IIT Kanpur

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (commonly known as IIT Kanpur or IITK) is a public research college located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. It was declared to be Institute of National Importance by Government of India under IIT Act.

Established in 1959 as one of the first Indian Institutes of Technology, the institute was created with the assistance of a consortium of nine US research universities as part of the Kanpur Indo-American Programme (KIAP).

History

IIT Kanpur was established by an Act of Parliament in 1959. The institute was started in December 1959 in a room in the canteen building of the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute at Agricultural Gardens in Kanpur. In 1963, the institute moved to its present location, on the Grand Trunk Road near the village of Kalyanpur in Kanpur district.

During the first ten years of its existence, a consortium of nine US universities (namely M.I.T, University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Carnegie Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Case Institute of Technology and Purdue University) helped set up IIT Kanpur's research laboratories and academic programmes under the Kanpur Indo-American Programme (KIAP).[6] The first Director of the Institute was P. K. Kelkar (after whom the Central Library was renamed in 2002).

Under the guidance of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, IIT Kanpur was the first institute in India to offer Computer Science education.[7] The earliest computer courses were started at IIT Kanpur in August 1963 on an IBM 1620 system. The initiative for computer education came from the Electrical Engineering department, then under the chairmanship of Prof. H.K. Kesavan, who was concurrently the chairman of Electrical Engineering and head of the Computer Centre. Prof. Harry Huskey of the University of California, Berkeley, who preceded Kesavan, helped[clarification needed] with the computer activity at IIT-Kanpur. In 1971, the institute began an independent academic program in Computer Science and Engineering, leading to M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees.

In 1972 the KIAP program ended, in part because of tensions due to the U.S. support of Pakistan. Government funding was also reduced as a reaction to the sentiment that the IIT's were contributing to the brain drain.

IIT Kanpur is located on the Grand Trunk Road, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Kanpur City and measures close to 420 hectares (1,000 acres). This land was donated by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 1960 and by March 1963 the Institute had moved to its current location.

The institute has around 6478 students with 3938 undergraduate students and 2540 postgraduate students and about 500 research associates.

Noida Extension centre

IIT Kanpur is to open an extension centre in Noida with the plan of making a small convention centre there for supporting outreach activities. Its foundation was laid on 4 December 2012 on 5 acres of land allocated by Uttar Pradesh state government in the sector-62 of Noida city, which is less than an hour`s journey from New Delhi and the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The cost of construction is estimated to be about 25 crores. The new campus will have an auditorium, seminar halls for organising national and international conferences and an International Relations Office along with a 7-storey guest house. Several short-term management courses and refresher courses meant for distance learning will be available at the extension center.News from. IITK. Retrieved on 9 October 2013.

Academic Area

Institute's Academic Area comprises academic buildings and facilities such as the PK Kelkar Library, Computer Centre, National Wind Tunnel Facility and SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre. It also houses faculty offices, laboratories and administrative buildings. The academic area is connected by a corridor which links all the major buildings.

IIT Kanpur has 10 boys' hostels, 2 girls' hostels and one girls' residence tower all together called the 'Halls of Residence'.

Students' Activity Centre (SAC)

SAC is the hub for most of the major extra-curricular activities. There are two SAC buildings, the older building(Old-SAC) and the other (New-SAC), which was recently built. New-SAC has an open-air theatre (OAT) with a capacity of over 1400 people. The SAC is maintained and managed by the Students' Gymkhana at IIT Kanpur.

Helicopter service

On 1 June 2013, a helicopter ferry service was started at IIT Kanpur run by Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited. In its initial run the service connects IIT Kanpur to Lucknow, but it is planned to later extend it to New Delhi. Currently [when?] there are two flights daily to and from Lucknow Airport with a duration of 25 minutes. Lucknow Airport operates both international and domestic flights to major cities. IIT Kanpur is the first academic institution in the country to provide such a service.

New York Office

The Institute has set up an office in New York with alumnus Sanjeev Khosla designated as the overseas brand ambassador of the institute. It is located on 62, William Street, Manhattan. The office aims to hunt for qualified and capable faculty abroad. The New York Office also tries to amass funds through the alumni based there. A system that invites students and faculty of foreign institutes to IIT Kanpur is also being formulated.

Admissions

Undergraduate admissions until 2012 were being done through the national-level Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE). Following the Ministry of Human Resource Development's decision to replace IIT-JEE with a common engineering entrance examination, IIT Kanpur's admissions are now based on JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) -Advanced level along with other IITs.

Postgraduate admissions are made through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering.

Student life

National events

Antaragni is a non-profit organisation run by the students of IIT Kanpur. It was funded entirely by the Student Gymkhana of the university it began. Today the budget is almost Rs 1 crore, raised through sponsorship. It began as an inter-collegiate cultural event in 1964, and now draws in over 30,000 visitors from 300 colleges in India Annual cultural festival held over 4 days in October. The festival includes music, drama, literary games and quizzing. It has a 100,000+ liked fan page on Facebook.[13] There is a YouTube channel dedicated to the festival with 1,000+ subscribers.

Techkriti: It was started in 1995 with an aim to encourage interest and innovation in technology among students and to provide a platform for industry and academia to interact. Megabucks (a business and entrepreneurship festival) used to be held independently but was merged with Techkriti in 2010. Notable speakers at Techkriti have included APJ Abdul Kalam, Vladimir Voevodsky, Douglas Osheroff, Oliver Smithies, Rakesh Sharma, David Griffiths and Richard Stallman. It has a 50,000+ liked fan page on Facebook and a YouTube channel dedicated to the festival has 250+ subscribers.

Udghosh: Udghosh is an annual inter-college sports meet held in September. UDGHOSH involves students from all over India competing in the university's sports facilities. The festival includes Motivational Talks, Mini Marathon, Gymnastic Shows and Sport Quizzes to various sports events like:

Vivekananda Youth Leadership Convention Vivekananda Samiti, under Students Gymkhana, on behalf of the IIT Kanpur, has undertaken the celebration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda from 2011-2015. The convention has included Kiran Bedi, Bana Singh, Yogendra Singh Yadav, Raju Narayana Swamy, Arunima Sinha, Rajendra Singh and other personalities from different fields in previous years.

E-summit:[20] It started in 2013. The first E-Summit was scheduled for 16-18 Aug, 2013. These three day festival by Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kanpur on the theme Emerge on the Radar included talks by eminent personalities, workshops and competitions.

Intra Hall sports competition

Introduction

Inferno is an inter Hall sports festival of IIT Kanpur. It is a part of General Championship(GC) which held between different pools(pool is a group of Halls). It provides a platform for bringing forward the sporting talent around the campus where students play hard to fight for the glory of their respective halls. Inferno is divided into two parts: Freshers inferno and main inferno.

Freshers Inferno

It is Exclusively for freshers. Conducted to scout new talent and bring out the enthusiasm in freshmen. This is the first competition of the GC.

Main Inferno

It is same as freshers inferno except the point that it is open to all. Students from any year can take part in the competition. Every pool create a team consisting of their best players and leave no stone un-turned to fight it out till the very end, and gain the vital ‘General Championship’ points at stake.

Events

    Athletics

    Badminton

    'Lawn Tennis

    Table Tennis

    Weight Lifting

    Squash

    Basketball

    Football

    Volleyball

Acknowledgement

Games and sports council,IITK.

Students' Gymkhana

The Students' Gymkhana is the students' government organization of IIT Kanpur, established in 1962.

The Students' Gymkhana functions mainly through the Students' Senate, an elected student representative body composed of Senators elected from each batch and the five elected executives:

• President, Students' Gymkhana.
• General Secretary Cultural Council.
• General Secretary Films and Media Council.
• General Secretary Games and Sports Council.
• General Secretary Science and Technology Council.

The number of Senators in the Students' Senate is around 50-55. A senator is elected for every 100 students of IIT Kanpur.

The meetings of the Students' Senate are chaired by the Convener, Students' Senate, who is elected by the Senate. The Senate lays down the guidelines for the functions of the executives, their associated councils, the Gymkhana Festivals and other matters pertaining to the Student body at large.

The Students' Senate has a say in the policy and decision making bodies of the institute. The President, Students' Gymkhana and the Convener, Students' Senate are special Invitees to the Institute Academic Senate. The President is usually invited to the meetings of the Board of Governors when matters affecting students are being discussed. Nominees of the Students' Senate are also members of the various standing Committees of the Institute Senate including the disciplinary committee, the Undergraduate and Postgraduate committee, the scholarship committee etc. All academic departments have Departmental Undergraduate and Post Graduate Committees consisting of members of the faculty and nominees of the Students' Gymkhana.

Students' Placement Office

Students' Placement Office (SPO), IIT Kanpur, is the student-run body responsible for facilitating campus placements for graduating students and internships for pre-final year students. SPO has over 300 clients globally, who have been recruiting from IIT Kanpur on a yearly basis. It also provides promotional services to companies through workshops, interaction sessions and lectures by experts.

SPO contacts companies and invites them to recruit students from IIT Kanpur, after which, they float job openings and facilitate the necessary recruitment proceedings such as tests, Pre-Placement talks and interviews. Students are registered on either one of the Placement Automation System or Internship Automation System to streamline the entire recruitment process.

The SPO team is led by the Overall Placement Coordinators, and comprises Internship Coordinators, Department Placement Coordinators, Company Relations Team and the Preparation Team headed by a Head, Placement Preparation, all being students of the Institute. They work under the supervision of Chairman, Students' Placement Office, who is the faculty-in-charge for all placement-related activities. The SPO team is well equipped to cater to the requirements of both students and recruiters, thereby ensuring ample number of job opportunities on campus and maintaining long-term relations with recruiters.

SPO helps students in placement and internship preparation by organizing workshops on Career Awareness, Resume making and Personality Development. SPO also provides study material, conducts mock tests, group discussions and interviews. They provide a channel for placed students to share their placement experience with junior batches by documenting guides for placement and internship.
Website : http://spo.iitk.ac.in/

Student publications

The students have a student magazine called 'The Campus Magazine', Vox Populi - the student media body (voxiitk.com), Scientia, a science and technology magazine, and NERD, a bi-annual offering covering happenings in the scientific world.

Student voluntary services

The students participate voluntarily in social services and organisations, "Prayas" being one of them, where they involve local underprivileged children in educational activities during their free time, conduct awareness programs and provide for campus visits.Another one is Vivekananda Samiti, being one of the oldest clubs under the Students' Gymkhana functioning for over 40 years, thus spreading the message of Swami Vivekananda among the campus residents.

Convocation

Every year convocation is held in the month of June and February, where degrees are awarded to graduating students.The latest was held on February 23, 2015.

Rankings

Internationally, IIT Kanpur has been ranked 272th in the QS World University Rankings of 2015,[22] 58nd in the QS Asian University Rankings of 2015[23] and rated AAAAA in Careers 360 (Magazine) Top Engineering Colleges in India 2015. In India rankings, among engineering colleges, it was ranked first in 2014, 2012, 2011 & 2010, and second in 2013 by India Today,[24] and fourth by Outlook India in 2012, though it achieved highest points in academic excellence category in Outlook India survey . In the Mint Government Colleges survey of 2009 it ranked second.

Academic bodies and activities

IIT Kanpur offers various courses on management and social sciences.

Undergraduate

IT Kanpur offers four-year B.Tech programs in Aerospace Engineering, Biological Sciences and Bio-engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The admission to these programs is procured through Joint Entrance Examination. IITK offers admission only to bachelor's degree now (discontinuing the integrated course programs), but it can be extended by 1 year to make it integrated, depending on the choice of student and based on his/her performance there at undergraduate level. IIT Kanpur also offers four-year B.S. Programs in Pure and Applied Sciences (Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in particular) and in Economics.

New academic system

From 2011, IIT Kanpur has started offering a four-year BS program in sciences and has kept its B.Tech Program intact. Entry to the five-year M.Tech/MBA programs and Dual degree programme will be done based on the CPI of students instead of JEE rank.[29] In order to reduce the number of student exams, IIT Kanpur has also abolished the earlier system of conducting two mid-term examinations. Instead, only two examinations (plus two quizzes in most courses depending on the instructor-in-charge, one before mid-semesters and the other after the mid-semesters and before the end-semesters examination), one between the semester and other towards the end of it would be held from the academic session starting July 2011 onward as per Academic Review Committee's recommendations.

Postgraduate

Postgraduate courses in Engineering offer Master of Technology (M.Tech) and Ph.D. degrees. The institute also offers two tier M.Sc. courses in areas of basic sciences in which students are admitted through JAM exam. The institute also offers M.Des. (2 years), M.B.A. (2 years) and M.Sc. (2 years) degrees. Admissions to M. Tech is made once a year through Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering. Admissions to M. Des are made once a year through both Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering(GATE) and Common Entrance Exam for Design(CEED). Until 2011, admissions to the M.B.A. program were accomplished through the Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET), held yearly, and followed by a Group Discussion/Personal Interview process. In 2011, JMET was replaced by Common Admission Test (CAT).[30][31]

 

Departments

The academic departments at IIT Kanpur are:

Engineering	Humanities and Social Sciences	Inter Disciplinary
•  Aerospace Engineering •  Biological Sciences & Bio-engineering •  Chemical Engineering •  Civil Engineering •  Computer Science and Engineering •  Electrical Engineering •  Materials Science and        Engineering •  Mechanical Engineering	•           Economics •           English •           Fine Arts •           Geography •           Philosophy •           Linguistics •           Psychology •           Sociology	•Environmental Engineering & Management •Laser Technology •Nuclear Engineering and Technology •Nanotechnology •Science and Technology Studies •Material Science Program •Earth Science
Science	Management	Design
•           Chemistry •           Physics •           Mathematics, and Statistics •           Earth Sciences	•Masters of Business Administration •Industrial and Management Engineering •Technology Management	·         Master of Design

Laboratories and other facilities

The campus is spread over an area of 4.3 square kilometres (1,100 acres). Facilities include the National Wind Tunnel Facility. Other large research centres include the Advanced Centre for Material Science, a Bio-technology centre, the Advanced Centre for Electronic Systems, and the Samtel Centre for Display Technology, Centre for Mechatronics, Centre for Laser Technology, Prabhu Goel Research Centre for Computer and Internet Security, Facility for Ecological and Analytical Testing. The departments have their own libraries.

The institute has its own airfield, for flight testing and gliding.

PK Kelkar Library (formerly Central Library) is an academic library of the institute with a collection of more than 300,000 volumes, and subscriptions to more than 1,000 periodicals. The library was renamed to its present name in 2003 after Dr. P K Kelkar, the first director of the institute. It is housed in a three-story building, with a total floor area of 6973 square metres. The Abstracting and Indexing periodicals, Microform and CD-ROM databases, technical reports, Standards and thesis are in the library. Each year, about 4,500 books and journal volumes are added to the library.

The Western Labs

The Computer Centre host the IIT Kanpur website and provides personal web space for students and faculties. It also provides a mail server and high speed internet to all the hostels and the academics. It has linux and windows laboratories equipped with high-end software like MATLAB and Autocad for use of students. The computer centre has about 200-300 Linux terminals and more than 100 Windows-NT terminals supported by the PARAM 10000 supercomputer, and is continuously available to the students for academic work and recreation. It hosts about 50 SUN workstations. In June 2014 IIT Kanpur launched their 2nd supercomputer which is India’s 5th[33] most powerful supercomputer as of now. The new supercomputer 'Cluster Platform SL230s Gen8' manufactured by Hewlett-Packard has 15,360 cores and a theoretical peak (Rpeak) 307.2 TFlop/s and is the world's 192th most powerful supercomputer as of June 2015.[34]

The New Core Labs (NCL) is 3 storey building with state of the art physics and chemistry laboratories for courses in the first year. The New Core Labs also has Linux and Windows computer labs for the use of first year courses and a Mathematics department laboratory housing machines with high computing power.

IIT Kanpur has set up the SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre(SIIC) in collaboration with the Small Industries development Bank of India (SIDBI) aiming to aid innovation, research, and entrepreneurial activities in technology-based areas. SIIC helps business Start-ups to develop[clarification needed] their ideas into commercially viable products. SIIC conducted the Nettech Summer Program 2007 for engineering students from all over India at IIT Kanpur Campus.[35]

A team of students, working under the guidance of faculty members of the institute and scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have designed and built India's first nano satellite Jugnu, which was successfully launched in orbit on 12 Oct 2011 by ISRO's PSLV-C18.

Students' research related activity

Research is controlled by the Office of the Dean of Research and Development. Under the aegis of the Office the students publish the quarterly NERD Magazine (Notes on Engineering Research and Development) which publishes scientific and technical content created by students. Articles may be original work done by students in the form of hobby projects, term projects, internships, or theses. Articles of general interest which are informative but do not reflect original work are also accepted.

Along with the magazine a student research organisation, PoWER (Promotion of Work Experience and Research) has been started. Under it several independent student groups are working on projects like the Lunar Rover for ISRO, alternate energy solutions under the Group for Environment and Energy Engineering, ICT solutions through a group Young Engineers, solution for diabetes, green community solutions through ideas like zero water and zero waste quality air approach. Through BRaIN (Biological Research and Innovation Network) students interested in solving biological problems get involved in research projects like genetically modifying fruit flies to study molecular systems and developing bio-sensors to detect alcohol levels. A budget of Rs 1.5 to 2 crore has been envisaged to support student projects that demonstrate technology.

Jugnu (satellite)

The students of IIT Kanpur made a nano satellite called Jugnu, which was given by president Pratibha Patil to ISRO for launch. Jugnu is a remote sensing satellite which will be operated by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. It is a nanosatellite which will be used to provide data for agriculture and disaster monitoring. It is a 3-kilogram (6.6 lb) spacecraft, which measures 34 centimetres (13 in) in length by 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in height and width. Its development programme cost around 25 million rupees. It has a design life of one year. Jugnu's primary instrument is the Micro Imaging System, a near infrared camera which will be used to observe vegetation. It also carries a GPS receiver to aid tracking, and is intended to demonstrate a microelectromechanical inertial measurement unit.

·         IITK Motorsports

IITK motorsports is the biggest and most comprehensive student initiative of the college, founded in January 2011. It is a group of students from varied disciplines who aim at designing and fabricating a Formula-style race car for international Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) events. Most of the components of the car, except the engine, tyres and wheel rims, are designed and manufactured by the team members themselves. The car is designed to provide maximum performance under the constraints of the event, while ensuring the driveability, reliability, driver safety and aesthetics of the car are not compromised.[37]

The institute is part of the European Research and Education Collaboration with Asia (EURECA) programme since 2008.

Centers and programs

    Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy

    Center for Education Research and Development

    Center for Environmental Research

    Center for Industrial Research and Development

    Center for IT and Software Research

    Center for Integrated Science

    Center for Nuclear Engineering

    Center for Research and Innovation

    Center for Technological Innovation

    Center for Urban Research and Planning

    Center for Ocean Engineering

    Center for Laser Technology