IIT AND KOTA

I did two courses in Physics during my first year PHY 102 (Mechanics) and PHY 103 (Electromagnetic Theory) both of which were taught by Prof. HC Verma along with one other professor. HC Verma took one half of each of these courses. Although the class size was around 325, the experience was nice as he is a gem of a teacher. Before even going to the first class,which happened to be in the middle of the semester, all of us were too excited to go to the lecture so much so that the lecture hall was jam packed on his first lecture with ~325 students, inspite of the fact that about half of our batch preferred not attending the previous lectures of the course, as no attendance is compulsory here. I was just lucky to get a seat in the 4th row in that lecture. One thing I remember from that lecture was that someone clicked a photograph from his phone with the Flash on and he commented , "Please switch the flash off before clicking.You should pay attention here. I will be av...

Students of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) have developed a humaniod robot having two legs named 'Bi-ped'. The unique feature of this humanoid is that it has legs by which it manages to balance itself instead of earlier robots that were supported with wheels. The star attractions of this robot being that it can detect a wall in front and take a turn, can stand up after falling down and can even kick a ball. Also, it can work at the locations where human lives are at risk, like in cases of fire mishaps, detecting and diffusing a bomb and can do a number of other jobs like fetching files in the office and taking care of a child at home. Utsav Gupta and Vivek Verma, the B.Tech students, along with their peers Shivam Soni, Varun Verma and Deepak Pawar had exhibited the robot 'Bi-ped' at the first ever student research convention organised by Hall IV (hostel) at the campus of IIT-Kanpur. Talking to TOI, Utsav and Vivek said that the 'bipedal robot...

IIT-Bombay continues to be the top choice for the best of the young brains in the country. The institute has retained its position as the most sought-after IIT in the country, with Delhi and Chennai coming a distant second and third. A number of factors have been responsible for this, ranging from importance given to streams over geography, from placement records to newer short-term courses on offer, tell students. Of the top 100 rankers in JEE-Advanced 2014, almost all have opted for IIT-B computer science as their first choice. But 58 were allotted seats at IIT-B in computer science in the first round, followed by Delhi, where 36 of the top 100 have been admitted (see box). While 58 of the top 100 rankers joined IIT-B, the number has fallen a bit, compared to 67 in 2013. Thirty-six students were allotted seats at IIT-D, as opposed to last year's 29. IIT-B director Devang Khakhar said he was happy that 44 of the top 50 rankers have opted for the Powai institute. "Students ma...

OPENING AND CLOSING RANKS FOR VARIOUS COURSES : JEE (Advanced) – 2013 GE (CML) OBC SC ST BRANCH OPEN CLOSE OPEN CLOSE OPEN CLOSE OPEN CLOSE 4-year B.Tech. Course Aerospace Engineering 1618 2618 644 989 270 446 150 246 Biological Sciences and Bioengineering 3325 4873 2302 2616 1344 1493 482 751 Chemical Engineering 1018 2112 726 1208 564 709 283 410 Civil Engineering 1363 2500 531 1069 227 475 104 155 Computer Science and Engineering 120 307 42 151 42 83 36 88 Electrical Engineering 181 703 167 344 104 218 59 107 Materials Science and Engineering 2406 4005 1197 2168 736 1308 504 698 Mechanical Engineering 285 976 302 454 135 235 30 109 Four-Year B. S. Courses Chemistry 2390 6248 2494 3089 1391 1592 0 0 Economics 1099 3406 1511 2324 445 1134 623 809 Mathematics and Scientific Computing 660 2259 729 1579 1077 1353 669 706 Physics 194 3089 549 2520 926 1369 799 799

Changing branches midway through the course has become the norm of many IITians. IITs also are on consonance with this immerging trend to help their students' persue studies in the stream of their choice, reported a daily. Dean, academics, IIT-Madras, K. Ramamurthy said that 10 per cent of the total number of students in a steam are allowed to shift branches. Linear ranking system of students based on their performance has made the competition so steep that the students are allotted branches in institutes based on their scores. Irrespective of the norms followed, the branches are left with vacancies because of students leaving. Therefore, to make use of the vacancies, IIT Madras has allowed the students to change branch if they want so. The students are approved to shift branches based on their performance in the first year. IIT-Kanpur is trending one step forward. It not only allows its students to shift branches, it allows them to shift even after two years. Students at...

Senior faculty of IIT-K's chemistry department Prof Vinod Kumar Singh, who is currently on long leave to officiate as founder director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Prof Vinod Kumar Singh has been named as one of the recipients of the Padma Shri awards from Madhya Pradesh quota. The list was announced on the eve of Republic Day on Saturday. The award will be conferred upon Prof Singh by the President at ceremonial functions held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/April. Professor Vinod K Singh, an academician of high caliber, is a member of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC to PM). He also held additional charge of director, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Bhopal for around 10 months.

A team of Michigan State University computer scientists led by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur alum Anil Jain have built the first three-dimensional model of a human fingerprint. This development will not only help today's fingerprint-matching technology do its job better, but could eventually lead to improvements in security, according to information posted on MSU website. What Jain, a University Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering, and his team did was develop a method that takes a two-dimensional image of a fingerprint and maps it to a 3-D finger surface. The 3-D finger surface, complete with all the ridges and valleys that make up the human fingerprint, is made using a 3-D printer. It creates what Jain's team called a fingerprint "phantom." Imaging phantoms are common in the world of medical imaging. For example, to make sure an MRI machine or a CT scanner is working properly, it needs to first image an obj...

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2014 released a comprehensive list of top 200 universities around the world in a range of popular subject areas. Four Indian institutes including IITs in Delhi and Mumbai, are among the global top 50 in 30 disciplines covered. IIT-Delhi achieved country's highest position, ranking 42nd in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. IIT-Bombay stood 49th in electrical engineering and 50th in civil engineering, IIT-Madras achieved 49th in civil engineering. Apart from this, Indian Institute of Science was ranked 46th in materials science. The annual QS World University Rankings by subject is a comprehensive guide to the world's top universities and using data on reputation and research citations, it highlights the rankings of 200 top universities in the world for 30 individual subjects. However, the lack of quality education in arts, humanities and social sciences continue to be a concern and therefore, no Indian unive...

In an endeavour to improve country’s surveillance system, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has launched a major initiative for designing and building unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). The three types of UAVs planned are flapping wing, fixed wing and quadrotor. The applications envisaged are surveillance, aerial photography and disaster management. One of the projects aims at developing a small sized fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) that could, in the future, be upgraded to a solar powered system. “This will be a fixed wing platform which will be designed in such a way that future modifications can be easily incorporated. It will be easily modifiable in future to a renewable energy based system, specifically solar powered,” said Dr AK Ghosh who is leading the fixed wing project. Additionally, flapping wing micro/mini air vehicle research is an ongoing sponsored activity of the Unsteady Aerodynamics Laboratory of the institute, supported by several agencies....

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, has started earth sciences department. It was recommended by the institute's Academic Senate in its December meeting and later approved by the Board of Governors. Prof Rajiv Sinha has been appointed head of the department for three-year tenure, said IIT-K director Prof Indranil Manna. The entire non-teaching staff, space, laboratory, equipment and teaching load of geosciences group of civil engineering department has been transferred to the new department, the director added. "The aim behind starting this department is to produce a new breed of geoscientists in the country who would seek interdisciplinary solutions to earth science problems," said Prof Manna. The department will offer PhD programmes in earth sciences. PhD students of Prof Rajiv Sinha will move to the earth sciences department. MTech first-year students of geosciences programme will also move to the new department. The department will focus on the study o...

A student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur on Wednesday committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in his hostel room, police said. Manjunath, a third-year B. Tech student, was pursuing computer science at the institute and was from from Karnataka. Police officials said that the student was found hanging by the ceiling fan in Hall 5 hostel on Wednesday morning by his classmates. Kalyanpur police station in-charge Anand Prakash Mishra said that friends of Manjunath said he was apparently suffering from stress and depression. This is the third suicide in IIT-K campus since December last year. Authorities said that formalities were being completed and added that the family of the dead student has been informed.

Techkriti, the annual international Technical and Entrepreneurial festival of  Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur  is being organized in its 20 th  version from 6 th  March 2014, Thursday to 9 th  March 2014, Sunday here at the IIT campus, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. With its theme as " Virtually Progressing World ", Techkriti aims at making this world a better place to live. Last year Techkriti set on a path to  fix the planet  in their small way and they made it seem big. For most it would be the end of the road, but for them, it had just begun. This time, whilst Techkriti '14, the team's efforts, their work and their thoughts are all towards ensuring one simple goal - help the society as much as possible, in any way possible, however small or big. They may provide education for a 100 kids, plant hundreds of plants, run campaigns for equality of men and women, or hold a competition to find out the best talent that our society has to offer. The fest...

There is no doubt that IIT has been the prime face of technical education in India. If the IITs are not ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide, it is really a question of research than scholastic ability.  Since 1970s, each year, at least 500 IIT graduates come to the US and have successfully illustrated to the Americans what people from India are capable of. The pity is that most of them never looked back. To call it brain drain is an understatement. Students from other Indian universities also come to the US in equal numbers and are doing well. I realised the fact, when I came here for my graduation. Though I am not an IIT graduate, I studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad. I did my graduation from a small university in Texas, where I got a PhD in engineering. And I hope, it pains no one if I state that even my university, ranked absolutely nowhere in the US, and still produces better PhDs than any IIT in India. This may be hard to believe, but in India, the emphasis ...

ISRO ignoring rover built by IIT-K ISRO had given a project to IIT Kanpur to develop a rover to be launched with Chandrayaan-II, which the university's scientists completed in 2010, but the space agency was yet to pick it up and make part payment to the institute, according to its professor.  When contacted, an Indian Space Research Organisation official said in Bangalore that they will take some time to respond. "In 2009, ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram had given a project to IIT Kanpur's mechanical engineering and electrical engineering departments to build a rover that would be launched along with Chandrayaan-II," Prof K S Venkatesh of IIT Kanpur's electrical engineering department said.  "ISRO had promised to give us Rs 7.5 lakh for the project, of which Rs 3.75 lakh was paid up front," he said.  The IIT-K professor said scientists at the institute had completed building the rover, weighing 100 kgs, in O...

  IIT-Kanpur  student Shivam Kumarhas scored 99.98 percentile in the  Common Admission Test (CAT)  of IIM. Currently pursuing BTech and MTech dual degree five-year course from the civil engineering department of the institute, Kumar now aspires to to study in IIM-Ahmedabad. Speaking to TOI, Shivam attributed his success to his capability of  striking  a balance between his studies in IIT-K and CAT preparations. "Time management is everything in life. This is what I learnt during my stay on the IIT-K campus," said Shivam. He added that he had received a call from  IIM  but "I will like to pursue MBA in finance from Ahmedabad." Shivam's father Ajay Kumar is an IFS officer currently posted at Solan in Himachal Pradesh. Shivam's teacher Neeraj Prasad was in all praise for his hardwork. tnn He added that Shivam understood the importance of time management.

On the third day of Vivekanada Youth Leadership Convention at IIT-Kanpur on Sunday, competitions were held for students in the age group 13-18 years. The event began at 10 am and continued till 3 pm. A variety of contests were held to test the intelligence of the students. A poster making competition was held, which helped the participants to display their artistic talent and creativity. The youngsters made posters on 'I dream...' and 'Repairing earth'. Ruchi and Jayant Dubey from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kanpur Cantt bagged the first prize. Essay writing tested the literary skills of the students and conveyed that a pen can be mightier than a sword. Vaishali Shukla from Prabhat Senior Secondary School won the best essay prize among several write-ups that were submitted on 'My vision for India 2030' and 'Truth is courage'. Orators like Raghav Trivedi from Jai Narayan Inter College and others got the platform through the extempore competition with a ...