Thomason Engineering College

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee) is a technical university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. It is the oldest engineering institution in India, and was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in British India in 1847 by the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces, James Thomason, in order to train officers and surveyors employed in the construction of the Ganges Canal. In 1854, after the completion of the canal and Thomason's death, it was renamed the Thomason College of Civil Engineering by Proby Cautley, the designer and projector of the canal. It was renamed University of Roorkee in 1949, and again renamed IIT Roorkee in 2001. The institution has 22 academic departments covering Engineering, Applied Sciences, Humanities & Social Sciences and Management programs with an emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.

History

The institution was founded in 1847 by James Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces (in which Roorkee then lay) to aid engineers and surveyors at work in the construction of the Ganges Canal. It offered instruction catered to a variety of students; this included an engineering class for the domiciled British and some Indians; an upper subordinates class for British noncommissioned officers; and a lower subordinates class for Indian surveyors. By the mid-1880s, "the school has a hundred students, substantial buildings, and a reputation as an important center for the study of hydraulic engineering."

An Electrical Engineering department was added in 1897. The architecture department instituted a master's degree course in Architecture (M. Arch.) in 196970.

In 1978, the Institute of Paper Technology, Saharanpur was merged with the then University of Roorkee. The Institute of Paper Technology was established as School of Paper Technology by the Government of India in 1964, with an aid from the Royal Swedish Government. The school was renamed as the Institute of Paper Technology in July 1968 and subsequently Department of Paper Technology in July 1992.

The first edition of Thomso, the institute's annual cultural festival was held in 1982. In 1997 the government of India released a stamp dedicated to 150th anniversary of university of Roorkee.

On 21 September 2001, an ordinance issued by the Government of India declared it as the nation's seventh Indian Institute of Technology, renaming it to the current name, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The ordinance was converted into an act by the Parliament to make IIT Roorkee an "Institution of National Importance". To mark 175 years of the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, the central government issued a Rs 175 coin.

Campus

The main campus in Roorkee has an area of .

IIT Roorkee has a separate campus of in Saharanpur which offers courses in Polymer Science, Process Engineering, Paper Technology & Packaging Technology
In addition to this, a new ten-acre campus has been established in Greater Noida, Knowledge Park II, which was inaugurated on 4 April 2011. The Noida extension centre has 16 lecture rooms, software laboratories, faculty offices, a library and a computer center.

Most students live in the hostels, where extracurricular activities complement the academic routine. The campus has 16 hostels, of which two (Sarojini, Kasturba ) are occupied by girls. The campus has a new co-ed hostel, Vigyan Kunj. Hostels may accommodate undergraduate and graduate students along with doctoral students. Students are assigned to hostels by the school administration after their freshmen year. There are nine hostels for married students, doctoral students and foreign students. Each bhawan has a mess. Mess administration consists of a staff advisor, a chief advisor, and a student mess secretary.

Organisation and administration

Governance

All IITs follow the same organization structure which has President of India as visitor at the top of the hierarchy. Directly under the president is the IIT Council. Under the IIT Council is the board of governors of each IIT.
Under the board of governors is the director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. Under the director, in the organizational structure, comes the deputy director. Under the director and the deputy director, come the deans, heads of departments, registrar.

Departments and centres

IIT Roorkee is one of the biggest technical institutions in the country having the largest number of academic units. It has 21 academic departments covering engineering, applied sciences, humanities & social sciences, and management programmes, 1 academic centre, 3 centres of excellence, 5 academic service centres and 3 supporting units.

* Departments
** Engineering and Applied Sciences
*** Architecture and Planning
*** Applied Science and Engineering
*** Biotechnology
*** Chemical Engineering
*** Chemistry
*** Civil Engineering
*** Computer Science and Engineering
*** Earthquake Engineering
*** Earth Sciences
*** Electrical Engineering
*** Electronics and Communication Engineering
*** Humanities and Social Sciences
*** Hydrology
*** Hydro and Renewable Energy
*** Management Studies
*** Mathematics
*** Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
*** Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
*** Paper Technology
*** Polymer and Process Engineering
*** Physics
*** Water Resources Development and Management
** Sciences
*** Chemistry
*** Mathematics
**
** Business
*** Management Studies
** Humanities
*** Humanities and Social Sciences

* Centers
**Centre of Excellence
***Centre of Nanotechnology
***Centre for Transportation Systems (CTRANS)
***Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation & Management (CoEDMM)
** Academic Service centers
*** Mahatma Gandhi Central Library
*** Centre of Nanotechnology
*** Centre for Transportation Systems
*** Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation & Management
*** Continuing Education Centre
*** Institute Computer Centre
*** Institute Instrumentation Centre
*** Intellectual Property Rights Cell
*** Quality Improvement Programme
** Supporting Service Centres
*** Educational Technology Cell
*** Institute Hospital

Academics

IIT Roorkee offers academic programmes in Engineering, Technology, Applied Sciences, and Management. It runs eleven undergraduate (UG), one integrated dual degree, sixty one postgraduate (PG) and several doctoral programmes.

The institute admits students to B.Tech., B.Arch. and integrated M.Sc. integrated M.Tech courses through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted at centers all over India. Before being converted into an IIT, the university selected students through the Roorkee Entrance Exam (REE) conducted on an All-India level. The selectivity of REE was close to 0.25%. After IIT-JEE, it was considered to be the second toughest engineering entrance examination in India. Admission to PG programmes in engineering and architecture is on the basis of GATE score and/or a written test and interview. For PG programmes in fundamental sciences admission is based on the Joint Admission Test (JAM).

Along with the engineering courses, the institute offers a two-year residential MBA program for which the admissions, starting from 2011, will be done on the basis of Common Admission Test, thus replacing Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) previously conducted by the IITs. The institute also offered an interdisciplinary program in computer applications leading to a degree in Master of computer applications (MCA). The MCA program was a three-year course and admission for the course was through JAM. This programme has been discontinued.

According to statistics published by institute in 200708 4137 students were enrolled in the institute across all programs. The student-to-academic-staff ratio was 2.6:1 and that of UG/PG students was 1.4:1.

Rankings

Internationally, IIT Roorkee was ranked 387 in the QS World University Rankings of 2021. The same rankings ranked it 90 in Asia in 2020 and 47 among BRICS nations in 2019. It was ranked 501-600 in the world by the '' Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' of 2020, and 58 in Emerging Economies University Rankings in 2020.

In India, it ranked sixth among engineering colleges by the '' National Institutional Ranking Framework'' in 2020 and ninth overall. It also ranked 5th among engineering colleges in India in 2019 by '' The Week''.

The Department of Management Studies ranked 12th among management schools in India by the '' National Institutional Ranking Framework'' in 2020. The Department of Management Studies ranked 1st in the Research and Professional Practices in 2020 NIRF Ranking.

Library

An ISO 9001:2008 certified academic service centre in 2015, The Mahatma Gandhi Central Library finds a unique place in the academic spectrum of the institute. Started in 1848 with a few hundred donated books, its collection has grown to more than 3,50,000 documents in all media. The library contains rare manuscripts including a 1623 edition of William Shakespeare’s complete works. Providing information through e-resources is the main focus of the Library. It has around 90,000 sq ft of fully air-conditioned space. It can accommodate more than 500 readers at any point of time. The library building is WiFi enabled and contains a total 75 user terminals, dedicated for readers. It also contains an 80-seater open reading room.

Research

Research activities at the institute are conducted at either the department level or under the central office of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC). Major research funding was awarded by several ministries and departments of the Government of India, including the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and others. Apart from these, a number of major research organizations who have awarded projects to IIT Roorkee include the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Space Research Organisation and others. The State Emergency Operation Centre(SEOC) in Dehradun
is planning to soon link data centre of an earthquake early warning system developed by IIT Roorkee with the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun which would come as a great recognition for the establishment.

Academic collaboration

IIT Roorkee's contribution towards the international community in science and technology include the courses and training programs run for developing countries. Every year students from more than 50 countries join IIT Roorkee for full-time or short-term training courses. In 1955 the department of Water Resources Development and Management (WRDM) was established as an Asian African Centre to honour India's commitment at the Asian African Conference held in Bandung. WRDM and the Department of Hydrology run special postgraduate programmes for students of the Afro Asian region. The department has so far trained over 2469 in service engineers and agricultural scientists from 48 countries including India. The courses offered by the Department of Hydrology are presently sponsored by the Government of India and the UNESCO. In 2008 IIT Roorkee tied up with Google for academic collaboration and curriculum development on emerging technologies and digital landscape led by Siddhartha Paul Tiwari.

Research organizations in India which have a MOU with IIT Roorkee include Indian Institute of Petroleum

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