Odisha HRD

NISER construction handed over to L & T – to be done in 30 months and ready by Jan-Feb 2014; IIT Bhubaneswar construction to start later this year and to be finished in 2013-14

Following are news items from Samaja.

July 23rd, 2011

2011 open-close ranks (after the 1st and 3rd rounds) of EE and Mech of IITs, IT-BHU and ISM

The following table is extracted from http://jee.iitd.ac.in/openclose2011.php at two different times. The black version is after the first round and the red version is after the 3rd round.

 Among the new IITs the preference this year seems to be H > N >> {A, U, E} > J > {C,P}.

• The 2010 open-close ranks are here.
• The 2009 open-close ranks are here.
• The 2008 open-close ranks are here.

June 30th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar plans its first construction tender in July and second one in December 2011; but overall campus is not likely to be ready by 2013

Following are excerpts from a report in ibnlive.com.

… The Ministry of Human Resource Development held a meeting with the representatives of IITs, including the eight new ones, in Delhi on Thursday.

… Like its counterparts, the Bhubaneswar institute too is behind the schedule and unlikely to meet its 2013 deadline given the existing pace of work. With problems of land acquisition and transfer, the IIT Bhubaneswar has been able to construct only boundary walls measuring about six km. …

Sources said that IIT Bhubaneswar would submit a report to the Ministry detailing its bottlenecks about land transfer, forest land conversion, acquisition of private land and infrastructure like road, power and water.

With the slow progress raising hackles, the IIT has decided to hasten establishment of its campus at Arugul, about 25 km from here. Works estimated at  30 crore will soon be taken up with two-phase tenders.

The first tender will be scheduled in July and include works such as roads inside the 935-acre campus, sewerage and site development. The second tender will be floated around December for construction of buildings.

… Most of the new IITs, sources said, sought that new project proposals be chalked out since the 12th Plan is only three quarters away and the project costs will stand revised at the current prices. The IIT Bhubaneswar was earmarked 760 crore, half of which is towards infrastructure.

The sources further said that each of the new institutions is likely to cost close to  1,400 crore for which funding proposals will have to be placed in the 12th Plan.

June 18th, 2011

Excerpts from Mohandas Pai’s article on IITs possibly becoming less relevant

Following are excerpts from the Economic Times article.

The IITs have completed 50 years and have helped build India. They were set up for producing high quality technical human capital for India and have met their objectives. But, as is the character with such institutions, they have not changed with the times and are not providing India with what she now needs.

… The IIT boards and the directors are unable to take any financial decision which they deem fit without the approval of the government . Even for an overseas travel of the director or the faculty, permission is needed. They are subject to austerity measures of the government, a perfect situation to emasculate an educational institution.

The demand for an IIT seat is enormous and has spawned a tutorial industry that earns more revenues than the IITs themselves. This has resulted in large number of students spending up to two years of their youth going to cramming schools learning pattern recognition, forgetting the art of thinking and problem solving knowing that their lives are made once they get entry into the hallowed portals. Today about 60% or more of the intake is from the coaching mandis. This has also resulted in many bright young Indians deciding not to undergo the ordeal and go overseas for higher education. 250,000 of them study overseas, over 110,000 in the United States, about 45,000 in the UK spending about $ 6bn on fees and costs annually …

Overall , the 15 IITs graduate 7000 undergraduates, 6000 post graduates and about 1700 PhDs annually . Sadly only about 2% of the undergraduates go on to their masters and PhD in the IIT system. The IITs hold fast to the idea that by squeezing input they can get a quality output, an idea that has been consigned to the dustbin of history. Increasing the scale and size can give them the diversity of talent, the resources, the ability to have more quality faculty and the depth and width needed for an elite educational institution.

… the IITs will live in their ivory tower and possibly become less and less relevant to India’s need as neither are they meeting India’s need for more human capital nor producing the kind of PhDs India needs.

… The best solution is to open up the education system and allow competition, the dreaded word in academics, to come forth. India should revise her educational policies and allow the private sector to set up "innovation universities" granting them all that they need. Full autonomy, academic, administrative and financial to chart their own future. Some safeguards are needed, as this is a public good. A large corpus of say Rs 100 crore, an open merit based admission policy, a faculty compensation policy based on minimum UGC scales and an assurance that they will aim to be amongst the top 100 in the world over the next 25 years. To ensure access to the merited we need a national scholarship scheme which will fund students. India needs to trust the genius of her citizens to create institutions that are world class and not look at them through myopic eyes with suspicion.

… Today there is a flight to quality. The bad colleges are dying since students have a choice, they are voting with their feet. The good ones are expanding and seeing greater demand. The market mechanism has worked, not by design but by serendipity. So there is hope. Look at various other sectors today. Bharti has made BSNL redundant and has given us a choice, Jet has overtaken Air India and given us a choice, the power system in Mumbai is still the best, and in education the Indian School of Business has turned our IIMs inside out. The IIMs actually want reform, expansion and are concerned about their future .

Competition and an open liberal environment for higher education will work .

I agree with most of the points made in the article and its arguments buttress the need for early approval of universities like the proposed Vedanta University.

One point where I disagree is the suggestion that 100 crores is a large corpus. If the goal is to be in the top 100 in the world, a corpus of 100 crores is very little. That is only 20-25 million USD. In comparison the corpus of Harvard and Stanford are of the order of 25+ Billion USD.

June 16th, 2011

My thoughts on “Taking IITs to Excellence and Greater Relevance”

A committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar has circulated a report (see also here and here) with the above name. Following is an input that I hope to send to the committee.

My suggestion is that the IITs combine the idea of free seats and paid seats that is used in many state engineering colleges with (some aspects of) the idea of honors colleges used in many universities in the US.

This means, for any discipline or program, there would be some number of seats (say between 20-40) for a "Research-Honours" program. The students in this program will be required to be involved in research all through their 4 years. Starting from second year they would be part of the research lab of a faculty and each semester they would have to sign up for research credits (and do research) whose grade will be based on research done by the students. Each class from the 4th semester onwards would have research component where students would have to go beyond textbooks and read latest papers on that topic. The students would be required to publish in a good international conference or journal before they graduate. During the summers they will be required to spend time in research labs. In general these students would be motivated and prepared for research careers as is being done in the IISERs and NISER. For these students the fees will be minimal and they may be even given scholarships like the INSPIRE scholarship. To remain in the "honors-research" program the students would have to maintain a required grade point average.

The rest of the students would be in regular programs (as they exist now) and would be required to pay more substantial fees, similar in amount to what the Kakodkar committee recommends. (Based on their academic performance some of these students may be allowed to change over to the "honors-research" program after the end of first year or perhaps even later.)

The above idea may be implemented at NITs too, may be with lesser number of seats in the "honors-research" program.

This will address several issues mentioned in the Kakodkar committee report.

• It will result in more IIT (and NIT) graduate pursuing research.
• It will result in more funds for the institutes.
• The students will have a clear expectations. The ones going to the "research-honors" program will know that research is expected of them and they are supposed to study hard.

The rationale behind the fees difference is fairly obvious. The "research-honors" students have a high chance of pursuing research in their chosen fields and that is the current need of the nation. On the other had the other students, as evident from the current trend, are less likely to pursue careers in their own disciplines (except the ones in electrical/cs/it/electronics areas) and many are likely to go for management and other careers. Since that is not the core goal of the IITs, these students need not be subsidized. Loans and other mechanisms need to be in place so that everyone who can get admitted to a program is able to find the money for the fees. 

The above is a bare-bone idea and needs to be flushed out with more details. One may look at how honors programs are administered in many US universities to flush out some of the details. See for example Barrett Honors College (ASU).

June 7th, 2011

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Kakodkar committee report titled “Taking IITs to Excellence and Greater Relevance”

The report is available at http://www.education.nic.in/tech/KakodkarCommitteeReport-05132011.pdf. Following is from the Summary and Recommendations section of the report.

It is clear that India needs a major boost to the quality of higher engineering education. Frontline research, cutting edge technology, innovation and entrepreneurship alongside teaching and mentoring are key ingredients of high- quality education. This is crucial in the context of our national development aspirations, growing economy with inclusive participation, creating opportunities for our youth and building our competitiveness in the emerging knowledge- driven global economy. The IITs are by far the only institutions which can lead this process on a scale commensurate with the needs of our country. The IITs can also help several other higher engineering education institutions, particularly those with the potential to further catalyse this process and enhance our national capability towards this objective.

The transformation of IITs into institutions that meet such an objective would mean that the IITs have a talent pool comparable with the best in the world with capability to liberally support their creativity to realize the fullest potential. It also presupposes that the IITs have a flexible governance system that can innovate management support that is specific to the needs of taking new ideas and initiatives forward. Such an environment also attracts external talent and ideas.

The IITs thus need to further enlarge and strengthen themselves as major research institutions with focus on the development of high capability human resource. This inevitably would mean considerable scale up, particularly in terms of PhD programmes. It is necessary to calibrate this process in a manner that leads to sustained augmentation of quality. The IITs are presently under considerable strain on account of rapid expansion with considerable difficulties and backlog in terms of faculty recruitment and augmentation of infrastructure. Bridging the gap between the present state and the end objective with respect to the IITs has to be a sustained long process spanning 10–15 years with most additional faculty strength inevitably coming from IIT PhDs since there are few other sources of high quality engineering PhDs within the country. Even the most aggressive recruitment of PhDs from foreign universities, which must be pursued vigorously, is unlikely to be adequate to meet domestic needs in time.

The IITs have distinguished themselves for the quality of their B.Tech degrees. IIT’s brand image is primarily due to the very distinguished performance of its B.Tech students. A distinctive feature of the IIT B.Tech programme is its co- existence with an equally large postgraduate teaching and research domains. Certain parameters of this successful programme, such as a nearly equal UG : PG proportion and student : faculty ratio of 10:1, have stood the test of time and should be preserved.

Apart from the large-scale need for high quality engineering graduates to meet the needs of various segments of demand for them, there is also the need for high performing engineering graduates to be a feed into the postgraduate programme, more particularly the PhD programme. The number of B.Techs graduating from the IITs is unlikely to be adequate for this purpose. While intense efforts have been proposed to attract IIT B.Techs into PhD programme, it is also necessary to focus on other engineering education institutions of good quality (in particular the NITs, ISERs, etc.) to become feeders for quality graduate engineers into PhD programmes of IITs.
To support a significantly expanded and high-quality PhD programme, the research infrastructure at the IITs needs considerable augmentation. While doing so, the research has to be broad-based to cover various dimensions like research on the frontiers; coordinated research involving several groups to address major areas of national priority, research to meet the needs of industry and the society, participation in the R&D needs of industry and of Government, etc. This would create holistic learning opportunities for students by exposing them to realistic hands-on experience and at the same time bringing significant resources into the IITs over a period of time.

Such an environment needs to be richly endowed and liberally supported. More important, it should have its own governance structure that can flexibly address the needs in specific cases without being constrained by the inflexibilities of governmental working. This is a prerequisite for attracting and retaining talent, which is at the core of the performance of such institutions.

It is proposed that the IITs be financially supported by the Government through plan budget to meet their infrastructure needs as well as the research needs of the Government. Research students, both at the masters and doctoral levels, should also be supported by the Government on a per student basis. The IITs should recover the full operational cost of education through fees and not derive any input through non-plan budget of the Government. A special and hassle-free bank loan arrangement has been recommended as part of the admission process to support and facilitate access to all eligible and deserving students.

We feel that it should be possible to make the IITs administratively and financially autonomous to realize the objectives enumerated above and reach the full potential of the IIT system. Key recommendations being made by the Committee include (i) self-empowered Boards comprising all key stakeholders, (ii) creating a system of mandatory peer reviews, (iii) mutually agreed respective commitments between the Government and IIT on the basis of an annual MoU duly overseen by the IIT Council, and (iv) transparency in working. The Government’s commitment to support research at the IITs to their maximum potential is an important assumption that forms the basis of the Committee’s recommendations. The Committee also feels that all the recommendations should be considered as part of a single package and accepted or rejected as a whole, and not treated in parts.

The specific recommendations of the Committee are given below:

IITs as Research Institutions

1. Make IITs the Primary Research Institutes, with a focus on high quality frontier research and technology development within the Indian context.

2. Scale up PhD students from less than 1000 PhD graduates per year today to 10,000 PhD graduates by 2020-25 from about 20 IITs (15 existing IITs plus 5 new to be set up over the next several years in states where there are no IITs).

3. Scaling PhD scholars’ admissions to include enabling bright UGs being admitted for PhD at the end of their third year, teachers from other institutes joining for PhD and significant numbers from industry joining sponsored/part-time PhD programme. It is strongly recommended that a fellowship scheme covering all categories of PhD students is in place.

4. The faculty: student ratio is 1:10; while the UG : PG ratio is close to 1:1.

5. Each IIT should aim to acquire technology leadership in at least 3 to 4 areas.

6. Research groups in one or more IITs to take up large projects together to address major national challenges

7. Set up research parks at each of the IITs similar to the IIT-M Research Park.

8. Enable Ministries to set up R&D labs in IITs to drive Technology Development relevant to national programmes being piloted by them.

9. Large-scale Executive M.Tech training programmes for industry jointly conducted with the IITs using video links.

Financial Autonomy and Governance

10.    Government to financially support research at the IITs in the plan mode to realize their full potential for national needs in terms of research, technology and human resource in science, technology and entrepreneurship. For this purpose an annual outlay on the basis of Rs 1.5 lakhs per student should be made available to each of the established IITs. For the new IITs which are at present in project mode and do not have any significant endowment, an endowment grant of Rs. 50 crore per IIT (over next 5 years) may be made available to enable a degree of flexibility in academic activities.

The IITs need to expand infrastructure to support a scaled up academic and research programme as recommended above. This would also require capital funds for infrastructure expansion from the Government at Rs. 20 lakh per additional student. There is also a need to rejuvenate the existing ageing infrastructure at Rs. 5 lakh per student as existing on March 2011. Funds allotted for expansion taking place currently to accommodate OSC recommendations have been found to be inadequate and need to be increased to    Rs 15 lakh per student.

11.    MHRD to pay the full operating cost of education plus a scholarship for all postgraduate students (PhD, MS and M.Tech) as well as for undergraduate students from reserved category and economically weaker sections. Some merit-cum-means scholarship should also be made available to needy and deserving students. A hassle free loan facility not requiring any collateral or parental guarantee to be made a part of the admission process. No student should be denied education in an IIT after getting admission due to lack of means.

12.    Except for legacy payments like old pension, the IITs are to be financially independent of the non-plan budget of the Government. Fees are to be fixed at a level to cover operational expenditure.

13. IITs are to be totally independent of MHRD for their governance and management functions. They are to be run by their Boards with all rules and regulations made by their Boards. This includes management structure, rules and regulations for faculty/staff hiring and remuneration, approving of budgets and fixing fees, expenditure rules and processes and audit processes. C&AG audit to continue based on financial rules formulated by the Boards.

14.    IITs need to enhance their financial inputs through donations. The donor should be eligible for a full deduction of their contribution against their income under the Income Tax Act as is currently allowed for any grants made to Universities in India under Sec 35AC of the Income Tax Act 1961. A notification or an amendment is essential in the law to include IITs in this list.

15. IIT Boards will select and appoint a Director using a search committee process. IIT Boards will nominate the Chairman to be appointed after approval of the IIT Council.

16.    The Board will consist of one representative from the Central government, one from the state government, three industry persons selected from a panel recommended by the Chairmen of CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and NASSCOM (in a joint meeting), three scientists selected from a panel recommended by four Indian Academy Presidents (INSA, NASI, INAE, IASC) (in a joint meeting), two alumni (who are not IIT employees), two faculty from the institute, one eminent citizen appointed by the Board, the Chairman and the Director. The panels recommended by industry association Chairmen and Presidents of Academy will need approval of the IIT Council.

17.    The IITs will sign a MoU with MHRD every year in line with the aims and policies of the Government of India. The MoU should include budgets and fees approved by its Board, capital expenditure (plan money), pension money and scholarships that MHRD would provide and expansion needs (if any). It would also include aims and goals set by the IIT for the year. The MoU would need to be reviewed and approved by the IIT Council.

18. The Visitor may require the IIT Council to appoint an external review committee for each IIT once in 5 years. The report of the review committee and action taken is to be made public. The Government may require the IITs to take appropriate action in light of the findings of the review committee.

19.    The emergency powers of the Visitor over the IITs are to continue.
Faculty

20.    Scaling up of quality faculty is the key. It is required to scale up to 16,000 faculty members in about 10 years (from a little over 4000 currently).

21.    Part-time/Adjunct faculty from industry, visiting faculty and post-doctoral in IITs to be strengthened. 22. Faculty pay-scales and remuneration is to be decided by the respective Boards. Pay-scales have to be decided within the financial constraints of the institute.

23. The Board of each IIT will decide on the roles, responsibilities and appraisal of their faculty. Faculty roles include teaching, research, technology development and industrial consultancy, as well as policy/standards development. Besides, they may be involved in administration. It is suggested that each faculty sets their yearly goals and the time they would spend in these 5 activities. At the end of each year, they would carry out a self-appraisal and provide evidence of their work. Departmental committees will review the appraisals for Assistant Professors and an institute-level committee will review the appraisals for others. Once in 5 years, an external review of these appraisals will be carried out.

24.    Today, the IITs and their faculty do not have the experience and expertise to take into account the “technological development and industrial consultancy roles” played by the faculty during their appraisals and evaluation. This needs to be strengthened.

Role of Staff

25.    The IIT Boards will decide on staff numbers, remuneration and pay-scales.

26. It is suggested that most staff members be hired as outsourced staff on contract. Young staff members who start their career at the IITs and work for there 5–10 years would be well trained to be absorbed in industry. This
way the IITs would get young motivated staff members. Innovation and Entrepreneurship

27. The IITs must recognize that technology development, innovation and nurturing entrepreneurship are some of their key tasks.

28. The IITs must also recognize that Innovation thrives when faculty, experienced industry persons and students interact in formal and informal environments. The creation of such an ecosystem is a necessity.

29.    The B.Tech and M.Tech Curriculum is very structured and does not allow creative students to do courses across departments, take off for a semester for a start-up venture and come back or take up some project work instead of a course. The curriculum is designed for large numbers of ordinary students and not for exceptional students. This needs correction. Similarly, the IITs do not easily allow students of one branch to do MS/PhD in another. Even while hiring faculty, they look for B.Techs only in the discipline they are to teach. The system needs to adopt greater flexibility to provide greater choice to students so that they are better prepared for a chosen career option.

30.    IIT faculty members have poor commercial understanding. This comes in the way of technology development or innovation. Greater interaction with industry in the product development mode should be adopted.

31.    Entrepreneurship is not about space or computers; it requires nurturing a business. Only faculty who understand this should drive entrepreneurship cells.

Scaling Engineering Education with Quality in India

32. India, with its billion people, has huge demand for quality engineering education. Unfortunately, even though more than a million students are admitted to engineering colleges today, except for the IITs and some other institutions, the quality of education in most other engineering colleges is not of the desired quality. The Committee recommends a plan to create at least 100,000 quality engineering graduates per year through Central government-funded institutions alone. Hopefully, the state governments and private efforts would add to this significantly.

33. The Committee recommends identification/creation of 50 Central government-funded institutions (other than the 20 IITs) which could be nurtured with the help of young IIT faculty. These would include NITs, ISERs, NISER, IIIT and certain other institutions. This would be done through 5 enthusiastic young faculty members with a proven level of excellence for each such institution, who would be identified in consultation with the Director and Chairman of the Board of Governors for induction in the Board and Senate of these institutions. They would be tasked with driving excellence in these institutions by leveraging the IITs. An outlay of Rs. 50 lakh each should be made available to such faculty to support research in the institute with IIT collaboration.

34.    With their advent at a historic cusp in the evolution of technical education in India, the new IITs present a unique opportunity for a major upward movement in the IIT system. Without the legacy of many decades of established tradition, a new IIT can boldly experiment with radically new ways of teaching, research and administration. In teaching, the shortage of experienced faculty could be turned into a benefit by judicious use of multimedia and networking technologies to augment the classroom experience. In research, apart from setting up state-of-the-art facilities, the new IITs can build collaborative relationships with like-minded institutions around the world. (Also see Appendix VII.)

In the established IITs, the Directors and Board spend much of their time and energy dealing with vexatious issues such as service conditions of long- time staff. This distracts from their ability to spend quality time on academic innovations and impact. The new IITs could devise administrative and staffing structures that avoid these vexatious issues.

The Board, the Director and the faculty of the new IITs should be selected for their openness to new ideas and should be encouraged to experiment with teaching, research and administration.

The new IITs have a unique potential to catalyse the transformation of the IIT system. Hence, they need special treatment to ensure that they realize this potential by building on the strengths of the IIT system while avoiding its weaknesses.

May 20th, 2011

2011-12 Ph.D admission at NISER and IIT Bhubaneswar

Following is from http://www.niser.ac.in/phd-advt-jul2011.php.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (NISER),
Institute Of Physics Campus,
PO- Sainik School, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar,
Ph- 0674-2304000, Fax- 0674-2304070, E-mail- aoacad@niser.ac.in, web:- http://www.niser.ac.in
Advt.No:NISER/ACAD/Ph.D/2011‐12(1)

Notice for Admission to Ph.D. Program for 2011-12 (Odd semester)

Applications are invited from Indian citizens for admission to Ph.D Program scheduled to commence from July 2011 in the following schools of basic sciences at NISER Bhubaneswar:

1. School of Biological Sciences
2. School of Chemical Sciences
3. School of Mathematical Sciences
4. School of Physical Sciences

The students should have qualified the CSIR-NET/GATE/JEST/NBHM or equivalent examination valid for the current year in the relevant area of research. UGC-CSIR JRF qualified candidates can avail the fellowship directly from UGC or CSIR, whereas, students selected for Ph.D program based on GATE scores, are eligible for Fellowship from NISER as prevailing in DAE.

NISER provides Rs.16,000/- as fellowship for Selected Candidates who opt for DAE Fellowship. The application form is available free of cost and can be downloaded along with the guidelines. Else, the form can be obtained by post, or in person, from the academic section, NISER Bhubaneswar. There is no application/entrance fee. To and Fro single 2nd sleeper Class railway fare will be provided to those candidates who are called for the test/interview.

The last dates: For postal requests for application Forms : April 25, 2011
To submit the filled-in application form : May 2,2011

For more details regarding Eligibility, Selection procedure, How to apply and other important details, download the guidelines ( http://www.niser.ac.in/phd-advt-jul2011.php ) and if needed consult the websites of different schools of NISER.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER(III) ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

Following is from http://iitbbs.gov.in/phd_admission.php?type=fnews2.

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BHUBANESWAR
BHUBANESWAR – 751013
No: IIT/Acad/Ph.D/Admn./2011-2012
ADMISSION TO Ph.D. PROGRAMME

Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar invites application for admission to Ph.D. Programmes in the following categories.

a. Regular full-time scholars with Institute fellowship.
b. Research scholars sponsored by and employed in industry/orgainsation having R & D facilities.

Schools and fields of Research

1) School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics) :

Physics : Fiber Sensors, Surface Plasmon, Nano & Bio-Photonics, Infrared & Terahertz Sensing, Spectrocopy and Imaging, Solar cell, Waveguide & Interferometer, Electron and ToF spectroscopy of biomolecules, clusters and atoms, Ion solid interactions, nanomaterials, Soft condensed matter physics, Nanostructured Materials, Functionilized Nanostructure and Devices, Optical Spectroscopy and Transport Properties, Multiferroics, Superconductivity, Quantum magnetism in low dimensional system, Geometrically frustrated system, Magnetic nanostructures and thin films.

Chemistry : Organometallic Chemistry; Homogeneous Catalysis; Supramolecular Chemistry; Crystal Engineering; Organic Solid State Chemistry; Nanomaterials; Polymorphism; Coordination Chemistry; Materials Chemistry; Molecular Modelling; Magnetochemistry; Synthesis of natural products and modified nucleic acids; Spectroscopy; Bio and Protein Chemistry; Theoretical Chemistry (Statistical Mechanics), Organometallic Chemistry, Catalysis for Fine Chemicals, Biophysical chemistry.

Mathematics: Functional Analysis, Artificial Neural Network, Geometric Programming, Queuing Theory, Applied Probability models and Stochastic models in the theory of queues, mathematical finance, Dynamical systems, Complex Dynamics, Fractals, Optimization Techniques.

2) School of Earth, Ocean & Climate Sciences : Environmental Earth Science, Hydro Geochemistry, Water – rock interaction, Biogeochemistry.

3) School of Electrical Sciences (Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Instrumentation Engineering): Digital Signal Processing, Soft and Evolutionary Computing, Sensor Network, Intelligent Instrumentation, Digital/Image/Distributed Signal Processing, Opto Electronics and Optical Communication, Computational Electromagnetics and Antenna Design, Metamaterials, RFID, Satellite Communication, Power system protection, Smart grids, Electric drives and Control, Power quality, custom power devices, renewable energy sources (wind and solar).

4) School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management: Indian English Literature, Commonwealth studies, Indian Diaspora Literature, Autobiographical Travel Literature and Memoirs, international and interregional trade, Rural development and planning, Banking and Finance, Labour economics, Consumer Psychology, Psychology of Personality, E-Commerce, Clinical Psychology, Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management, Valuation of Natural Resources.

5) School of Infrastructure (Civil Engineering): Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Water Resource Engineering, Transportation Engineering Structural Dynamics, Earthquake Engineering, Disaster Mitigation Engineering, Concrete.

6) School of Mechanical Sciences (Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering) : Conjugate Heat Transfer, Thermal Engineering, Radiation Modelling, CFD/HT, Transport Phenomena in Material Processing, Ultrafast Radiation Heat Transfer, Technical Acoustics, Noise and Vibration, Industrial Noise control, Composite Materials, Finite Element method, Probabilistic Mechanics, Deterministic & Random Vibration, Sandwich structures, Solid mechanics, Smart composite structures, IC engine, Heat transfer, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Industrial Engineering, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Quality Control, Production Planning and Control, Optimisation Techniques.

Eligibility:

PhD (Engineering): 60% marks or 6.75 CGPA in M. Tech/M.E with consistently good academic record OR B.Tech/B.E with 70% or 7.5 CGPA with valid GATE Score (Very Good) and consistently good academic record

PhD (Science): 1st class in M.Sc./ M. Tech with consistently good academic record (equivalent CGPA) and valid GATE/NET CSIR/UGC score

PhD (HSS): 55% marks or equivalent CGPA in Master degree with UGC/NET score OR M. Phil degree

How to Apply: Application form, downloadable from www.iitbbs.ac.in, should be sent to Assistant Registrar (A&E), IIT Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar, Orissa – 751013 along with a Demand Draft of Rs.200/- (Rs.100/- for SC/ST candidates) drawn in favour of "IIT Bhubaneswar" on any nationalized bank payable at Bhubaneswar. Please superscribe ‘Application for Admission to PhD programme’ on the envelope. Application form may also be obtained from the Academic Section, IIT Bhubaneswar against a demand draft on every working day.

Important Dates : Application forms can be submitted throughout the year. Last date for submitting application form for Autumn 2011-12: 13th May 2011.

3 comments April 25th, 2011

40,000 from Odisha appear in IIT JEE in 2011??

Following is an excerpt from a report on Times of India regarding increase in the number of students appearing in IIT JEE from Odisha.

The number of IIT aspirants in Orissa saw a steady rise with nearly 40,000 students appearing for the joint entrance examination ( JEE) for the country’s premier institute on Sunday, officials said.

Registrar of IIT-Bhubaneswar Bata Kishore Ray said, "The number of aspirants from Orissa has gone up in the last couple of years, especially after IIT-B started operating from the city. …

… About 30,000 aspirants appeared from the state last year, he added.

… In the capital city alone, over 5,000 students appeared in 12 centres for one of the toughest competitive examinations in the country.

… Director of a city-based coaching centre Jyoti Ranjan Tripathy said good coaching facilities and number of successful students increasing every year has been motivating others to go for IIT. "In terms of coaching facilities, Bhubaneswar can be called the Kota of eastern India. Orissa has created some top rankers in IIT-JEE in the last few years and this has motivated more students."

As per a report in Economic Times, the total number of applicants for IIT JEE is 4,85,262.

Following is obtained from a Deccan Chronicle report, a TOI report and another TOI report:

• Total: 4,85,262 out of which 1,13,942 were girl applicants.
  • SC – 47,479; ST – 19,305; OBC – 1,42,387 (TOI)
• Madras zone (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala): about 68,500 out of which 20,546 were girls. (last year 65,650)
• Mumbai zone: about 85,260/68,735*
  
• Kanpur zone: around 80,400/63,661* (16,770 girls)
• Guwahati zone (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya and West Bengal): about 58,700.
• Kharagpur zone:??
• Delhi Zone: 71,353 (16,877 girls)
  
• Roorkee Zone: 16,976 girls

* Two newspapers give different numbers. 

Assuming the numbers for Odisha are correct, it is a significant development in that 8.25% of the total applicants will be from Odisha. Note that Odisha’s population is 3.47% of the total population of the country. 

Ofcourse, a more important aspect is the success in the exam, but significant increase in the applications is a good starting point. Some of the reason behind this increase are:

• More awareness due to IIT Bhubaneswar.
• The significant increase in the availability of coaching, including many nationally known coaching institutes opening their centers in Odisha, especially in Bhubaneswar. These include Careerpoint, FIITJEE, Narayana, Resonance and Vidya Mandir.
• The significant increase in the number of private +2 colleges across the state, some of which have ties with coaching classes.

Now lets hope a good number from Odisha succeed in IIT JEE. Currently Hyderabad and Kota are the places with the highest number of successful candidates. Following is an excerpt from a TOI report on that.

If JEE-2010 results are pored over, the maximum number of candidates to clear the exam was from Andhra Pradesh (AP).

The state dominated the merit list. Seven of the top ten rankers were from there, the share of Kota (which is in Rajasthan) starting only after rank 15. While in 2006, 938 candidates from AP and 1,004 from Rajasthan made it to the IITs, a year later the tables had turned, with 1,384 from AP clearing JEE and 1,344 from Rajasthan. It has been a close race since. In 2009, for example, 1,862 students from AP and 1,898 from Rajasthan cleared JEE.

There are reports from other cities and states, but many have contradictory reports. Following are data from some of these reports.

• Karnataka: 5,400 (Expressbuzz)
• Bangalore: 4,125 (Expressbuzz)
• Nagpur: 4,800 (TOI)
• Mumbai: 8,500 (DNA)
• Maharashtra: 21,000 (DNA), 21,700 (DNA)
• Lucknow: 15,000 (TOI)
• Varanasi: 8,000 (TOI)
• UP: 83,139 (TOI)
• Jaipur: 38,000 (TOI)
• Delhi: 37,411 (TOI
• Andhra Pradesh: 50,000 (Deccan Chronicle), Over 1 lakh (TOI).
• Chennai: 5,000 (Expressbuzz), 5,329 (TOI)
• Bhubaneswar: 5,000 (Times of India)
• Odisha: 40,000 (Times of India)  [I doubt this number.]

3 comments April 11th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar’s latest standing advertisement includes positions for two new schools: School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences and School of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

The earlier standing advertisement only had positions for five schools. This one at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/faculty-position.php includes positions for two new schools: School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences and School of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. Earlier there were specific ads for a chair professor and professors position for those two new schools. I just found out that Prof. Subhasis Tripathy (on lien from IIT Kharagpur for two years) has joined as the professor to lead the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences at IIT Bhubaneswar.

STANDING ADVERTISEMENT FOR FACULTY POSITION

IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications for faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor (on contractual basis) in the following seven Schools:

Schools (Disciplines): School of Mechanical Sciences (Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Materials), School of Electrical Sciences (Electrical Engineering,    Electronics    &    T elecommunication    Engineering,    Computer    Science    & Engineering), School of Infrastructure (Civil Engineering), School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Bioscience), School of HSS & Management (English, Economics, Philosophy and Psychology), School of Earth Ocean and Climate Sciences (Earth Sciences and Climate Sciences) and School of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (Minerals Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Engineering).

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION

Ph.D. with first class or equivalent in the preceding degree in appropriate branch with a very good academic record throughout and evidence of ability to pursue independent high quality research.

EXPERIENCE

Professor: A minimum of 10 years teaching / research / industrial experience of which at least 4 years should be at the level of Associate Professor in IITs, IISc Bangalore, IIMs, NITIE Mumbai and IISERs or at an equivalent level in any such other Indian or foreign institutions of comparable standards.

Associate Professor: At least 6 years teaching / research / industrial experience of which at least 3 years should be at the level of Assistant Professor, Senior Scientific Officer / Senior Design Engineer.

Assistant Professor: At least 3 years teaching / research / industrial experience excluding, however, the experience gained while pursuing Ph.D.

Assistant Professor (on contractual basis): May have less than 3 years teaching / research / industrial experience.

SCALE OF PAY:

In addition to above pay, allowances as admissible to Central Government employees are applicable.

OTHER INCENTIVES

1. A cumulative Professional Development Allowance of Rs. 3 lakhs for every block period of 3 years on reimbursement basis to meet the expenses for attending international/national conferences, paying membership fees of professional bodies, covering book grant, paying telephone charges and meeting contingent expenses etc. as per Institute guidelines.

2.    Initial seed grant up to Rs.5 lakhs for initiating research project in a chosen area.

3. Reimbursement of relocation charges at the time of joining up to a ceiling of Rs.
90,000/- as per Institute norm.

4. Honorarium of Rs. 15,000/- per month to the faculty members who have obtained
Bhatnagar Award OR are Fellows of at least two National Academies.

A faculty member is entitled for only one honorarium.

NOTES

•    Reservation for SC/ST/OBC/PH as per Government of India rules.

• Minimum requirement of experience may be relaxed in respect of outstanding
candidates.

•    Mere eligibility will not vest any right on any candidate for being called for interview.
The decision of the Institute in all matters of selection will be final.

•    The Institute reserves the right to call only the requisite number of candidates for interview after shortlisting in terms of the candidates’ qualification, suitability and
experience.

•    For the post of Assistant Professor the candidates should be preferably below 35 years
of age

• Canvassing in any manner would entail disqualification of the candidature.

NO INTERIM ENQUIRIES WILL BE ENTERTAINED.

HOW TO APPLY

Candidates possessing the requisite qualification and experience may submit their application in the prescribed form either in hard-copy or by e-mail to the Assistant Registrar (A&E), Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar – 751013 (email: faculty.app@iitbbs.ac.in).

Application form can be downloaded from the Institute website (www.iitbbs.ac.in or www.iitbbs.gov.in).

Applicants desiring to apply for more than one School should send separate application for each School.

The candidates applying from Government Organizations or Public Sector Undertaking should have their applications duly forwarded by their present employer.

The candidates may apply any time throughout the year. The Institute will consider the applications at any date in the year received up to that date depending on its requirements and/or the quality of the applications.

Registrar

March 21st, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar plans for the future; includes a 100 acre marine campus

The following is from http://www.iitlc.org/INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BHUBANESWAR.pdf . 

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BHUBANESWAR

To meet the increasing demand for quality technical education in the country, eight new IITs have
been established by the Government of India and IIT Bhubaneswar is the first amongst these to
become operational.

The Institute began its journey from the campus of IIT Kharagpur, the mentor Institute of IIT
Bhubaneswar on 22 nd July 2008. The Institute started operating from its temporary campuses in the
heart of the city of Bhubaneswar from 22 nd July 2009 with 228 undergraduate students in the
disciplines of Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and 6 Ph.D. scholars. Currently annual
UG intake capacity in each discipline is 40. Admission to Ph.D. programme is carried out in every
semester. The Institute envisages a growth path of 5000 students (UG, PG and Research) with 500
faculties in a decade.

For the permanent campus of IIT Bhubaneswar the Government of Orissa has allotted 936 acres of
land at Argul near Bhubaneswar, which is only 14 km from the Bhubaneswar airport. The architect
and project management consultant has already been appointed to put the project on fast track.

The Institute was born with the concept of schools rather than departments with its focus on
nourishing interdisciplinary environment. The existing schools are: 

• School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Bioscience, Mathematics)
• School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management
• School of Mechanical Sciences (Mechanical, Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering,Aerospace Engineering)
• School of Infrastructure (Civil Engineering, Architecture, Urban design, Town Planning,Traffic and Transportation Engineering)
• School of Electrical Sciences (Electrical Engineering, Electronics & CommunicationEngineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Energy Engineering, Learning Sciences,Instrumentation)

The following schools are proposed to be set up in near future:

• School of Minerals and Materials Engineering – Materials, Metallurgy, Mining (relevant to the Rich resources of metals and minerals in the region)

• School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences (Relevant to the region keeping in view the vastcoast line, rich biodiversity, need for disaster management and mitigation arising out of flood,cyclone etc)
• School of Chemical Sciences (Chemical, biochemical, biomedical, biotechnology)
• School of Design and Creative Arts

As a part of the School of Earth Ocean and Climate Sciences, the Institute has already planned to set up an Innovative Centre for Climate Change near the coast line of Orissa to study various aspects of climate change such as rise in sea level in the Bay of Bengal, effect of climate change on the marine life, health of the people in this region, disaster mitigation and management etc. Government of Orissa has already allotted nearly 100 acres of land on sea coast near Puri – Konark stretch and Government of India has agreed to  support in creating the Centre.

The Institute has already started research and consultancy projects sponsored by DST, CSIR, DRDO and other funding agencies of the Government of India. With a view to significantly enhancing the activities in this direction, the faculty members are in the process of submitting large number of project proposals to government agencies and private sector industries. The Institute proposes to remain focused in the following broad areas for its research and development activities:

• Alternative Energy
• Bioscience and Bioengineering
• Environment and Climate Science
• Manufacturing
• Minerals and Materials Sciences

A Science Park shall be an integral part of the growth plan of IIT Bhubaneswar.

I knew about the Marine campus plans and request for land, but did not know that the government of Orissa has already allotted land for it and the government of India has agreed to support it. This is great news.

This means, in addition to its regular progress, IIT Bhubaneswar has been able to make progress in two new initiatives:

1. A new School of Minerals and Materials Engineering that is helped by a 3 crore sponsored Chair by a private company. (See here and here.)
2. A new School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences with its own 100 acre campus near the ocean. (See here, here and here.)

Now if someone or some company or some MP can donate an initial amount (say 3-5 crores) for the other two proposed schools (School of Chemical Sciences and School of Design and Arts) then the establishment of those two can also be sped up. Note that a School of Design and Arts is almost like, or could be even better than, a National Institute of Design. In this earlier posting corporate partnership in establishing these schools is mentioned. Some initial steps towards establishing a School of Design has been made and mentioned here. I especially like the following quote in that report.

“We want IIT-Bhubaneswar to excel in product design and creation especially in auto and manufacturing sector,” the director said.

If IIT Bhubaneswar is able to have this school and is able to attract auto and other manufacturing companies, that would be wonderful.

1 comment March 16th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications for “MGM Chair Professor” in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

The following is from http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/pdf/MGM%20Chair%20Professor.pdf.

A Chair entitled “MGM Chair Professor” in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering has been created in IIT Bhubaneswar with a generous endowment of `3 crores from MGM Minerals Limited, Bhubaneswar, Odisha as a measure of the Institute’s firm step towards a meaningful sustainable public private partnership.
The main objective of this Chair-Professor, as a full time faculty of IIT Bhubaneswar, will be to promote teaching and research in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering with general activities and responsibilities as follows:

1. To play a leading role in the new School of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Sciences in IIT Bhubaneswar, and steering it towards achieving excellence in research and education.

2. To develop R&D programme relevant to the needs of MGM and other organizations in the related areas.

3. To develop and participate in the academic programmes of the Institute and coordinate research programmes funded by various agencies in the stated and related sector.

4. To initiate and develop student awareness programmes relevant to the needs of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Sciences in the country in general and in the State of Odisha in particular.

The tenure for appointment to the Chair shall normally be duration based. The incumbent will enjoy remuneration commensurate with experience and may be at the highest level for a Professor in IIT. The position carries supports in terms of free accommodation, research personnel, secretarial assistance, national and international travel and contingency expenses.

The institute is earnestly in search of an eminent academician/industry/R & D person who can occupy this prestigious position.

An accomplished motivated personality willing to take up this challenging and rewarding opportunity in a city supportive environment may send urgently his/her CV either in hard copy or by e-mail to the Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar-751013, India (e-mail: director@iitbbs.ac.in).

Those who submitted their CVs against our earlier advertisement dated 15.09.2010 need not to apply. However, they are welcome to submit their update CVs if they so desires.

Advt. No.: R/1/2011, Dated:10.02.2011

March 16th, 2011

The faculty situation at various IITs in August 2010

The following is obtained from pages 15 and 16 of http://prsindia.org/uploads/media/Institutes%20of%20technology/SCR%20Institue%20of%20Technology%20Bill%202010.pdf.

Note: The vacancy numbers for the new IITs should be discounted by 30 each as between the time the last 30 faculty lines were sanctioned and August there was not enough time to recruit against those sanctioned numbers.

February 14th, 2011

Official 2010 open close ranks of EE and Mech of IITs, IT-BHU and ISM

The following table is extracted from http://www.iitg.ac.in/jee/oldinfo.php.

• The 2009 open-close ranks are here.
• The 2008 open-close ranks are here.

1 comment February 4th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar landscape in January 2011

January 30th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar gets the largest endowment for a chair professorship in India?

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The State-based MGM Group, which is one of the oldest mines operators and setting up an integrated steel plant in Dhenkanal district, has upgraded its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the city-based Indian Institute of Technology in July last year, for establishing a chair professor of Eminence for five years to MGM chair professor on a permanent basis.

The revised MoU was signed here on Monday between director of IIT Bhubaneswar Prof M Chakraborty and MGM group chairman Dr RL Mohanty for establishing the MGM chair professor in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering in the IIT on a permanent basis. For the purpose, the MGM group has agreed to raise the corpus of `1.5 crore promised earlier to `3 crore. It is the largest endowment for a chair professorship in India.

January 28th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar advertises for a Professor position for its new School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences (SEOCS)

Following is from http://iitbbs.gov.in/iit_news_events_details.php?id=15&type=scroll.

IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications from Indian nationals who are exceptionally bright and motivated, with an established record of independent, high quality research and commitment to teaching for position of Professors for its new School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences (SEOCS) on direct recruitment / contract / by transfer on deputation basis with provision for absorption.

The prime responsibility of the Professor so recruited would be to set up the School of Earth, Ocean and Climatic Sciences and the Innovation Centre for climate changes. Besides setting up of the School, his / her other responsibilities would, inter alia, include, the following activities:-

1. To play a leading role in the proposed school of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences in IIT Bhubaneswar and steering it towards achieving excellence in research and education.

2. To develop R&D Programme relevant to the needs of the proposed school and other organization in the related areas.

3. To develop and participate in the academic programmes of the Institute and co-ordinate research programmes funded by various agencies in the related areas.

4. To initiate and develop student awareness programmes relevant to the needs of Earth, Ocean, and climatic Sciences (SEOCS) in the country in general and in the state of Odisha in particular.
ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE: – The candidate must have a Ph.D or equivalent degree in Earth System Sciences (Geology, Geophysics, Atmospheric or Oceanic Sciences) with consistent good academic record. He/She must be holding a regular position of Professor in a national Institute of repute with at least 15 years research experience in any branch of Earth System Sciences.
Desirable: – Proven experience of administrative capabilities as Head of the Department / Centre / Programme for at least a period of 2 years. He/She must have successfully handled sponsored / Consultancy R&D projects and be able to interact nationally and internationally in the inter disciplinary areas of Earth System Sciences.

No. of Post: 1(one) UNRESERVED
Scale of Pay :-
Position
Pay Band
Minimum Pay in the Pay Band
Academic Grade Pay
Professor
PB:4 Rs.37,400-Rs. 67,000/-
Rs. 48,000/-
Rs. 10,500/-

Pay Protection is admissible for Professors drawing salary at a higher stage including HAG Scale. In addition to above pay, allowances and other facilities including medical facilities, LTC etc would be same as approved by the Govt of India for IITs.

1. A cumulative Professional Development Allowance of Rs. 3 Lakhs for every block period of 3 years on reimbursement basis to meet the expenses for attending international/national conferences, paying membership fees of professional bodies, covering book grant, paying telephone charges and meeting contingent expenses etc. as per Institute guidelines.

OTHER INCENTIVES

2. Reimbursement of relocation charges at the time of joining up to a ceiling of Rs. 90,000/- as per Institute norm.

3. Honorarium of Rs. 15, 000/- per month to the faculty members who have obtained Bhatnagar Award OR are Fellows of at least two National Academies. A faculty member is entitled for only one honorarium.
In the event of a Professor who is under Pension Scheme in any Central/State Government funded Pensionable establishment, the Institute would pay his leave salary and pension contribution as per rate prescribed by the Govt of India for the period of deputation. The period of deputation would be ordinarily for a period of five years with provision for absorption subject to satisfactory performance.
Terms & Conditions for appointment on transfer on deputation
Candidate possessing the requisite qualification and experience may submit their application in the prescribed proforma either a hard copy or by E-mail to the Registrar, IIT Bhubaneswar, Samanatapuri , Bhubaneswar-751013, India (E-mail: faculty.app @iitbbs.ac.in) latest by 15th December 2010. Those who are under Govt / Govt funded Institute should apply through proper channel. However, if a delay is envisaged he/she can submit an advance copy of his/her application to the Institute.

How to Apply:
Advt. No. R/7/2010 Dated: 15.11.2010
Registrar

1 comment November 22nd, 2010