India, Aug. 16 -- Like so many who enrol at the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay), Rushikesh Shinde dreamt of becoming an engineer. He had made the cut for the bachelor's degree in mathematics programme at the elite engineering institute - but Shinde wanted more.

He felt the fixed curriculum didn't give him space to explore his interests, particularly music and music technology. "Everything changed when I learnt about the institute's Centre for Multidisciplinary Education (CME). Here, I could choose courses from different departments across IIT-B and create and customise my education based on my interests," says Shinde.

After a year in IIT-B's mainstream mathematics programme, he switched to the CME in 2023, where he studied artif...