Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology

Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology

Former names	Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering
Motto in English	Excellence in action
Type	Public engineering college
Established	1960 (1960)
Chairman	Dr. P. M. Padole[1]
Director	Dr. P. M. Padole[1]
Academic staff	257
Students	4925
Undergraduates	3627
Postgraduates	903
Doctoral students	395
Location	Nagpur , Maharashtra , India 21°07′24″N 79°03′05″E / 21.12333°N 79.05139°E / 21.12333; 79.05139
Campus	Urban 215 acres (87 ha)[2]
Website	www.vnit.ac.in

Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), formerly Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering, Nagpur (VRCE), is a public engineering and research institution in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in central India.^[3] It was established in June 1960 by the Government of India and later named in honor of engineer, planner and statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya.

VNIT Nagpur is centrally funded and belongs to the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) system. In 2007, the institute was conferred the status of Institute of National Importance by an Act of Parliament of India.

The Institute awards Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in engineering, technology, architecture and science for which the entry is through the Joint Entrance Examination – Main, Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and Joint Admission Test for M.Sc.

History[]

The institute's history can be traced back to 1947, when the Architecture Department was established by Madhya Pradesh Government.

In accordance with the second five-year plan (1956–60) in India, a number of industrial projects were contemplated. The Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) were established by the central government to mimic the IITs at a regional level and act as benchmarks for the other colleges in that state.

For the Western region in the year of 1960, the Institute was established under the name Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering (VRCE). It was established under the scheme sponsored by Govt. of India and Govt. of Maharashtra. The college was started in June 1960 by amalgamating the State Govt. Engineering College functioning at Nagpur since July 1956. In the meeting held in October 1962, the Governing Board of the College resolved to name it after the eminent engineer, planner, and statesman of the country Sir M.Visvesvaraya.

The College started functioning in 1960 from camp office in the premises of Govt. Polytechnic, Sadar, Nagpur and subsequently an area of about 214 acres was acquired to house an independent Regional Engineering College at present location.

Campus[]

The VNIT Nagpur campus is located in the western part of Nagpur city near Ambazari Lake, about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from Nagpur Railway Station and 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport. There are three main entrances to the 225 acres (91 ha) campus: the Main Gate on South Ambazari Road, the Bajaj Nagar Gate and the Yashwant Nagar Gate. The campus has significant green space, and is mostly untouched by the pollution of the rest of the city.

The Institute has a gymkhana, as well as grounds for tennis, badminton, basketball, volleyball, football, hockey, and cricket. An NCC unit is also located on campus. There is also an auditorium and a medical centre.

View of Administrative Building, VNIT Nagpur

Statue of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya

Entrance to Visvesvaraya National Institute Of Technology, Nagpur

New Academic Building

View of New Academic Block, VNIT Nagpur

New Girls Hostel

Library

Boys Hostel

Infrastructure[]

• Academic Block: Ground + 6 floors for faculty and PhD scholars.
• Twenty Five Virtual Classrooms
• Girls Hostel: 1000 capacity with dedicated messes, community rooms and Multi Activity Complex.
• Boys Hostel: 7 hostels for its students. 1st year and 2nd year students share hostel rooms. 3rd year and 4th year students are given single room facility.
• Class Room Complex
• Health Center
• Sports Facilities
  • Cricket Ground with six turf wickets. Cricket Pavilion with seating capacity - 500
  • Football Ground, Basketball Court and two Volleyball Courts with flood light arrangement.
  • Three Lawn Tennis Courts.
  • Kho-Kho, Kabaddi Grounds.
  • Well equipped gymnasium.
  • Indoor Badminton Stadium with four wooden sprung surfaced badminton courts.
  • Table Tennis Halls.
  • International Standard Swimming Pool (Under construction)

Organisation and administration[]

Departments, laboratories and research centers[]

VNIT Nagpur has many academic departments, with over 30 specialised laboratories and research centres.^[2]

Departments and laboratories[]

Centers^[4][]

Academics[]

Academic programs[]

Undergraduate programs are offered in Architecture (B.Arch) and eight engineering (B.Tech) disciplines:

• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Electrical and Electronics Engineering
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
• Mining Engineering

The Engineering undergraduate programs are usually four years, while Architecture is a five-year program. The institute accepts an incoming freshman class of up to 798 students.^[5]

Graduate and research programs leading to Master's (M.Arch, M.Sc. and M.Tech) and Ph.D. degrees, are offered by the Architecture department, as well as all basic science departments and all eight engineering departments. A range of special fields of study are available in graduate and research programs in each discipline. The institute will soon offer Aeronautical Engineering. Up to 350 students are admitted to the Master's program each year.^[6][7]

The institute uses relative grading on a 10-point scale.

Admissions[]

Till 2012-13, admission to the undergraduate courses (B.Tech) at NITs was through the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). From 2013-14, admission to the undergraduate courses (B.Tech) is through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main.^[5] The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have one of the lowest acceptance rates for engineering institutes, around 2 to 3 percent, second only to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India.^[8][9]

From 2015, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSSA)] conducts common counselling and allocates seats jointly for all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs). In 2015, over 1,300,000 candidates appeared for the JEE exam for admission to 28,000 undergraduate engineering seats (B.Tech) in 68 centrally-funded technical institutes that included all 19 IITs (10,000 seats), 31 NITs (15,500 seats) and 18 IIITs (2,500 seats).^[10][11][12]

For B.Tech at VNIT Nagpur in 2015, the acceptance rates were as following:^[13][14]

• Computer Science and Engineering: 0.33 percent
• Electronics and Communication Engineering: 0.58 percent
• Mechanical Engineering: 0.67 percent
• Electrical and Electronics Engineering: 0.82 percent
• Civil Engineering: 1.23 percent
• Chemical Engineering: 1.50 percent
• Metallurgical and Materials Engineering: 2.18 percent
• Mining Engineering: 2.61 percent

Undergraduate admissions for foreign students and NRIs are done through Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme which considers SAT scores.

Eighty percent of students to the postgraduate programs (M.Tech) are admitted based on performance in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). These students receive stipends and tuition assistance from the institute and the Indian government. Another 20% of students are admitted based on industry or other research organization sponsorship, with full tuition typically paid by the sponsoring institution.^[6]

The institute invites applications for PhD degree admissions in all departments every academic year.

Rankings[]

VNIT Nagpur has been ranked 27th among engineering colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020,^[17] 24th by Outlook India in 2019.^[18] and 21st by India Today in 2020.

Academic collaboration and sponsored research[]

The institute has academic collaborations with many universities in India and abroad. During 2015 alone, VNIT Nagpur signed 7 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with international universities and 21 MoUs with national institutions, laboratories and industries.^[20][21] These collaborative programmes include student and faculty exchange, internships for students and joint research activities among others. Some of the major universities with an MoU with VNIT Nagpur are:

• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay^[22]
• National Institute of Technology, Warangal^[23]
• National Institute of Technology Raipur^[24]
• National Institute of Technology, Uttarakhand^[25]
• College of Engineering, Pune^[22]
• Aichi Gakuin University, Japan^[26]
• ESIEE Paris, France^[27]
• Belarusian National Technical University, Belarus^[28]
• Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, Belarus^[28]
• New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA^{[citation needed]}
• Beijing Normal University, China^[29]
• Hunan University, China^[29]
• Southwest University for Nationalities, China^[29]
• Jiangshu University, China^[29]
• ISAN Medical Institute, South Korea^[25]
• VNIT Nagpur has also partnered with IIT Bombay and the College of Engineering Pune in an R&D project in "Biomedical Engineering and Technology Center Incubation" costing Rs. 39.4 crore.^[22]

Student life[]

Cultural and non-academic activities[]

• The annual Science & Technology festival of VNIT Nagpur, AXIS is every year and is one of the largest Science and Technology festival.
• The Entrepreneurship Cell of VNIT Nagpur (also known as E-Cell, VNIT), organizes several activities throughout the year in order to promote entrepreneurship. Consortium^[41] is a entrepreneurship conclave organized in the campus of VNIT Nagpur by E-Cell to bring together all the stakeholders of the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
• Aarohi is the annual cultural festival of VNIT Nagpur. Lasting three days, it is the largest youth event organized in the Octobers of Central India. It was started in 1989 by the pioneer batch of VNIT.

These college festivals are organised, financially managed and conducted entirely by the students of this institute. All these festivals and organisations are sponsored by private enterprise. Apart from these festivals, various other engineering streams based festivals are also being organised to motivate students towards Science and Technology. These include Symposium (Metallurgical and Material Science Engineering), Chemix (Chemical Engineering) etc.

VNIT Nagpur's Diamond Jubilee was held in 2020, with Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari attending as the chief guest at the inaugural function of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.^[42][43]

Notable alumni[]

• Neelam Saxena Chandra - poet and author
• Satyendra Pakhale - industrial designer
• Sudev Nair - actor
• Vijay P. Bhatkar - scientist, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardee, founding director of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
• Samir Barua - former director Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
• Budaraju Srinivasa Murty - director, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
• Ramesh Jain - professor of Information & Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine
• Nemkumar Banthia - professor of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia and CEO of IC-IMPACTS
• Akhilesh K. Gaharwar - professor of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University.
• Pradeep Kar - chairman and founder, Microland
• Dinesh Keskar - senior vice president of sales in Asia-Pacific and India at Boeing Commercial Airplanes
• Hemant Karkare - late chief of Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad
• Sanjay Joshi - former member of the Bhartiya Janata Party national executive; Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Pracharak and Hindu fundamentalist
• Anand Teltumbde - scholar, writer, and civil rights activist who is a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management
• Rashmi Urdhwareshe - An Indian automotive engineer, she is the director of the Automotive Research Association of India. In March 2020 she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website

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