IIT Guwahati Student Selected as Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador
PRESS RELEASE
GUWAHATI, 3rd July 2025: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati‘s student Ms. Sukanya Sonowal has been selected as the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador, a leadership position in the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (CYPAN) Executive Committee.
CYPAN is a youth-led initiative which operates across 56 member nations to promote peace, respect, and understanding while countering violent extremism. A 4th year student pursuing her B.Tech. in Biosciences and Bioengineering, Ms. Sonowal will serve as Lead – Communications & Public Relations for the 2025–2027 term.
Congratulating Ms. Sonowal on her accomplishment, Prof. Devendra Jalihal, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “We are immensely proud of Ms. Sukanya Sonowal for her selection as a Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador. We are confident that she will make a meaningful contribution to peacebuilding efforts across the Commonwealth and inspire many other students to pursue initiatives with global impact.”
Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors are selected based on their experience in peacebuilding, commitment to Commonwealth values, and understanding of relevant frameworks. The selection process involved a rigorous three-stage process which included an initial application followed by two rounds of interviews. The evaluation process focused on the applicant’s commitment to peacebuilding, community service, and leadership experience.
A native of Lakhimpur district of Assam, Ms. Sonowal’s experience in communications and outreach-related activities helped her become a suitable fit for the ambassadorial role. Over the past four years, she has actively contributed to IIT Guwahati’s flagship techno-management festival, Techniche, as a key part of the Media and Branding team.
In her current roles, Ms. Sonowal is the co-founder of STEMvibe – STEM for Viksit Bharat Empowerment, an initiative focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) outreach that aims to empower students all over India. Through this platform, she has successfully engaged more than 3,000 participants from across the nation. She is also spearheading The Integral Cup, a national-level mathematics competition for undergraduates that attracted over 2,500 participants from top institutions during its very first edition.
Her demonstrated ability to manage large-scale communication campaigns, lead youth-focused outreach initiatives, and build international collaborations with organisations such as Optiver, Qube Research & Technologies, and Jane Street, reflects the experience and skills that strongly aligned with the objectives of the Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network.
A native of Lakhimpur district of Assam, Ms. Sukanya Sonowal said, “I am deeply honored to represent India and IIT Guwahati on this global platform. This opportunity stems from my belief that communication can be a powerful tool for a positive change. My journey, from volunteering at campus events to leading international initiatives, shows that every experience shapes us for a larger purpose. I encourage fellow students to embrace opportunities beyond their immediate field of study. The skills we develop through such initiatives will not only shape our careers but empower us to become global citizens who can contribute to humanity’s biggest challenges.”
IIT Guwahati is proud of Ms. Sonowal’s accomplishment and wishes her the best in her role as a Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador.
ABOUT IIT GUWAHATI
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, established in 1994, completed 25 years of glorious existence in 2019. At present, the Institute has eleven departments, nine interdisciplinary academic centres and five schools covering all the major engineering, science, healthcare, management, and humanities disciplines, offering BTech, BDes, BSc(Hons), MA, MDes, MTech, MSc, MS(R), MBA and PhD programmes. The institute offers a residential campus to 455 faculty members and more than 8,600 students at present.
IIT Guwahati has retained the 7th position among the best engineering institutions of the country, 9th position in ‘Overall’ and 10th position in ‘Research’ Categories in the ‘India Rankings 2024’ declared by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.
IIT Guwahati has achieved rank 87 in the SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2024 and is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings. IIT Guwahati gained rank 32 globally in the ‘Research Citations per Faculty’ category and overall 344 rank in the QS World University Rankings 2025.
Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics and Flexible Electronics, among numerous other areas.
