According to the NIT, the call for applications for Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) and Young Achiever Award (YAA) for year 2020 were invited under five different categories- Excellence in Academic / Research/ Innovation/Invention, Excellence in Corporate / Industry, Excellence in Public Administration, Excellence in Entrepreneurial venture and Excellence in Service to the society at large, including sports and journalism. This was the first time an online portal was also created for submission of applications.

According to the NIT-Tiruchy official sources, a total of 23 DAA applications and 3 YAA applications were received and were screened and scrutinised by a special committee, including the Director, Dean (ID and AR), Associate Dean (Alumni Relations) and experts from industry, academia, senior institute faculty and previous DAA awardee.

After careful consideration, evaluation and study of the contributions of the alumni nominated, the committee bestowed the awards on 11 alumni for their immense contributions.

The winner of excellence in Academic / Research / Innovation / Invention are Dr Sathiya Keerthi Selvaraj, Principal Staff Scientist, AI, Group, LinkedIn Corporation, Sunnyvale, California. USA (1980 B.Tech. Mechanical); Dr. N. Anantharaman, Retired Professor (HAG) from NIT Tiruchirappalli (1977 B.Tech. Chemical & 1985 PhD Chemical); Prof Sethu Vijayakumar, Program co-Director for AI -The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK (1992 B. E Computer Science); V Srinivasan, Chief controller/Dy. Director, Outstanding Scientist - Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (1974 B. Tech Chemical)

The awardees in excellence in Corporate/Industry category are Dr Anantha Sethuraman, General Manager – Applied Materials Inc., CA, USA (1982 B. Tech Metallurgical); Kadiresan Annamalai, Senior Director of Marketing, Pericom/Diodes Inc., CA, USA (1976 B. Tech ECE); Rajesh Gopinathan, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director - Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai (1994 B. Tech EEE).

The laurels for Excellence in Entrepreneurial venture goes to Sapna Behar, Partner & Founder Director - Icarusnova Pvt. Ltd & Icarus Design Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru (1990 B. Tech EEE)

Excellence in Service to the Society award is bagged by Rajendra K Aryal, Representative/ Country Director – Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO), Afghanistan (1991 B. Tech Civil); Sivasankar Jayagopal, Founder Chairman -Winvinaya Foundation, Bengaluru (1991 B. Tech Computer Science)

The YAA award under Excellence in Academic / Research / Innovation / Invention category is won by Dr Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli, Assistant Professor, Tu Delft, The Netherlands (2011 B. Tech EEE).