Goa Engineering College or Goa College of Engineering (abbreviated and colloquially referred to as GEC) is a public college in Goa,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, offering courses in engineering disciplines and affiliated to Goa University. Founded in 1967 and situated at Farmagudi plateau, Ponda, it is the oldest engineering college in Goa, with over 2,200 students.

Academics

Academic programmes

The college started in 1967 with

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

courses in

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

, civil, and

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. The electronics and telecommunications course was introduced in 1982,

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in 1988,

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

in 2001, and

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

in 2011. In 2022, a course in electronics in VLSI was introduced in recognition of the growing semiconductor industry in India. All courses in the college are affiliated to

Goa University Goa University is a public state university headquartered in the city of Panaji, in the Indian state of Goa. The traditions of Goa University date back to the 17th century,Prôa, Miguel Pires. "Escolas Superiores" Portuguesas Antes de 1950 ...

. It currently has eight masters programmes, the duration of each being two years: The college is recognized as a research institute under Goa University. The affiliation to Ph.D. programs in civil, mechanical, electrical and electronics, computer science and engineering, and electronics and telecommunication engineering are recognized from academic year 2014–15 onwards. The college has a memorandum of understanding with IIT Bombay, and many of its faculty go there to pursue Ph.D. degrees. The Farmagudi campus also houses National Institute of Technology Goa and Indian Institute of Technology Goa.

Accreditation and ranking

The

National Board of Accreditation The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is one of the two major bodies responsible for accreditation of higher education institutions in India, along with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). NBA accredits technical progr ...

has accredited six branches of the college – the computer, mechanical, civil, electrical and electronics, information technology, and electronics and telecommunications branches. This means the academic curriculum and the teaching-learning process is of a good standard, with adequate infrastructure and faculty, acceptable to the All India Council of Technical Education. A study conducted in 2006 by the magazine Dataquest India ranked the college at 75th in India. In Dataquest's 2011 survey the college was unranked. As part of the golden jubilee celebrations, it was announced that the college would soon house an incubation centre for boosting entrepreneurship on campus.

Campus

The college has one of the largest libraries in the state. It is home to over 86,000 books, journals, and magazines, catering to all the subjects taught in the college. The library has a multimedia section that houses electronic modes of information such as encyclopedias. The library has a book bank facility with which students can obtain books for the entire year and return after the completion of the year, by paying a small fee. With the largest campus in Goa, spread well over 285 acres atop Farmagudi hill, the college has five boys' and two girls' hostels, staff housing, and guest house facilities for visiting faculty and students. The campus also hosts IIT Goa and NIT Goa until they get their permanent campus. The campus also has bicycles, donated by the alumni, for use by the staff and students. Besides the main canteen and multiple mess facilities, the college has small stalls and a restaurant that are frequented by students. The campus shopping complex has a restaurant, as well as shops that cater to student needs ranging from photocopying to stationery and other day-to-day needs. The campus has a post office and a computer center. The college gymkhana houses a power gym, which is accessible to students during non-working hours. There is an indoor

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

court, a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

court, and a full-length natural grass

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

ground that can be used as a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

field. Notably, the Electronics and Telecommunications branch features a robotic arm – the KUKA KR-16

Industrial Robot An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes. Typical applications of robots include robot welding, welding, painting, assembly, Circu ...

, used in assembly lines across many industries, for training its students.

Student life

Student clubs and associations

The students of Goa Engineering College call themselves Engicos. However, not all post-graduate students identify themselves with this term. The college has many active clubs: * The college has a Nature Club which organizes tree planting programmes in the surrounding regions and organizes treks to locations in Goa. * The college Photography Club has been organizing Photoflare, an international photography festival, since 2010. * The college Quiz Club organizes quizzes for the college events. * The college Music Club conducts workshops and organizes open mike sessions at the college's festivals. It has its own music room with equipment in the Mining Department. * The college Literary and Debate Club organizes many small activities and helps organize TEDxGEC. * The college has a Coding Club. * The college Drama (Theatre) Club was one of the oldest clubs, and has been restarted after a gap of almost seven years (in 2018). * The college students founded the Astronomy Club in 2018, with the maiden event hosting Dr Vithal Tilvi, who discovered the furthest known galaxy in the Universe in 2013.*The college recently started its very own Debate Club. * The college also has active student chapters of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, CSI, Goa Technology Association (GTA) and FSAI (Fire and Security Association of India). * The college also had a Robotics club and a Linux User Group (which hosted Stallman in 2003). * The college Coder's Club has been organizing various coding events and competitions, while developing college projects like the Tandav and Spectrum Website. * The college has a new Robotics Club called ARM Society Of GEC (founded 2022) . It hosts workshops, talk sessions for students in and out of college. They also assisted in the organization of events like The Goa International Robotics Festival & Vibrant Goa-Global Tech Summit in 2023. Student associations, based on their departments, are as follows: * MESA – Mechanical Engineering Students Association * ENEXSA – Electrical and Electronics Engineering Students Association (previously known as ELECTRA) * ACES – Association of Civil Engineering Students * CURSOR – Association of Computer Engineering Students * INTENSA – Information Technology Students Association * ASSETS – Association of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering Students * MINESCO – Mining Engineering Students Council These associations conduct events, technical and non-technical, once or twice per semester. They also come together to organise Spectrum, the college's technical festival. The students also celebrate religious festivals Ganesh Chaturthi and

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

every year on the campus.

Cultural events

Happenings

Happenings is the cultural festival organized by the college. Started in 1981, it is officially the oldest college festival in Goa. In 2009, two fresh and famous bands performed for the rock show, namely Bhayanak Maut and Reverse Polarity, both from

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. Happenings 2019, which was held on 16 and 17 March 2019 witnessed one of the biggest Pronites in its history, with a performance of Emiway Bantai and second day DJ night featured one of India's top DJ duo the Progressive Brothers.

Spectrum

Spectrum is the technical festival organized by the college. It was started in 2016, after a decision to merge the technical events organized by the individual student associations of each department. Spectrum 2017 Pronite featured Sapan Verma and

Sorabh Pant Sorabh Pant born 14 September 1981) is an Indian stand-up comedian and writer. He has performed over 250 shows. He was rated amongst India's top-ten stand-up comedians by ''The Times of India''. In a poll by IBN Live in March 2012, he was lis ...

from the comedy group EIC. Spectrum 2018 Pronite was held in association with

Sunburn Sunburn is a form of radiation burn that affects living tissue, such as skin, that results from an overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, usually from the Sun. Common symptoms in humans and other animals include red or reddish skin tha ...

and featured Sartek and The Unknown.

Tandav

Tandav is an annual inter-departmental cultural and sports event, in which all branches of the college compete across various events for a trophy.

TEDxGEC

TEDxGEC is Goa's second TEDx event and was started in 2016. Its first event featured four eminent personalities: Kanan Tandi, an expert in body language; Gaurav Padte, a social worker, awarded by the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

for his work in cleaning up the Fatorda Stadium; Marietta Rodrigues e D'Souza, a clinical psychologist and counsellor from Sharada Mandir School, who spoke about teenage love; and Somu Rao, President of Goa Science Forum and Former National Secretary of Federation of Indian Rationalists Associations, who spoke about godmen and rationality. Their second event open to the general public was a Salon event titled "TEDxGECSalon: ARTiculate". Held in 2017, it featured alumni DJ Anish Sood and filmmaker Aditya Jambhale, along with noted artist Dr Subodh Kerkar.

Other notable events

* Richard M Stallman, founder of the

GNU Project The GNU Project ( ) is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and Computer hardware, computing dev ...

and the

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

, visited the college Linux User Group in November 2001. * The college celebrated its golden jubilee year in 2016–2017. A clock tower, funded by alumni, was erected on this occasion. * AICSSYC (All India IEEE Computer Society Students and Young Professionals Congress) 2018 was hosted by

GEC Chapter.

Notable people

Notable alumni

* Aisha de Sequeira, co-head of Morgan Stanley India from 2013 through 2020. * Anish Sood, DJ and EDM producer * Cruz Silva, MLA of Velim constituency. * Sameer Naik, founders of NextBiT Computing Pvt Ltd. The company was, in 2009, voted on the list of top 25 emerging technology companies in India * Sidharth Kuncalienker, politician, ex-MLA of Panjim constituency * Shikha Pandey, cricketer

List of principals

* Vivek Kamat (2009–2013) * R.B. Lohani (2013–2014) * Vinayak N. Shet (2014–2018) * Dr. Krupashankara Mysore Sethuram (2018–2021) * R.B. Lohani (2021–2023) * Dr. Krupashankara Mysore Sethuram (2023 onwards)

Gallery

File:Goa Engineering College - Students posing with medals after the Golden Jubilee Run.jpg, Students posing with medals after the Golden Jubilee Run File:Goa Engineering College - Library.jpg, Library File:Goa Engineering College - Nescafe.jpg, Nescafe on campus File:Goa Engineering College - Quiz on campus.jpg, Quiz on campus File:Goa Engineering College - Students relaxing.jpg, Students relaxing File:Goa Engineering College - Hostel 1 backyard.jpg, Hostel 1 backyard File:Goa Engineering College - Near Canteen.jpg, Near Canteen File:Goa Engineering College - Students catching a Bal Rath (bus).jpg, Students catching a Bal Rath (bus) File:Goa Engineering College - Abandoned cars rusting away.jpg, Abandoned cars rusting away File:Goa Engineering College - Windmill.jpg, Windmill on campus File:Goa Engineering College - Canteen.jpg, Canteen File:Goa Engineering College - Theatre-style Lecture Halls.jpg, Theatre-style Lecture Halls File:Goa Engineering College - Music.jpg, Music performance on campus File:Goa Engineering College - During the Monsoons.jpg, Campus during the Monsoons File:Goa Engineering College - Science & Humanities Department.jpg, Science & Humanities Department File:Goa Engineering College - Umesh's gaddo.jpg, Umesh's ''gaddo''