Odisha HRD

IIT Bhubaneswar faculty list

Update on August 26 2010:

• N. Barik, School of Basic Sciences (Physics)
• Y. V. Rao, School of Basic Sciences (Mathematics)
• Animesh Mandal, School of Mechanical Sciences
• Anamitra Basu, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (In IIT Bhubaneswar 2010-11 brochure)
  • Bio: Ph: +91 9674498481 Email: anamitrabasu2@gmail.com
    Dr. Anamitra Basu is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management of the institute. She joined the institute as a faculty member in 2010, after serving tenure as an assistant professor for almost four years at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. Earlier she has also served the academia for two years as lecturer in a reputed institute. Her experience in hospital industry for more than four years inspired her to undertake field of Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology as the field of research. She was a Gold Medallist in Bachelors degree from the University of Calcutta. She obtained her Masters degree from the University of Calcutta in the year 1996. She obtained her doctorate from IIT Kharagpur and her post doctorate study from University Balise Pascal, France. She has two peer reviewed international journals in the field of Cognitive Psychology and three other
    international journals are awaiting. Her present research includes Emotion and facial expressions using electromyography (EMG) and producing a new database along with her earlier research fields. She has always been an active member in conferences, workshops. She is a life member of National Academy of Sciences (NAOP), Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
• Sisir Kumar Nayak, School of Electrical Sciences (In IIT Bhubaneswar 2010-11 brochure)
  • Ph.D IISc Bangalore 2009. Postdoc at Royal Inst of Technology-KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.

With this the total faculty count is at 46: Basic Sciences (17), Electrical Sciences (6), Infrastructure (8), Mechanical Sciences (9), Humanities and Social Sciences (6)

Update on August 20 2010:

• Dukhabandhu Sahoo, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Update on June 11 2010: Since the list below was made, some new faculty have joined. They are:

• Arindam Sarkar, Infrastructure
• Dipti Ranjan Sahoo, Infrastructure
• Tarakant Nayak, Mathematics

Merging the lists at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ver3/facultymember.html and http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ver3/pdf/pic.pdf we get the following list of 37 faculty at IIT Bhubaneswar. (Our earlier list was at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3364.) The schoolwise break up is as follows:

• Basic Sciences (14: Chemistry -7; Math -3; Physics – 4)
• Electrical Sciences (5)
• Infrastructure (6)
• Mechanical Sciences (8)
• Humanities, Social Sciences & Management (4)

1 comment April 26th, 2010

IIT act to be ammended to include medicine; Despite objections by the Health Ministry IIT Kharagpur to start medical school in collaboration with Indian Railways

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, minister of state for HRD D Purandeshwari said the ministry has decided to amend the IIT Act, the law that governs IITs, to include medical science. The health ministry had said that IITs should not be allowed to start conventional courses in medicine.

The amendment, Purandeshwari said, would help IITs to offer programmes bringing together the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering. Referring to the health ministry’s objection, she said, "However, appreciating the fact that the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all the developed and most of the developing countries are seen hand-in-hand, the government proposes to incorporate `medicine’ in the IIT Act."

Purandeswari said the programme would bring the two important disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

… IIT Kharagpur has come up with a concrete proposal in this regard and plans to start a medical college in collaboration with Indian Railways. At a meeting of experts in the health ministry in February this year, it was observed that IITs should start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or starting MBBS courses.

There are several lessons that Odisha can draw from this.

• As Purna Mishra suggested in a comment, VSSUT and the VSS Medical College in Burla should combine to form a single university.
• NIT Rourkela and IIT Bhubaneswar should consider adding a medical college as part of the institute; NIT could include the proposed ESI medical college and IIT could include the proposed Railways medical college.

April 22nd, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar makes some key hires

Update: IIT Bhubaneswar web site is now updated and lists most of the new faculty that have joined.

A key hire that IIT Bhubaneswar recently made is of Prof. S C De Sarkar.

Prof. De Sarkar was the deputy Director at IIT Kharagpur and my teacher (in the Compiler course) when I was doing my B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering. He was the best teacher I encountered during my B.Tech degree. He has had many star Ph.D students including some who have won the Bhatnagar award.

He has joined IIT Bhubaneswar as the Dean of Faculty. In the words of IIT Bhubaneswar director Prof. Chakraborty: "He is now a great strength of IIT Bhubaneswar."

Some of the other highlights releted to recent hires (obtained from the IIT Bhubaneswar web page) are:

• Dr. C.N. Bhende, Asst. Prof. of Electrical Sciences received the best thesis award at Doctoral level from INAE.
• Dr. Sumanta Haldar Assistant Prof. of school of Infrastructure has been adjudged as the best Ph.D. thesis in India in the field of Geotechnical Engineering by the Indian Geotechnical Society.

April 18th, 2010

Prof. Damodar Acharya Committee reportedly proposes to scrap IIT JEE and other entrance exams

Update: Following are excerpts from a follow-up Telegraph report which mentions about the committee’s recommendation to have wide-spread consultations before making the changes.

But it has advised caution in implementing the reforms. The panel has suggested detailed consultations and workshops with the state governments, other top engineering institutions like the National Institutes of Technology, and private universities.

The recommendations of the panel can be fine-tuned based on the outcome of the consultations, the team led by IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya has suggested. The panel is likely to meet soon and may draw up a schedule for the consultations at that meeting.

… At a meeting of the panel in Chennai on March 16 with representatives of state and central school boards, some participants suggested that rural students be given more opportunities than urban students. The participants proposed two attempts for urban students and three for rural students.

The panel and the HRD ministry will also need to convince state governments that the move to end state-specific engineering tests is not against their interests.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The panel, appointed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, has recommended replacing the four-decade-old IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and myriad other engineering entrance examinations with a common test modelled on the US-based scholastic aptitude test (SAT).

The panel has suggested that the IITs accord a 70 per cent weightage to board examination scores in picking students, ..

Scores in the common aptitude test that will replace the IIT-JEE will contribute the remaining 30 per cent weightage in determining which candidates are selected, the panel has recommended.

Unlike the current engineering entrance examinations including the IIT-JEE, the common aptitude test will not have questions on physics, chemistry and math, but will test students’ powers of logical reasoning and communication skills.

If the recommendations are accepted, the IITs will for the first time admit students based more on their board examination marks than on their performance in a special entrance test.

…The minister had announced in February that he was setting up a panel under IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya to study proposed reforms to the IIT-JEE. The panel was appointed in March, with the directors of the IITs in Mumbai, Roorkee and Chennai as the other members.

…  The panel has recommended that the government develop a Comprehensive Weighted Performance Index (CWPI) to calculate a student’s overall score based cumulatively on his performance in the board examinations and in the common aptitude test. The report appears principally based on discussions at a meeting held with other government representatives, including Central Board of Secondary Education chairman Vineet Joshi and select state representatives in Chennai on March 16.

The HRD ministry is already working towards a plan to introduce a common high school curriculum in the sciences and math, cutting across the 35 boards — central and state — that govern Indian school education.

The common curriculum would make easier a comparison between the board examination scores of students from schools affiliated to different central and state government boards, Joshi had told the meeting.

The CWPI proposed by the panel is aimed at normalising any differences that remain between difficulty levels of school-leaving examinations under different boards.

There is a big danger that the above approach will make the XIIth exams a high stakes affair and bring it under the microscope with every aspect of it being scrutinized and judged by everyone. Most coaching classes may reinvent themselves and start coaching how to score more marks in the XIIth exam and the proposed SAT type exam. This approach may bring in bias favoring students from families with educated parents. English being a compulsory subject in XIIth, this may put students in rural areas and other areas where English is less used at a disadvantage.

So one has to wait and see how this will pan out.

My guess is if the above idea is adopted, it will go through some changes such as specific types of colleges may be allowed to give different weight to Class XII marks in different subjects. Some may introduce interviews or other tests.

One change that should be made is that when possible specialty branches should not be assigned to most  students (say 70-80% in any college/institute) immediately after they join a college/institute after the XIIth. That should be determined after a year in that college/institute based on the performance in that year. This will make the class XII exam less cutthroat and ensure that students after they get into a college/institute continue to give importance to academics.

One alternative idea may to test the proposed idea (of using class XIIth marks) on 50% of the seats for a few years before deciding whether to completely abandon the current approach or not.

7 comments April 14th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar pitches a Climate Change research center to the Odisha government

Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar has proposed establishment of Innovative Centre for Climate Change (ICCC) here.

Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Madhusudan Chakraborty who met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here at the Secretariat today along with a team of experts gave this proposal to him.

Chakraborty said school of earth, ocean and environment is being established in Bhubaneswar IIT.

The school will impart teaching on land, water, air and environment and proposed research in the subject.

The IIT is keen on establishment of research institute of this school on climate change, he said.

Prof Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the American University of Massachusetts, said the institute will conduct research on climate change, adding, information on climate will be availed from different sources for research.

Rise in sea level, extreme weather, changing eco-system, air quality and pollution, affect of the changes in the human health, shortage of drinking and energy needs will be dealt with in this advanced research centre, he said.

The institute will also conduct research on the impact of climate change on the ecosystem of Chilika lake. He requested the Chief Minister to provide land with necessary infrastructure for the institute.

A similar center proposed in 2007, called "Center for Climate Change Research" (CCCR), was established at the Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune last year. This center has 20 scientists positions.

March 31st, 2010

Alma Fiesta, the student organized socio-cultural festival of IIT Bhubaneswar, March 26-28th 2010: http://www.almafiesta.com

The web site of this event is http://www.almafiesta.com/. Their blog is at http://almafiesta.com/blog/. Following are some planned highlights of this festival.

We start with the most important one:

Alma Fiesta, IIT Bhubaneswar and Smt. Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust Presents

Perspective: The Social Case Study Competition

Problem Statement:

Politics in India continues to be a murky and tabooed business which is being rarely taken up by the youth of present generation. Youth owns the key to dynamic thinking and action and thus are the indispensable part of a country’s politics. Present your views highlighting the current scenario of the youth participation in politics, the plan to increase this participation and also the plan to bring out the transparencies in the work of a politician.

Method of Submission: The participants are required to submit online their aforesaid visionary plan in form of a presentation in .pdf format by 25 March 2010 before 11.55 PM. The selected participants will present their plan before judge and audience on 27 March 2010. The presentations can be mailed to submissions@almafiesta.com before the deadline. No registration fees are required for submitting your presentations. So pen down your ideas and get the title of ‘SNSMT-IIT BBS Social Change maker of 2010’ along with various exciting prizes. For any queries contact: Mudit Sharma mudit@almafiesta.com +91 93385 75352.

Following are the rest of the events.

• Topsy Turvy : Inter College Group Dance Competition

  Topsy Turvy, Put your best foot forward, because Topsy Turvy inter-college dance competition is sure to excite everyone to put on their dancing shoes. Be a part of our fiesta and drink in from the excitement.

• Face Off

  Imagination is reality; dreams, thoughts and delusions are no less real than the "outside" world. Reality is a consensus, the same consensus the audience accepts when they enter a theatre to see a play and, for a time, pretend that what they are seeing is real. FACE OFF, an intercollegiate stage play event, is one of those platforms to experience the "reality”. So come, witness the reality on the stage and the director’s mind at work behind the scenes.

• N-Circled

  Give the audience a hint of a scene, no more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the Street Play meaning: when it becomes a social cause. So be there to be a part of a social causes @ N-CIRCLED – an intercollegiate street play competition.

• EUPHONY

  In the Iron Maiden edition of the Dream Theatre pluck the MetallicaStrings to elevate from the System of a Down and let the world Parikrama around you to attain Nirvana. If music is your passion and life then euphony, an inter college band competition for both eastern and western genres, is the right chance to test your ardor. The vim and vigour of music bands will be at its peak and the spirit of music is going to fill the entire ambience with a tone of mesmerisation.

• TRACK THE TRACK

  Music is the harmony between melody, rhythm and expressions and thus for a song to touch the soul one needs to properly ‘Track the Track’. This sing-along karaoke event is a unique opportunity for the music enthusiasts to show up their talent. So hit the music loud and prove your mettle.

• ANTAKSHARI

  A contest for the movie track fanatics who are experts in the lyrics. A common, Classic game yet can be mind-boggling at times. To triumph in the event means to be quick and sharp enough to get the right song. It is time to fine tune your musical knowledge and portray it to the world.

• Decoding Shakespeare
• Gone in 60 seconds
• Lit-Spree
• IIT Bhubaneswar Youth Quiz

  A Quiz on Pan Youth Topics. Be it movies, music, gadgets, ads or IT-this quiz comes as a whole some package of fun entertainment.

• Heads or Tails: Citius, Altius, Fortius!

  Bored of traditional quizzes of Tech, Biz, India…? Want a change? We could sense that. So here is an offbeat quiz purely dedicated to the Sports Turf. For all Sports Frenzied Junta Heads or Tails? Call it right!

• Youth Marathon
• Your Honour: The mock board room event.

  Motion:

  Ostracism, humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of family members, community and the medical fraternity are increasing in Orissa. Not only people living with HIV and AIDS but also their family members are equally suffering and facing the challenges in different setting. The question is whether we need to practice a differential treatment/approach to address the issue of people living with HIV-AIDS or not?

• PALETTE

  With the brush in your hand swipe the fog out of the sky and give life to your imaginations. Let the world acknowledge your endless dreams. Colours being your mouthpiece tell the unspoken and leave the beholder standstill. Mismatch the colours on this palette and paint life.

• LEAF COLLAGE

  Attention!!

  Dare not miss this opportunity to expose your ingenious dexterity. Let the foliage mirror your imagination and creativity in your grey cells. Leaves are waiting to reflect your artistic thoughts. Share your ideas, feelings, no matter what you want to express, through leave collage. Give a shape to your imagination and let the clutters of leaves take the pride to represent the artist in you.

• Mahfile-E-Hansi: Dr. Kumar Vishwas
• Classical Reloaded: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt; Akram Khan
• Leela: Orissa Dance Academy led by Aruna Mohanty
• Headbang: Kryptos
• Celebration of World Theater Day on 27th March in collaboration with Natya Chetana
• Commemoration of Earth hour on 27th March

One important aspect of this festival is that it is mainly organized by the students with some (minimal) guidance from the faculty and a very small percentage of funding from the IIT. The students find sponsors who cover most of the budget. They organize the events.

1 comment March 26th, 2010

Some future plans of IIT Bhubaneswar

Following are excerpts from a report in expressbuzz.

IIT Bhubaneswar will have four more schools with inter-disciplinary approach by 2011-end.

While the first one would be on mines, minerals and material technology, the other three would include school of chemicals, school of design and creative arts and earth and ocean sciences.

While the campus construction will start by the year-end, within 10- 15 days the contract would be ready for awarding the architectural and design side of the new campus, said IIT-B Director Prof. Madhusudan Chakraborty.

… Prof. Chakraborty said, however, the institute plans to have a marine campus on the coastline for research on rise in sea-level, effects of climate change, extreme weather conditions, changing ecosystems, air quality and pollution and human health.

… The marine campus will be called Centre for Climate Change and would be established on the lines of marine centres of University of Massachusetts and University of California, he said adding even the varsities have expressed their desire to have future collaborations in research and exchange of faculties and students.

As the marine campus will be very close to the sea, the State Government would be requested at an appropriate time to provide adequate land, he said adding it would have specialists in geology, geophysics, atmospheric and ocean sciences, he added.

Following are some excerpts from a report in Telegraph.

IIT, Bhubaneswar, is planning a marine campus as part of its upcoming School of Earth, Ocean and Environment Science.

The campus, probably be the first marine campus in the country, will study climate, sea level rise, extreme weather events, changing ecosystem, fishery development and wildlife, air quality and pollution, water shortage, human health and hydrological cycles.

Such a campus exists for schools in the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and University of California, Santa Cruz, said IIT, Bhubaneswar, director M. Chakraborty.

Expected to come up by 2011, the school will be “interdisciplinary”, conducting research focusing on geology, geophysics, marine sciences, ocean science, atmospheric science, atmospheric change, disaster mitigation and management, he said.

… The IIT also plans to open three other schools — school of mineral, metallurgy and material engineering, school of chemical sciences and school of design and creative art,” he said.

… “IIT, Bhubaneswar, believes in a border-less academic environment. We do not have departments like other IITs. We are trying to break the barrier so that people from various disciplines come together and work in tandem,” Chakraborty said.

The above plan of IIT Bhubaneswar opens up opportunities for the South Odisha people who wanted the IIT to be located there. If they co-ordinate intelligently (and even offer their own land) they could now have a piece of the IIT. Other parts of coastal Odisha may also go after this.

I think similar opportunities will open up with respect to NISER and AIIMS. In particular, a branch of either in Gandhamardan hill foothills of Balangir/Baragarh in Western Odisha focusing on medicinal plants could be a possibility. (Dr. Sanjib Karmee was championing for an institute like that in that area.)

Water and rain forests are big attractors.

Other locations (such as next to Hirakud or Mandira Dam) could vie for a pie of these national institutes by coming up with an idea about an appropriate research center and approaching the leadership of these institutes.

2 comments March 20th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar landscape – next to picturesque and historical Barunei hill

March 1st, 2010

IIT Kharagapur’s future plans

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

IIT-Kharagpur plans to start by setting up a centre of excellence on Energy Science and Engineering to train students in research and development on various energy verticals like bio-energy, solar energy, nuclear, as well as hydel and thermal energy. …

The institute is also introducing new engineering programme on design and manufacturing where it aims to create globally competent engineering products. It will start School of Entrepreneurship soon where it will offer dual degree in BTech and entrepreneurship programmes. Students will be selected through joint entrance examination (JEE).

“The Innovation Centre will be funded by one of our alumnus, S K Bhattacharya. Each student of School of Entrepreneurship will be attached to an innovation centre. Each student will get a faculty and a successful alumnus entrepreneur to assist him or her. Our aim is to have around 30 per cent of our total student to be PhDs and researchers by 2015, compared to 15 per cent right now,” says Acharya.

An innovation centre is a new concept through which IIT-Kharagpur intends to encourage research and innovation. “We will have support from international institutions and industries to draw on their expertise and develop products of global use. So, for instance, we are collaborating with Warwick Manufacturing Group, Georgia Institute of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, among others,” adds Acharya.

Among international collaborations, IIT-Kharagpur is looking at specific areas of collaboration with National University of Singapore for water policies and issues. Also, the institute has signed an agreement with University of California, San Diego, for a 350-700 bed medical college. The collaboration is both for part-financing the project as well as an academic collaboration.

January 11th, 2010

IIT Gandhinagar to have part-time jobs for students

Following is an excerpt from a report in DNA.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-GN) will begin an ‘earn while you learn’ offer for its undergraduate students. …

"Selected students from the second-year batch will be allowed to work for a maximum of eight hours a week during the semester, and 40 hours per week during the vacations.

They will be paid a remuneration of Rs50 to Rs80 per hour. Initially, 25 to 30 students will be selected for the programme," said Jaison Manjaly, assistant professor and faculty coordinator for the programme.

… "The students will be engaged in the library, computer centre, laboratories, general administration, placement services, public relations etc," he said.

… Sudhir Jain, director of IIT-GN, said that … students with a CPI of seven and above will be eligible for participation in the programme.

3 comments November 23rd, 2009

IIT Bhubaneswar has a new web page

IIT Bhubaneswar has unveiled a new web page. It looks very good. Based on the information there it currently has 16 regular faculty in its five schools including the Director. They are:

• School of Basic Sciences
  • Sujit Roy, Professor & Head, Chemistry, PhD, 1987, IIT Kanpur
  • Srikanta Patra, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, PhD, 2005, IIT Bombay
  • Sabyasachi Pani, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, PhD, 2004, IIT Kharagpur
  • Rajan Jha, Assistant Professor, Physics, PhD, 2007, IIT Delhi
  • Snehasis Chowdhuri, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, PhD, 2005, IIT Kanpur
  • Akshay Kumar Ojha, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, PhD 1997, Utkal University
• School of Electrical Sciences
  • Ganapati Panda, Professor & Head, PhD, 1982, IIT Kharagpur
  • Prasant Sahu, Assistant Professor, PhD 2009, IIT Kharagpur
  • Debalina Ghosh, Assistant Professor, PhD 2008, Syracuse University
• School of Infrastructure
  • Sekhar Dutta, Professor & Head, PhD, 1982, IIT Kharagpur
  • P. Dinakar, Assistant Professor, PhD, 2008, IIT Madras
  • Puspendu Bhunia, Assistant Professor, PhD, 2008, IIT Kharagpur
  • Sumanta Haldar, Assistant Professor, PhD, 2008, IISc Bangalore
• School of Mechanical Sciences
  • Madhusudan Chakraborty, Director and Professor, PhD, 1978, IIT Kharagpur
  • Swarup Mahapatra, Associate Professor & Head, PhD 2000, Jadavpur University
  • Prasenjit Rath, Assistant Professor, PhD 2007, NTU Singapore
  • Satyanarayan Panigrahi, Assistant Professor, PhD 2007, IISc Bangalore
• School of Social Sciences & Humanities
  • No regular faculty yet

October 24th, 2009

Some National Institutions/Universities and their locations; planning for the future in Orissa

Update on 27th April 2011: The Central University location has been changed to Bander Sindri near Ajmer and only 80 kms from Jaipur. The Innovation University (previsouly referred to as National University) aiming for world class is now pushed for Jaipur. [Times of India].

Tathya.in has a report that mentions some official saying that because of the lack of an airport in Rourkela central government will not agree to have ESIC medical college in Rourkela. I think this is a completely frivolous argument; I don’t see much connection between an ESIC medical college and an airport. (Often airport is a codeword for adequate infrastructure. If that is the case Rourkela indeed has the infrastructure for an ESIC medical college.)

However, in regards to certain centrally funded institutions, such a requirement is in the background and mentioned by journalists, even if they may not be spelled out explicitly. So while pushing for an ESIC medical college in Rourkela, we should set our target to push for more functioning airports as a next action item. Following is a more detailed analysis.

Given below are the locations of some national institutions and some related attributes. It is easy to see that for the locations of IITs, IIMs and National Universities being near (say within 120 kms or 2 hrs) an operational airport has been an important factor. For national universities, in addition being in a large (1 million plus metropolitan area) area with other research institutes has also been spelled out as an important criteria and it is reflected in the locations that are picked.  

On the other hand, the newly established central universities are in towns of all sizes and the locations of the NITs are mixed. The next level centrally funded but locally focused technological institutes, SLIET, Longowal, ABAGKC IET, Malda and Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar are on purpose established in rural areas and smaller towns. Unlike the NITs these institutions take only local students and also have programs focused on local needs. Nevertheless, their quality need not be bad. For example, SLIET is considered quite good.

Looking to the future following are some points relevant to Orissa.

• For Orissa to have future central institutions like IIM, SPA, etc. to be in a location outside of Bhubaneswar, Orissa must push for the quick establishment of airports and other infrastructure in other parts of the state. For example, the airports in Jharsuguda and Rourkela are the closest to be operational and they should  have scheduled flights at the earliest. Otherwise new centrally funded institutions may again be established near Bhubaneswar and crying hoarse after the fact may not be productive.
• Similarly the knowledge commission has proposed the establishment of 50 national universities in the long run. Considering that the education budget significantly increases from one 5 yr plan to the next, I would not be surprised if there is another set of them made during the 12th plan. Orissa must be prepared for that and by that time (there is a short window) have other areas in Orissa with adequate infrastructure that are being deemed necessary for a national university.
• Orissa must take advantage of the industrial and investment interests in Orissa, mostly due to its minerals, and develop metropolitan areas with larger population base. Currently the local people are creating roadblocks rather than helping in such development.
• In 2010 we should do our best to convince the planning commission, the PM and MHRD that the 12th plan (starting 2012) should include more centrally funded institutions of the kind that can be located in rural or semi-urban areas. In particular,
  • A centrally funded but locally focused technological institute (like SLIET) in all states. The one in Orissa could be located in Kalahandi or Balangir, the other two KBK districts that lack centrally funded institutions.
  • Two regional universities in each major states that are funded 50-50 by the state and the center. (This would be better than one centrally funded institute.)
  • Multiple branches of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in districts with high tribal population.
     

The NITs.

The IITs. 

National Universities

New Central Universities

IIMs

October 4th, 2009

IIT Bhubaneswar issues global invitation for Expression of Interest in building its campus

The details are at:

* Global Invitation for Expression of Interest (EOI)
* Drawing of IIT Bhubaneswar plan

Following are some excerpts from the invitation.

GLOBAL INVITATION FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

EOI to participate in selection of Campus Architect and Project Management Consultant For Design and Project Management of a State of the Art Academic cum Residential Campus

IIT Bhubaneswar invites Expression of Interest (EOI) for consultancy services from qualified, experienced, competent, financially sound and internationally acclaimed Architectural/Engineering Project Management Consultants (PMCs) including overseas firms for the planning and designing of Architectural, civil, public health, electrical, air conditioning, acoustics and other services for the works: “Construction of Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar complex and residential township along with necessary infrastructure facilities” in 936 acres of land at Argul, which is about 25 km from Bhubaneswar airport. While the work will be completed in phases, the estimated cost for the first phase is approximately INR 400 Crores.

The scope of the work, other applicable terms and conditions including site related information are available at institute website www.iitbbs.ac.in.

The EOI documents can be either downloaded from the institute website or can be collected from the office of Registrar, IIT Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar-751013 from 24th August 2009 to 23rd September 2009 between 1100 hrs to 1600 hrs on all working days on payment of INR 1,000/- through a bank draft drawn on any schedule bank in favour of “IIT BHUBANESWAR” and made payable at Bhubaneswar.

The EOI shall be submitted in duplicate in a sealed cover, superscribing; “EOI for Architectural/Engineering Project Management Consultant (PMC)” either in person or by post addressed to the Registrar. along with a Bank Draft of Rs.1,00,000/- drawn on any schedule bank in favour of “IIT BHUBANESWAR” and made payable at Bhubaneswar towards EMD which would be refunded to unsuccessful bidders. Further, those who have downloaded EOI document from the website of the Institute should also enclose another demand draft for Rs.1,000/- drawn in favour of IIT BHUBANESWAR along with EOI document. The last date for receipt of EOI document is 24 September 2009 upto 1500 hrs B. K. RAY Registrar

No.F.15-2/2009-Estate-A

Continue Reading 6 comments August 21st, 2009

IIT Bhubaneswar notification on Ph.D admission

IIT Bhubaneswar has isued notification for Ph.D admission. The details are at:

• Notification for Ph.D. Admission
• Application form for Ph.D Admission

Following are some excerpts from the notification:

Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, one of the newest IITs set up in 2008 by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of Higher Education) invites application for admission to full time Ph.D. Programmes in the following fields of research.

Schools and fields of Research

1) School of Infrastructure :   Structural Engineering, Structural Dynamics, Earthquake Engineering, Disaster Mitigation Engineering, Concrete Technology, Durability of Concrete Composites, Corrosion of steel in concrete, Environmental Engineering, Wastewater Treatment and sludge management, Greenhouse gases and global warming, Geotechnical Risk and Reliability, Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering, Numerical Modelling, Mitigation of Geohazards, Offshore
Geotechnics, Experimental Geotechnics.

2) School of Electrical Sciences : – 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.

3) School of Mechanical Sciences : – 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.

4) School of Basic Sciences :

– Theoretical high energy particle physics, Quark model studies, decay and scattering phenomena of heavy flavored mesons, parton distributions in proton and proton spin structure, optical fiber sensors, plasmonics, nanowires, photonic crystal fiber, computational condensed matter physics, nano materials, thin films, deposition and characterization for BEO and environmental sensors application.

– Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis, Coordination Chemistry, Material Chemistry, Sensor, Theoretical Chemistry.

– Functional Analysis, Artificial Neural Network, Geometric Programming.

5) School of Humanities and Social Sciences :  – 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.

Eligibility: M.E./M.Tech. in relevant discipline with at least 6.5 CGPA (or 60% marks in aggregate) at both B.Tech. and M.Tech. levels OR B.E./ B.Tech./ M.Sc.(Basic Science) in relevant discipline with minimum CGPA 7.0 in a 10 point scale (or 65% marks in aggregate) with a valid GATE score OR M.A. in the relevant field with 6.5 CGPA ( or 60% marks) with NET fellowship.

Admission to reserved-category candidates will be done as per Government of India guidelines.

How to Apply: Application form, downloadable from www.iitbbs.ac.in, should be sent to The Registrar, IIT Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar, Orissa – 751013 along with a Demand Draft of Rs.300/- (Rs.150/- for SC/ST candidates) drawn in favour of "IIT Bhubaneswar" on any nationalized bank payable at Bhubaneswar. Application form may also be obtained from the Academic Section, IIT Bhubaneswar against a demand draft on every working day.

Important Dates:

Application form available from: 12 August 2009
Last date for submitting completed application form: 28 August 2009
Date of Interview (for short listed candidates): 7-8 September 2009
Joining Date: 16 September 2009

 

1 comment August 21st, 2009

Orissa Education and HRD related headlines from our sister site in Twitter

Our sister site in Twitter is http://twitter.com/orissalinks. (Often when we are busy or do not feel like writing a full posting here, we post a micro-blog in our Twitter sister site. The Twitter sister site also automatically adds the headline from this site and the orissagrowth site. Once in a  while we will collect those headlines here. But readers wanting a broader and more immediate coverage should consider following our Twitter site at http://twitter.com/orissalinks.) Following are some selected items from that site since July 12th.

• Orissa govt. adopts AICTE-introduced Tuition Waiver Scheme for women, poor & PH students in professional institutions. http://bit.ly/BVJPs.
• Century plus old Khallikote College in Berhampur Orissa is the first one in Orissa to get star status from UGC. http://bit.ly/11h750.
• Tathya: Xavier Inst. of Management in Bhubaneswar, Orissa plans to become a university. http://bit.ly/15OLcd.
• IHM, Ranjita IHM in #Bhubaneswar & the Food Craft Institute in Bolangir are top hotel management institutes in #Orissa. http://bit.ly/Z5Dtz.
• Members cutting across party lines from Balasore district in Orissa demand (in Assembly) medical college at Balasore. http://bit.ly/3YpLV6.
• Orissa plans to open plus two colleges in all the 118 integrated tribal development agency (ITDA) blocks in the State. http://bit.ly/vlKTX.
• Business standard interviews IIT Bhubaneswar director. http://bit.ly/2mjlQ.
• Central Univ Orissa Koraput advertises faculty positions. http://bit.ly/rcQcq.
• Central University of Orissa Koraput web page is http://cuorissa.org.
• Tata Steel Teams up with KISS. http://bit.ly/CN5jj http://www.tathya.in/2009/s….
• Nuapada, Deogarh, Subarnapur, Nayagarh, Kendrapara and Jajpur do not have Kendriya Vidyalayas. May get one each. http://bit.ly/GkkJZ.
• Pioneer: Efforts being made for a Sainik School in Western Orissa http://bit.ly/2D9bb9.
• Academic session of the Institute of Interior and Fashion Technology (IIFT), Bhubaneswar from August this year. http://bit.ly/1hOC2J Bus. St.
• XIM Bhubaneswar names its new acad. block as Tata Centenary Learning Centre; Tata Steel contributed about 1 crore to it. http://bit.ly/bwvES.

August 20th, 2009

Excerpts of IIT Bhubaneswar director’s speech on the occaision of classes starting in Bhubaneswar

Other reports: Tathya.

Following is from a report in Pioneer.

With the institution of the IIT at Bhubaneswar I can sea a visible change in this region. Bhubaneswar has already earned a place in the list of cities in this country as an educational hub and third in the country so far as the business ambience is concerned.

Very soon there will be more visitors to this city from all over the world for education, business and tourism creating a demand for an international airport and a lot of traffic through sea route,” said IIT Bhubaneswar Director Prof M Chakraborty at its first foundation day function here on Wednesday.

Prof Chakraborty said the day assumes added significance because it is the day, on which the academic programme of the institution began in the city though in a temporary building. Earlier, the classes were going on at IIT Kharagpur. The permanent building of the institute will be established on 936 acres of land at Argul near the city.

“The institute will promote a borderless academic environment, in which distinction between different branches of science and engineering will dissolve. We shall have the concept of schools rather than departments,” Prof Chakraborty said, adding that the institute is planning to open a School of Material and Mineral Engineering, a School of Ocean and Environmental Sciences and a School of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the near future. PhD programme is introduced from the current year and steps are being taken to provide Rs 5 lakh to every faculty member to initiate their research programmes.

Besides, there is a proposal to establish a science park with focus on innovations emphasising product design and product creation based global societal needs, he informed.

July 23rd, 2009