A Family Gift That Keeps Ideas Moving
Rajeev Motwani Building
The Rajeev Motwani Building provides IIT Kanpur’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering with laboratories, classrooms and spaces for research and collaboration.
Created through a USD 1.5 million contribution from Asha Jadeja Motwani and her daughters, Naitri and Anya, the Rajeev Motwani Building honours one of IIT Kanpur’s most influential computer scientists. Today, it provides a permanent home for the research, collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking that defined his life.
When a Building Carries an Idea Forward
The most meaningful institutional buildings do more than create space. They carry forward a way of thinking.
At IIT Kanpur, the six-storey Rajeev Motwani Building houses the Department of Computer Science and Engineering while supporting research, teaching, collaboration and innovation.
It is both an academic facility and a living memorial—significant not only because of the name outside, but because of the intellectual activity continuing within.
Remembering a Life Through the Future
The building was made possible by Asha Jadeja Motwani, wife of the late Prof. Rajeev Motwani, together with their daughters.
On 24 March 2011, what would have been Rajeev’s 49th birthday, the family announced a USD 1.5 million contribution towards the new building. Its foundation stone was laid in May 2011, and the completed facility was inaugurated in December 2014.
Rather than create a static monument, the family chose to support a place where future generations could study, experiment and build.
From IIT Kanpur to Global Influence
Rajeev Motwani entered IIT Kanpur in 1978 as part of its first undergraduate Computer Science and Engineering batch.
After graduating in 1983, he earned his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, and later joined Stanford University. His research made foundational contributions to randomized algorithms, approximation algorithms, computational complexity, data mining and the mathematical understanding of the web. He received the Gödel Prize in 2001.
His influence extended beyond research. Rajeev was widely recognised as a mentor who identified potential early and helped ambitious ideas develop. He advised students, researchers and technology founders, while remaining closely connected with IIT Kanpur’s CSE research and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Creating Room for a Growing Discipline
The building added approximately 3,650 square metres of academic space, including a 200-seat classroom, 22 faculty offices and 17 laboratories.
It gave the department greater capacity to work across theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, systems, cybersecurity, data science and emerging interdisciplinary areas.
Its original vision also extended to entrepreneurship. The building became part of a wider effort to help students and faculty translate ideas and technologies into ventures.
More Than a Name on a Building
Rajeev Motwani died unexpectedly in 2009 at the age of 47. His life was brief, but his intellectual influence was not. At IIT Kanpur, his name now belongs to a place where new computer scientists begin journeys of their own.
Every class taught, experiment conducted, student mentored and idea pursued within that space carries the legacy forward.
