IIST has been awarded the ‘Best University (National) Award as a part of Open Source GIS Day celebrations conducted at VMCC Main Auditorium, IIT Bombay on 17 July 2025. The programme was organised by the FOSSEE (GIS) project, IIT Bombay, under the aegis of the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT), Ministry of Education, Government of India. (https://www.iitb.ac.in/iit-bombay-fossee-gis-activities-calendar-year-2025). On behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Anand Narayanan, Head, Earth and Space Sciences, received the award.

The paper titled “HI-IDE Sat: Heat Island Infrared Detection Satellite”, developed under the Small-Spacecraft Systems and Payload Centre SSPACE at IIST, has been certified and awarded the 3rd rank at the India Space Congress 2025, organized by the SatCom Industry Association – India (SIA).This ongoing student-led project addresses the critical issue of Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects through a novel CubeSat mission that integrates infrared detection, thermal modeling, and GIS-based mitigation strategies.

A Rajbhasha Conference is being organized as part of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Department of Official Language on June 26, 2025, in Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi under the chairmanship of the Shri Amit Shah, Honorable Union Minister of Home Affairs and Cooperation. Dr. Sourav Bhowmick, Assistant Professor, Dept. Of Avionics as the member of OLIC is nominated to attend this Conference from IIST.

IIST is spearheading the experiment ‘CROP SEEDS on ISS’ wherein a host of food crop seeds, integrated as a biology payload in the Space Biology Laboratory are on board Axiom-4 mission. For this project, IIST has entered into an MoU with the Human Spaceflight Centre (HSFC), ISRO which was signed by Dr. Dipankar Banerjee, Vice Chancellor, IIST and Dr. D K Singh, Director HSFC at ISRO HQ on 21st May 2025. The science investigation team is led by Dr. K G Sreejalekshmi, Professor at IIST and PI of the project.