National Institute of Technology, Rourkela

National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela or NITRKL or NITR), formerly Regional Engineering College Rourkela is a publicly funded institute of higher learning for engineering, science and technology located in the steel city of Rourkela, Odisha, India. It is one of the 31 National Institutes of Technology in India and has been recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007. It is ranked 16th in the NIRF Rankings 2023 of Indian engineering universities.[5]

National Institute of Technology Rourkela
TypePublic technical university Institute of National Importance
Established15 August 1961
(63 years ago)
 (1961-08-15)
ChairpersonS N Subrahmanyan[1]
DirectorProf. K. Umamaheshwar Rao[2]
Academic staff
360[3]
Students6,276[4]
Undergraduates4,007[4]
Postgraduates1,434[4]
835[4]
Location, ,
22°15′12″N 84°54′04″E / 22.2534°N 84.9012°E / 22.2534; 84.9012
CampusUrban
1,200 acres (490 ha)
Websitewww.nitrkl.ac.in

History

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NIT Rourkela was established as Regional Engineering College (REC) Rourkela on 15 August 1961. Chief Minister of Odisha, Biju Patnaik provided the land for it, approximately 1200 acres.[6] Its foundation stone was laid by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was granted autonomy in 2002 and now functions independently under the Ministry of Education,[7] thus becoming one of the National Institutes of Technology.

Campus

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Location

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The Rourkela Steel City is a medium-sized metropolis, located on the Howrah-Mumbai and Ranchi-Bhubaneswar main railway routes, and well connected to all parts of the country by road and rail. The population of the city is about 7 lakhs. The institute is about 7 km from the railway station. The campus of the institute consisting of the institute buildings, halls of residence and staff colony is situated at the eastern end of Rourkela, beyond Sector-1, on land provided by the Government of Odisha. The institute is bordered by small mountains on the south which are sometimes used as a picnic spot by students.[8]

The closest domestic airport to Rourkela is Jharsuguda at a distance of 130 kilometers. Rourkela also has a private airport maintained by SAIL which is used only for official purposes.

Infrastructure

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NIT - Guest House

The campus of the institute is situated at the eastern end of Rourkela steel city, beyond Sector-1, on land provided by the Government of Odisha. The courses are mostly residential on a full-time basis.

The institute area is at the centre of the campus and surrounded by the residential areas. The main building of the institute is in a central area and is surrounded by the departmental buildings. It houses all the classrooms, the Central Library, and the Administrative and Academic sections. It also houses departments like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Atmospheric and Earth Science, Life Science and Humanities. All the departments, the lecture gallery, the workshops, the institute canteen and the audio-visual hall surround the main building.

The lecture area and the department of biotechnology and medical engineering are situated behind the Department of Chemical Engineering. The new Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering has come up behind the Department of Computer Science. The buildings of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Mining Engineering and Ceramic Engineering have an extension part.

 
Bhubaneshwar Behera Auditorium

Residential accommodation is provided to all faculty, staff and students. There are eleven halls of residence for the students within the campus: seven for male graduates and postgraduates, two for female students and two for married students pursuing doctorate degrees and beyond or full-time research.

Student Activity Centre

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The Student Activity Centre (SAC) within the central academic area is the hub of all extra-academic pursuits and is the main organizing office for all student symposiums and annual events. It is served by the approximately 400-seater Bhubaneswar Behera Audio Visual Auditorium and an approximately 1000-seat open air theater. Annually, SAC elections are held at the end of even semesters through online voting.

Health care

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The institute is served by an on-campus dispensary (Health Centre) and the fully equipped Community Welfare Service (CWS) Hospital for medical treatments. All residential and non-residential students are insured for all medical expenses by the institute.

The student co-operative store facilitates the purchase of books and stationery at reduced prices. The on campus postal service is the state-owned India Post. The official on-campus banker to students and the institute is the state-run State Bank of India (REC Campus).

Institute library

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The Biju Pattanaik Central Library, functional from 1965, was named after Biju Pattanaik, the former chief minister of Odisha. At present, the library holds about 85,000 books and 18,000 back volumes of periodicals. It has purchased a license to access over 2000 online research journals on science and technology to foster local research activity. The BPCL is automated with an integrated library software package called Libsys – LSmart and is modernized with the latest radio frequency identification (RFID)-based automation system that facilitates self-check-in, check-out, and an automatic security system. This technology offers the fastest, easiest, and most efficient way to track, locate and manage library materials. The RFID system counts more than 1.2 lakhs of transactions (issue, return, and renewal) in a year.[9]

Institute Counselling Services (ICS)

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Institute Counselling Services office

Institute Counselling Services (ICS) is a technical service unit (TSU) which was conceptualized in the year 2017 for the purpose of taking care of the mental health needs of the students and employees. It is headed by a Head of Unit, faculty members and a dedicated student team. Visiting counsellor and psychiatrist are available to handle the mental health issues. Additionally, 24x7 online counselling services provided by YourDOST are also a part. The student team consists of coordinators, prefects and mentors. Every year, ICS conducts orientation session for the newly joined students (mentees) who are assigned to mentors for an entire year. Other than that, the team looks into the Academic, Financial, Mental and Socio-cultural issues of the students.

ICS also celebrates Mental Health Week every October to highlight the importance of mental health and spread awareness among the fraternity. Attempts are made to connect with the community through this week-long event and programs. ICS also conducts academic sessions, internship talks and personality development initiatives which aim to help the students. It also has a dedicated Android App service (ICS App) which contains an anonymous chat service and YouTube channel (ICS YouTube) which contains informative videos.

Administration and organisation

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Governance

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The institute is managed by a Board of Governors (BoG) created as per NIT Act of 2007. The Act is responsible for the overall superintendence, direction, and control of its affairs. The Director is responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of the institute, and the director is the Principal Executive and Academic Officer. The BoG is assisted by the Senate, which frames the curriculum and conducts the examinations. The Senate also appoints advisory or expert committees to make recommendations to the BoG on academic matters related to various departments. The Building and Works Committee and the Finance Committee also assist the BoG.

The institute has different departments, centers and technical service units (TSUs). Each department or centre is headed by a faculty member and each TSU is headed by a faculty member or an officer.[10]

The director is supported in various activities by the deans,[11] i.e. the Dean for Academics, the Dean for Student Welfare, the Dean for faculty welfare, the Dean for Alumni, the Dean for Planning and Development and the Dean for SRICCE (Sponsored Research, Industrial Consultancy, and Continuing Education). The registrar is in charge of all office and staff administration and has two deputy registrars and six assistant registrars.

A Biswas's administration revamped Organisation structure and introduced Associate Deans for all Six Deanships to meet dynamic needs of the institute.

Departments

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The institute has the following twenty departments which offer B.Tech., B.Arch, B. Tech-M. Tech Dual, M.Tech., M.Sc., Integrated M.Sc., MBA and PhD degree:[12]

NIT Administrative Building
Biju Patnaik Central Library
Biomedical & Biotechnology Dept.
NIT Lecture Hall
Chemical Engineering Department
Biotechnology & Medical Engineering Dept.
NIT Rourkela Main Gate
  • Department of Planning and Architecture
  • Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
  • Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering
  • Department of Ceramic Engineering
  • Department of Chemical Engineering
  • Department of Chemistry
  • Department of Civil Engineering
  • Department of Computer Science and Engineering
  • Department of Electrical Engineering
  • Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
  • Department of Food Process Engineering
  • Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Department of Industrial Design
  • Department of Life Science
  • Department of Mathematics
  • Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
  • Department of Mining Engineering
  • Department of Physics and Astronomy
  • Department of School of Management

Dual degree courses in various disciplines have been introduced recently. The institute provides opportunities for part-time graduate studies in selected fields in addition to doctoral research in various subjects. The institute also has three academic centers and six service centers.

Rankings

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NIT Rourkela was ranked 1001–1200 in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2023[13] and 251-300 in Asia for 2022.[14] In India it was ranked 19th among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024.[15]

College rankings
General – international
Times (World) (2023)[13]1001-1200
Times (Asia) (2022)[14]251-300
General – India
NIRF (Overall) (2024)[16]34
Engineering – India
NIRF (2024)[17]19
Architecture – India
NIRF (2024)[18]9


Student life

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Student organisations

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NIT Rourkela has as many as 40 clubs or student organizations. These clubs span and promote a variety of interests such as technical, cultural, literary, debating, quizzing, sports, and social service among the students, enabling them to explore and enhance their hitherto hidden talents.[citation needed]

Cultural festivals

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NIT Rourkela hosts four major annual events:

  • Innovision: a technical festival which showcases the technical talents of the students and the practical applications of their learning
  • Vriddhi: in which students from various colleges participate in various sports and games
  • Nitrutsav: a cultural festival where students from all parts of the country participate
  • Cosmopolitan Festival:It is a multi-ethnic festival organized by the institute.

HackNITR

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HackNITR[19] is a yearly hackathon event organized in NIT Rourkela.[20] It is the largest student run hackathon of India. The first event dates back to 2019.[21] HackNITR 4.0 took place in January 2023 and it received 5200+ registration from 500+ colleges and 30+ countries across the globe. Overall 336 projects were submitted in HackNITR 4.0.[20] HackNITR is organized[22] by students from Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) NIT Rourkela[23] in collaboration with OpenCode, Opensource community[24] of NITR.

TEDxNITRourkela

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TEDxNITRourkela is an independently organized TED event, under a license by from TED Conferences LLC. It was organized for the first time in 2011[25] and again in the following year, 2012.[26] After a long gap, TEDxNITRourkela has been organized on 13 and 14 March 2021[27] by a team of students from NITR, led by Abel Mathew and Rutaj Dash.[28][29]

Monday Morning

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Monday Morning, also referred to as MM, is the student media platform at NIT Rourkela, founded in 2006, and the name of its e-newsletter.[30] It aims to bridge the gap between the administration and the student community.[31] The MM e-newsletter is published weekly during the academic year.[32]

In its first years of operation, the issues MM covered included construction problems with the new Vikram Sarabhai Residence Hall and child labor abuse in a residence mess.[30][31] Its coverage of the latter attracted the attention of the Chief Warden, who "formed a team to inspect and raid all halls of residence caterers and mess owners to check on the number of children below the age of 14 working there and how they were treated".[31]

In 2012, it was reported that the newsletter's 'Placement Life' and 'Director's Desk' columns received just under 8,000 website hits per week.[30] That year, The Hindu reported that the newsletter had three chief coordinators, whose role was to set the newsletter's agenda, guide and co-ordinate other team members, and edit articles. Writing articles was done by a content team. Four students were responsible for the newsletter's policies, new features, setting long-term goals, performing regular reviews of the newsletter and taking decisions on coverage of controversial issues. It was reported that students spent two to three hours per week each on the newsletter, using the campus computer facility.[31]

Notable alumni

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References

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  1. ^ "Subrahmanyan appointed BoG chairperson of NIT-R". The New Indian Express. 14 September 2023.
  2. ^ "Prof. Karanam Umamaheshwar Rao takes charge as director of NIT-Rourkela". The Indian Express. 19 February 2022.
  3. ^ "NIRF 2023 Data" (PDF). Ministry of Education.
  4. ^ a b c d "National Institute of Technology, Rourkela Data for NIRF 2023" (PDF). Ministry of Education 5 June 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  5. ^ "National Institutional Ranking Framework" www.nirfindia.org Retrieved on 2023-07-5.
  6. ^ ["https://www.mapdevelopers.com/area_finder.php?polygons=%5B%5B%5B%5B22.252004536925146%2C84.89347840281069%5D%2C%5B22.245013761992933%2C84.89639664621889%5D%2C%5B22.246284837933317%2C84.89995861979067%5D%2C%5B22.245291810840452%2C84.90043068857729%5D%2C%5B22.24541097446326%2C84.9022331330353%5D%2C%5B22.245013761992933%2C84.90236187906801%5D%2C%5B22.2459670700295%2C84.90811253519594%5D%2C%5B22.24560958027605%2C84.91163159342348%5D%2C%5B22.245013761992933%2C84.91360569925844%5D%2C%5B22.24588762794093%2C84.91935635538637%5D%2C%5B22.250654073506404%2C84.91909886332094%5D%2C%5B22.25132930684366%2C84.91828347178041%5D%2C%5B22.252401729569836%2C84.91836930246889%5D%2C%5B22.253712457303994%2C84.91540814371645%5D%2C%5B22.25593669447321%2C84.91236115427553%5D%2C%5B22.256333875963836%2C84.90854168863832%5D%2C%5B22.256929646087062%2C84.9075117203766%5D%2C%5B22.257287106944077%2C84.90502263041078%5D%2C%5B22.256492748244597%2C84.90437890024721%5D%2C%5B22.2556189484695%2C84.90176106424867%5D%2C%5B22.25581753980634%2C84.90107441874086%5D%2C%5B22.25478486177876%2C84.89824200602114%5D%2C%5B22.254069926374896%2C84.89807034464418%5D%2C%5B22.252004536925146%2C84.89347840281069%5D%5D%2C%22%23AAAAAA%22%2C%22%23000000%22%2C0.4%5D%5D" "Area Calculator - Outline a property on a google map and find its area"]. www.mapdevelopers.com. Retrieved 21 July 2024. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  7. ^ [1] Archived 14 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ [2] Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Library". Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  10. ^ "Authorities of the Institute". Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  11. ^ [3] Archived 20 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Departments/Centres. Nitrkl.ac.in. Retrieved on 2013-10-09.
  13. ^ a b "World University Rankings 2023". Times Higher Education. 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Asia University Rankings 2022". Times Higher Education. 2022.
  15. ^ "NIRF 2024" (PDF).
  16. ^ "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2024 (Overall)". National Institutional Ranking Framework. Ministry of Education. 12 August 2024.
  17. ^ "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2024 (Engineering)". National Institutional Ranking Framework. Ministry of Education. 12 August 2024.
  18. ^ "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2024 (Architecture and Planning)". National Institutional Ranking Framework. Ministry of Education. 12 August 2024.
  19. ^ "HACKNITR | Website". hacknitr.tech. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  20. ^ a b "Roving through the Tech Locale: GDSC Review". 5 June 2023.
  21. ^ "HackNITR 1.0 | Monday Morning". mondaymorning.nitrkl.ac.in. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  22. ^ "HackNITR 2.0 | Mozilla Community Portal". community.mozilla.org. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  23. ^ "GDSCNITRourkela | GDSC NITR". dscnitrourkela.org. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  24. ^ "Opencode | Opencode NITR". mondaymorning.nitrkl.ac.in. 13 January 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  25. ^ "TEDxNITRourkela | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  26. ^ "TEDxNITRourkela | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  27. ^ "TEDxNITRourkela | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  28. ^ "Abel Mathew's TED Profile". www.ted.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  29. ^ "Rutaj Dash's TED Profile". www.ted.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  30. ^ a b c Sanjeevi, Kaviya (17 September 2012). "Campus jottings". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  31. ^ a b c d Nayak, Dinesh (7 August 2012). "When a pen stirs up a campus". The Hindu. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  32. ^ "Campus Journalism Helps Students Get Ahead". Careers360. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  33. ^ "Smt. Soma Mondal | SAIL". sail.co.in. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
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