When we launched Fill the Gap, the goal was simple yet urgent: clear the financial hurdles standing between talented students and their engineering dreams. Today we’re proud to share that 84 scholars at Thadomal Shahani Engineering College are fully funded.
Energy, ambition, and a push for the future
Stepping into TSEC feels familiar
The cohort we met is remarkably enthusiastic. Propelled by a personal push from Principal Thampi, the institution is making a powerful, targeted drive to build AI/ML-ready engineers — and the students have taken it up completely.
Watching them brings back memories. They possess the exact same eagerness and hope for the future that we felt forty years ago, walking the same corridors.
They are pouring a tremendous amount of personal effort and financial commitment into securing their professional paths — and we are honored to walk alongside them.
Innovations in AI · Scholars’ showcase
What they’re actually building
Not coursework exercises. Small language models tuned for insurance risk assessment and property valuation, ed-tech that teaches in vernacular languages, data pipelines cleaned end to end, token-factory backends, and full-stack applications shipped green across every check.
Where the work happens
A department built for the push
Principal Thampi’s drive for AI/ML-ready engineers isn’t only a curriculum change — it shows up in the rooms. New labs, a dedicated Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and corridors where the fundamentals stay on the walls.
Rigorous diligence behind the scenes
How 120+ applications became 84 scholars
Reaching this milestone was no small feat. Ms. Sheela N Shah and Dr. Mudita Dixit drove an arduous evaluation process, carefully reviewing every application that came in.
Read one by one
Over 120 applications reviewed in full — financial circumstances, academic record, and the story behind each name.
Checked with the departments
Multiple rounds of checks with TSEC department heads to weigh the intangibles that no application form captures.
Shortlisted to 84
A final list arrived at deliberately, person by person, rather than by score alone.
Going above and beyond
True community impact lives in the details
Neither of them stopped at the shortlist. Both went looking for what else stood between a student and their degree.
Ms. Sheela N Shah
Personally rallied the Mumbai-based alumni network to secure additional scholarships beyond what the campaign itself raised — turning one appeal into many.
Dr. Mudita Dixit
Stepped in to solve critical logistical barriers: arranging hostel accommodation for a student facing a grueling five-hour daily commute, and providing a laptop where it was urgently needed.
Money clears the fee. People clear the road.
We sat in those same classrooms with the same eagerness, and someone made room for us.
84 scholars carry that forward — the future builders of our tech landscape.
To every alum who gave, forwarded the appeal, or sponsored a student outright: this list exists because of you. See the full campaign results →