From No Campus to Two Campuses: IIT-Bhubaneswar

IIT-Bhubaneswar was the first among the eight new IITs to start operations with a sanctioned intake of 40 students each in civil engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. The classes for the first batch of students started in 2008, from the campus of the college’s mentor institute, IIT-Kharagpur. IIT-Bhubaneswar’s campus became operational a year later.

This campus is temporarily housed in IIT-Kharagpur’s Extension Centre building in Bhubaneswar. A permanent campus is under construction at Aragul, which, according to the institute’s registrar, will begin functioning by 2014.

The institute is the first IIT to set up a separate ‘marine campus’ to start this year, for conducting research about the ecology, disaster management, the marine eco-system and fisheries development. This campus, located near Chilika Lake, will be called the School of Earth, Ocean and Environment Sciences.

Basic facts

• Opened on: June 23, 2008
• Highest rank to gain entry this year: 3000
• Lowest rank to gain entry this year: 4000
• Seats: 120 seats; 7 are vacant
• Previous years’ vacancies: 2008—25; 2009—3; 2010—0
• Faculty: Currently, there are 50 full-time faculty members, with additional visiting faculty.
• Students: 471 students: 46 girls and 425 boys
• Teacher-student ratio: 1:10

Infrastructure

• Campus: Currently operating out of IIT-Kharagpur’s Extension Centre in Bhubaneswar, but will have a full-fledged 950 acre-campus by 2014. It also has a 75-acre marine campus starting this year
• Hostels: 80 higher income group flats have been taken in a State Bank of India colony, 78 of which serve as hostels
• Mess: There are two eateries
• Labs: 16 laboratories, plus one language laboratory, and two computer centres
• Classrooms: 15 classrooms, plus four virtual classrooms where faculty from IIT-Kharagpur can stream lectures
• Sports facilities: The institute has tied up with the Indian Institute of Mine and Mineral Technology for its grounds, where students avail facilities for training
• Placements: Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro were invited last year

Student life

• Annual festival: Alma Fiesta, a socio-cultural inter-collegiate fest
• Clubs: There are six popular students societies including the E Cell, dance society, robotics society, music society and dramatics

Source: HT Education