The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is a public engineering institution located
in Powai, Mumbai, India. In global rankings, IIT Bombay has emerged as India’s top university.
It is the second-oldest institute of the Indian Institutes of Technology system.
IIT Bombay was founded in 1958. In 1961, the Parliament decreed IITs as Institutes of National
Importance. A high-power committee of Government of India recommended in 1946 establishment
of four higher institutes of technology to set the direction for the development of technical
education in the country. Planning for the Institute at Mumbai began in 1957 and the
first batch of 100 students was admitted in 1958. Since its establishment in Powai, the
institute has physically expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined
area of more than 2.396 gross square feet. IIT Bombay has a comprehensive graduate program
offering doctoral degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Currently IIT
Bombay has a total of 14 academic departments, six centers, one school, and three interdisciplinary
programmes. Over the last 53 years, around 39,000 engineers and scientists have graduated
from the institute. Educational programmes here extend beyond the physical sciences and
engineering into humanities and social sciences such as Economics, English, Philosophy, Psychology
and Sociology and into management studies. Over the years, the institute has also created
a niche for its innovative short-term courses through continuing education and distance
education programmes.
History
IIT Bombay was the second IIT to be established in 1958 with assistance from UNESCO and with
funds contributed by the Soviet Union. UNESCO agreed to provide equipment and technical
experts mainly from the Soviet Union, while the Government of India accepted the responsibility
for all other expenses including the cost of the building project and recurring expenses.
The site chosen for the institute was Powai, eighteen miles from the city of Mumbai, with
an area of 550 acres which was given by the then Bombay State Government. While construction
was being completed, the first academic session of the Institute opened on 25 July 1958, in
its temporary home at the Synthetic and Art Silk Mills Research Association building in
Worli, Mumbai with 100 students. These students were selected from over 3,400 applicants for
admission to the first year undergraduate engineering programmes of Aerospace, Chemical,
Civil, Computer, Electrical, Engineering Physics, Energy, Mechanical, Metallurgical Engineering
and MSc Chemistry. One of the main objectives of establishing the Institute was to develop
facilities for studies in a variety of specialised engineering and technological sciences. The
need for establishing adequate facilities for postgraduate studies and research was
kept uppermost in mind in the founding years. While the Institute was functioning provisionally
at Worli, an effort was made to expedite the progress of the building project at its permanent
location and Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the Institute at Powai on 10 March
1959. Campus
The IIT Bombay campus is located at Powai, a suburb in north eastern Mumbai, between
the Vihar and Powai lakes. The campus is divided into clusters of buildings. The academic area
chiefly comprises the main building, various departmental annexes and auditoria. All department
annexes are connected by a corridor named Infinite Corridor. Beyond the Convocation
Hall lie most of the hostels. There are a total of 15 hostels, of which two hostels
and a part of the newly constructed hostel are for female students.
Due to its proximity to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the campus is yellow and mostly
untouched by the pollution of the rest of the city. The proximity of the campus to the
national park has also led to occasional sightings of panthers, Leopards and Gharial crocodiles
along the banks of Lake Powai. Sometimes they stray into the campus in chase of hunt.
The institute has two swimming pools; football, hockey and cricket grounds; and tennis, basketball,
squash and volleyball courts. It also has a Students' Activity Center for various cultural
and other extracurricular activities. In addition to these facilities, the campus also houses
two high schools, one of which is a Kendriya Vidyalaya and the other is called IIT Campus
School.
Cultural and Non-Academic activities The annual cultural festival Mood Indigo,
usually held in the month of December is the best event hosted by any student body and
the largest of its kind in Asia. The most attractive feature of this 4-day event are
the influential personalities who have graced the festival like R D Burman, Aamir Khan,
Sir Mark Tully, Sachin Tendulkar, Porcupine Tree, Simple Plan, Mike Portnoy and many more.
The organization is known for holding the best cultural competitions, games and musical
concerts to draw out the best talent in the country.
Cultural activities like dramatics, Speaking, Literary Arts, Music and Fine Arts also mark
an important feature in the life of a student of IIT Bombay. Speaking and Literary Arts
have always been very popular in the student community with students actively participating
in quizzing, writing and debating activities. IIT Bombay has won the prestigious National
Law School Parliamentary Debating Tournament. The annual Science & Technology festival of
IIT Bombay, Techfest, which was started in 1998, is held in the month of January every
year and is the largest of its kind in Asia. It comprises various events like competitions,
exhibits and talks from guest speakers from around the world. Techfest 2009 was also the
first event of its kind in India to conduct its events in other countries.
Apart from cultural and technological activities, the campus is also involved in business activities
with bodies like The Entrepreneurship Cell, which support the growth of startups across
the globe. These college festivals are organised, financially
managed and conducted entirely by the students of this institute. All these festivals and
organisations are sponsored by private enterprise. Apart from these festivals, various other
engineering streams based festivals are also being organised to motivate students towards
Science and Technology. These include Radiance, Zephyr, AZeotropy, Padarth(Metallurgy and
Material Science Engineering), Aagomani and recently, Aakaar.
The institute also has an LGBT alliance club called "Saathi".
Organization At the institutional level, IIT Bombay is
governed by a Board of Governors with a chairman nominated by the Visitor, the Director as
a member and the Registrar as secretary. Besides this, there are four persons having specialised
knowledge or practical experience in respect of education, engineering or science nominated
by the Council. Two professors are nominated by the Senate. Additionally, one technologist
or industrialist of repute is nominated by the Government of each of the States of Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. For all academic matters, the Senate is the
authority having control and responsibility for the maintenance of standards of instruction,
education and examinations and all other allied academic matters. The Senate is mainly constituted
of all the professors of the Institute and the Director is the chairman.
The key people in the execution of the Institute's activities are the Director and Deputy Director
who are assisted by Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean and Dean, and the Heads of the Departments,
Centres and Schools. The Administration is managed by the Registrar, with senior administrative
officers being assigned for specific areas such as Estate Management, Materials Management,
Personnel Management, Finance and Accounts, and Academic Affairs.
Academic Office The Academic Office of the Institute exists
to facilitate, initiate and co-ordinate the academic work of the Institute, particularly
the teaching and assessment of students. It acts as the repository of grades and academic
records of all students, both past and present. It provides administrative support to the
Senate, which is the highest academic body of the Institute.
The Head of the Academic Office is the Dean of Academic Programmes, who is a senior professor
of the Institute. The Dean is helped by a permanent administrative set-up headed by
a Deputy Registrar. Academic Office closely interacts with the Dean of Student Affairs,
who looks after all non-academic problems of students. The DoSA, as the ex-officio President
of the Student Gymkhana, coordinates various co-curricular activities of students.
Departments, centres, and schools
IIT Bombay has 17 departments, 13 multi-disciplinary centres, and 3 schools of excellence. The
academic departments in IIT Bombay include the following:
Aerospace Engineering Applied Mechanics
Biosciences and Bioengineering Chemical Engineering
Chemistry Civil Engineering
Computer Science & Engineering Earth Sciences
Electrical Engineering Energy Science and Engineering
Urban Studies and Planning Humanities & Social Science
Industrial Design Centre Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science
including Corrosion Science and Engineering Physics
The following multi-disciplinary centres are located in IIT Bombay:
Industrial Design Center Computer Aided Design Center
Centre for Research in Nano-Technology and Sciences
Centre for Aerospace Systems Design and Engineering Computer Centre
Centre for Distant Engineering Education Programme Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering
Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering. Established 1976, the center is involved in
developing Remote Sensing technology and its application to natural resources management
and Environmental monitoring. Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural
Areas Centre for Formal Design and Verification
of Software Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility
Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics National Centre for Photovoltaic Research
and Education Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The three schools of excellence in IIT Bombay are:
School of Biosciences and Bioengineering Shailesh J Mehta School of Management
Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology In addition to above, IIT Bombay also offers
three inter-disciplinary programs: Educational Technology
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Systems and Control Engineering
Academics Programmes
IIT Bombay offers a wide variety of courses of study in engineering, pure sciences, design,
management and humanities with a primary focus on engineering. The university is a member
of "Links to Asia by Organizing Traineeship and Student Exchange", an international network
of leading universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.
The Institute conducts educational programmes leading to the degree of Bachelor of Technology,
Dual Degree, Master of Science, Master of Technology, Master of Design, Master of Management,
Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy in the following areas:
Every year, IIT Bombay awards degrees, BTech, MTech, Dual Degree, M.Mgmt, MSc and PhD to
more than 1,000 students. The undergraduate students at IIT Bombay are selected through
the Joint Entrance Examination of the IITs. At a given time, the campus is home to more
than 6,000 people: students, professors, and non academic staff.
Rankings Internationally, IIT Bombay is ranked overall
#233 gobally and No. 39 among Asian institutes in the QS World University Rankings(Quacquarelli
Symonds) for 2013. IIT Bombay failed to feature in top 400 in the ranking by the Times Higher
Education World University Rankings of 2013-14. It was In India, among engineering colleges,
it ranked No. 3 by Outlook India in 2012, and No. 1 by Dataquest in 2011. Amongst government
engineering colleges, it was ranked No. 1 by Mint in 2009. The international surveys
conducted by Professor Jude Sommerfeld of Georgia Tech, USA since 1964 for every five-year
period as well as every year and also during the 5-year period during 2004–2009 which
included all IITs and IISc. IIT Bombay is always ranked among the topmost in this survey.
Development activities
Faculty members from IIT Bombay undertake industry sponsored research and consultancy
projects that are made available through the institute. These are funded by various national
agencies like the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Electronics, Department
of Space, Aeronautical Development Agency, Department of Atomic Energy, and Oil and Natural
Gas Commission. Many are also working on projects of national importance. A few projects are
also being funded by international agencies. Typically in one year, there are about 400
on-going sponsored projects. The sponsored research has ushered in intense research activity
leading to the formation of active research groups and has helped in the creation of modern
research facilities in key areas. The office of the Dean provides the necessary
liaison with industry and sponsoring agencies. The office helps industry to identify faculty
expertise and institutional facilities, and assists faculty in identifying industry problems.
There are also a number of central facilities such as the Central Library, Central Workshop,
and Printing Press. Many new research facilities have been acquired or developed in the last
few years. One of the most important of them is the Computer Centre which started functioning
in 1986 with facilities which have been continuously updated. The Computer Aided Design Centre
with its own mini computers and work stations, supplemented by additional computing facilities,
caters to CAD activity in Chemical Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering. Research groups
like VLSI Design, CAD/CAM also have computing facilities which are accessible to other departments
for development activities. Recently, work on developing medical implants has been initiated.
The OrthoCAD Network Research Cell was established in 2007 to jump-start indigenous research
and development activities in orthopaedic reconstruction systems. Important experimental
facilities set up by various departments include laboratories for robotics, biotechnology,
microelectronics, microprocessor applications, telematics, remote sensing, low temperature
physics and aerodynamics. Notable faculty
Dipan Ghosh Indian theoretical physicist, best known for his exact enumeration of the
ground state of a Heisenberg antiferromagnet, known in literature as the Majumdar–Ghosh
Model. He was the president of the Indian Physics Association from 2005 to 2007.
C V Seshadri N. K. Naik
Ram Puniyani Manohar Vartak
Deepak B. Phatak Awarded the Padma Shree in 2013.
Notable alumni List of IIT Bombay alumni's are:
Dinesh Mohan Vikas Joshi
Vipul Goyal See also
Indian Institute of Technology Varanasi List of universities in India
Universities and colleges in India Education in India
List of Indian engineering college rankings Distance Education Council
University Grants Commission Swarachakra, a text input system for Indic
languages developed at IIT. References
External links Official Website
Alumni Website