests

• Tirutsava
• Sanyog
• Kridan

Notable societies

• Techmaniacs (robotics)
• Digital Wizards (coding)
• Sigma Squad (AI/ML)
• Xcite (dance)
• Aranya (trekking)

Societies worth knowing at IIT Tirupati

• Techmaniacs: The robotics club, with groups for Arduino, drones, electronics and robotics. Its line-follower robot won ROBOTRAC 2024.
• Digital Wizards: The coding club, running workshops on web development, competitive programming and cybersecurity.
• Sigma Squad: The AI and ML club, whose teams reached the top 10 in LLM and reinforcement learning events at the 2023 Inter-IIT Tech Meet.
• Debate and Oratory Club and Quiz Club: Weekly debates and monthly quizzes, including inter-IIT competition.
• Artista, Sargam and Xcite: The art, music and dance clubs, which lead campus festival celebrations and performances.
• Aranya: The trekking club, with outings to Tada Falls and other spots around Tirupati.

Careers, internships and placements

IIT Tirupati runs a central placement process with recruiters from software, electronics, core engineering and analytics. Computer science and electrical engineering draw the most interest.

Clubs like Digital Wizards, Sigma Squad and E-Cell are common routes for building skills and projects, and the institute is planning a large research park on campus that should bring more industry links.

Rivalries and eternal debates

IIT Tirupati measures itself against the other new IITs, especially IIT Palakkad, which shares the same mentor in IIT Madras. Locally, it shares the town with IISER Tirupati, more often a collaborator than a rival.

Meeting people at IIT Tirupati by interest

A lot of friendships here form around a shared interest rather than a class or a hostel wing. If you are into coding and hackathons, dance, trekking, startups and builders, and gaming and esports, those pages cover where that scene actually happens in India and how to find people near you who are into the same thing.

Similar campuses across India

If you are looking beyond your own campus, students at IIIT-Delhi, IIT Bhilai, IIT Bhubaneswar, and IIT Bombay share a similar campus culture, and Zyber works the same way at each: showing you verified people nearby who match on interest, intent, or timing.

Zyber on campus

Zyber is built for meeting people nearby in real time, with verified profiles only. At IIT Tirupati, that means showing you people near you who share your interests or your drive, whether or not you overlap on a class or a society.

New to IIT Tirupati? Start here

If you are just starting out, these freshers guides are written for exactly this moment: first week of college checklist, how to choose societies in college, making friends beyond your branch, and hackathons for beginners in india.

See meeting people in Chennai, events in Chennai, the freshers guide, the Meet People pillar, or read what Zyber is.