Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Motto	"Shramam Vina Na Kimapi Saadhyam"
Motto in English	Nothing is possible Without Hard Work
Established	1847
Type	Public
Location	Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
Campus	Urban
Website	http://www.iitr.ac.in http://www.iitr.ernet.in

The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) is located in Roorkee, a township in Uttarakhand, India. Instituted as Thomson college of Civil Engineering in year 1847 by the British, it was rechristened as University of Roorkee in year 1949.^[1] Prior to independence, it awarded the degrees of the University of Calcutta and the Allahabad University, to which it was successively affiliated, followed by its own diplomas. It was restructured in 1948 as the University of Roorkee, as the first engineering university of modern India. IIT Roorkee is placed at 63 in the QS.com Asian University Rankings 2009[1].

[edit] Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

The oldest institute of technical education in Asia and the erstwhile British Empire to award its own degrees (as the College of Engineering, Guindy was not a degree granting institution since its inception in 1794), IIT Roorkee celebrated its sesquicentennial (150th year) anniversary in October 1996. On 21 September 2001, an ordinance issued by the Government of India declared it as the nation's seventh Indian Institute of Technology. The ordinance was converted into an act by the Parliament to make IIT Roorkee an "Institution of National Importance".^[2]

Main (Administrative) Building, IIT Roorkee

IIT Roorkee offers a wide range of academic programmes. It runs eleven Under Graduate, five Integrated Dual Degree, three Integrated M.Tech., three integrated M.Sc., sixty one Post Graduate and several Doctoral Programmes.^[3]

Along with the engineering courses, IIT Roorkee also offers a 2 year residential MBA program. The Department of Management Studies also offers Ph.D. in various disciplines. Admission for these courses are through JMET, a centralized entrance examination for the MBA programs at various IITs.

IIT Roorkee is also running an MCA programme. Typically, the MCA is a 3 year fulltime degree course consisting of six semesters. It covers various aspects of computing, accounting, finance, programming, design and managing networks and databases. Admission for this course is through JAM (joint admission test), a centralized examination for two-year MSc programmes at all IITs, Three-year MCA and M Tech in Applied Geology/ Applied Geophysics at IIT Roorkee, MSc-PhD Dual Degree in Physics at IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur.

Prior to being converted into an IIT, the University selected students through an entrance exam, REE (Roorkee Entrance Exam) conducted on an All-India level. The selectivity of REE was close to 2%.^{[citation needed]} The Institute continues the legacy by admitting students to B.Tech. and B.Arch. courses through the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted at various centers all over India. The Institute is a member of LAOTSE, an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.

[edit] Heritage

The College was established in year 1847 as the first engineering college in the British Empire.^[4] The College was renamed as The Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854. Between 1934 to 1943, officers of Indian Army Corps of Engineers also received training at the Thomason College of Engineering and even after the establishment of the School of Military Engineering (SME) at Roorkee in 1943, they continued to receive technical training at the college, till in 1948 when SME was moved to Dapodi, Pune^[5]. It was given the status of University by Act No. IX of 1948 of the United Province (Uttar Pradesh) in recognition of its performance, potential and keeping in view the needs of post-independent India. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, presented the Charter in November 1949, elevating the erstwhile college to the First Engineering University of Independent India.

The University played a vital role in providing the technical manpower, know-how and pursuit of research to the country. It ranked amongst the top technological institutions in the world and contributed to all sectors of technological development. For example, it was ranked 14th best in Asia by Asiaweek in 2000.^[6]

[edit] Academics

• Degrees offered: The Institute offers Bachelor degree courses in 10 disciplines of Engineering and Architecture and Postgraduate degrees in 55 disciplines of Engineering, Applied Sciences, Architecture and Planning. The Institute has facility for doctoral work in all Departments and Research Centres. There are roughly 4200 students in the Institute across all programs. Around 375 faculty belonging to various science and engineering disciplines are engaged in teaching, research and consultancy activities here. With effect from 2003, integrated dual degrees are also offered, which means that students get both B. Tech and M. Tech degrees in 5 years rather than the customary 4+2 years.^{[citation needed]}

• IIT-JEE: The entrance examination for undergraduate courses conducted jointly by the thirteen IITs and two other institutes namely IT-BHU, Varanasi (Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University) and ISM, Dhanbad (Indian School of Mining). It is amongst the toughest entrance examinations in the world. About 10,000 students are chosen from about 400000 candidates.

• Credit system: As in other IITs, IIT Roorkee follows a credit system for evaluating academic performance. The Grade Point Average (GPA) is on a scale of 0 to 10. Different courses are alloted different number of credits according to their importance.

[edit] Research

The Institute has several departments and advanced research centres in various disciplines of engineering and the pure sciences.

The Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department

Computer Centre

The engineering departments of the institute include:

1. Architecture
2. Biotechnology
3. Chemical Engineering
4. Civil Engineering
5. Computer Science and Engineering
6. Earthquake Engineering (offers post-graduate level courses only)
7. Electrical Engineering
8. Electronics and Communications Engineering
9. Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
10. Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
11. Geophysical Technology
12. Geological Technology
13. Pulp and Paper Engineering

The departments dealing with pure sciences in the institute are:

1. Chemistry
2. Mathematics
3. Physics
4. Earth Sciences
5. Humanities and Social Sciences

In addition to them, there are also specialised centers, that are:

1. Department of Management Studies^[7]
2. Hydrology
3. Water Resources Development and Management
4. Alternate Hydro Energy Center

[edit] Academic Collaboration

The Institute has Academic Collaboration with the following universities:

• University of Texas at Dallas
• National University of Singapore
• University of Waterloo
• Royal Institute of Technology(KTH),Stockholm

[edit] Campus

The campus is spread in an area of 360 acres (1.5 km²).^[8]

IIT Roorkee also has a Saharanpur Campus of 25 acres (100,000 m²) which offers courses in Polymer Science, Process Engineering and Paper Technology.^[8]

[edit] Hostels(Bhawans)

Most students at IIT Roorkee live in the hostels, where a large number of extracurricular activities complement the hectic academic routine. The campus has nine hostels, of which two (Sarojini and Kasturba) are exclusively occupied by girls. Hostels in IIT Roorkee may accommodate undergraduate and graduate students along with doctoral students. Students are assigned to hostels by the Institute Administration after their freshmen year. The hostels are named after eminent personalities of India and Britain during the Indian Freedom Struggle. The hostels are:

1. Azad Bhawan
2. Cautley Bhawan
3. Ganga Bhawan
4. Govind Bhawan
5. Jawahar Bhawan
6. Malviya Bhawan (Saharanpur Campus)
7. Ravindra Bhawan
8. Sarojini Bhawan
9. Kasturba Bhawan
10. Rajendra Bhawan

In addition to these hostels, there are four hostels for married students, doctoral students and foreign students:

1. Mulk Raj Chopra Bhawan
2. Ghanand Pandey Bhawan
3. A. N. Khosla Bhawan
4. Azad Wing

Several new hostels are being constructed to accommodate an increasing intake of students. On entering Govind Bhawan, one reaches the famous "highway" corridor.

[edit] Mess

Each bhawan has its mess, which is run on the basis of tenders. Mess administration consists of a staff advisor and a chief advisor. Moreover a mess secretary, representative of students, is also in the body for decisions on various the mess-issues.

[edit] Sports

IIT Roorkee has a very rich sports culture. Stadiums like Lal Bahadur Shashtri Stadium for cricket and athletics, Major Dhyan Chand Stadium for hockey and various others provide modern sports facilities to the students.

IIT Roorkee have participated in various sports events such as Inter IIT sports meet, Udhghosh. IIT Roorkee also hosted its first ever Inter-College Sports Fest, SANGRAM[2] in 2009. Held from 27-29 March 2009, this fest boasted of participation from over 26 colleges and about 750 athletes from all over India.

[edit] References

1. ^ Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
2. ^ http://www.iitr.ac.in/institute/pages/About_the_Institute.html
3. ^ Academics
4. ^ "IIT-Roorkee section at the website of Uttarakhand Government". National Informatics Centre. http://gov.ua.nic.in/uatechedu/setup_iit_roorkee.html. 
5. ^ "CME marks 50 eventful years". The Indian Express. September 15, 1998. http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19980915/25851594.html. 
6. ^ "Asiaweek Asia's Best Universities 2000". Asiaweek. http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/features/universities2000/scitech/sci.overall.html. 
7. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Management_Studies,_IIT_Roorkee
8. ^ ^{a b} "FAQ about IIT Roorkee". http://www.iitr.ernet.in/administration/faq.htm. 

[edit] External links

• Official website of IITR
• IIT Roorkee Alumni Network
• RoorkeeInc Global Community
• Asianuniversityrankings