Odisha HRD

New university and institute related acts recently passed, introduced or to be introduced in the parliament

The following were obtained from various sources. I don’t vouch for their 100% correctness. Please use them at your own risk.

• Bill to amend the NIT act; it adds IIISERs to them: introduced in the parliament but not passed yet
  • Original NIT act.
• Bil to amend the IT act for IITs; it adds the new IITs and designates IT BHU to be an IIT called IIT (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi: introduced in the parliament but not passed yet.
  • Current IT act (incorporates past amendments)
• Nalanda University act.
• South Asian University act.
  • Intergovernmental agreement that preceded the act.
• Central Universities Act (for the 16 new central universities)
• Draft bill for the Universities of Innovation; newspaper reports mention that some changes will be made before it is introduced in the parliament.

Add comment September 2nd, 2010

Consulting Engineering Services designing AIIMS-like institute, IIT, and NISER Bhubaneswar

Their web page is http://www.cesinter.com/. From the flash presentation I got the following pictures.

In the above picture they wrote Bhubaneswar by mistake instead of Thiruvanthapuram. They are also the architect for IISER Thiruvanthapuram.

The correct picture for NISER Bhubaneswar is the following obtained from http://www.cesinter.com/arch_home/arc_proj32.asp?x=Architecture&y=Showcase%20Projects.

One may compare the design with the picture of NISER building plan pictures. They match.

Note that in http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100715/jsp/orissa/story_12682813.jsp it is mentioned that this company has also been hired for IIT Bhubaneswar. 

Add comment August 27th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar plans to excel in product design and creation; plans to set-up laboratories such as Materials and Tomography

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu:

… IIT-Bhubaneswar director Madhusudan Chakroborty said “besides setting up state-of-the-art laboratories, students are being encouraged to involve themselves in product design competition.”

While student whose design would be adjudged as the best would get Rs. 10,000 prize, second best design would get Rs.7,000, Professor Chakraborty said. In fact top 10 designs will be provided fabrication support for shaping the product, he said.

“We want IIT-Bhubaneswar to excel in product design and creation especially in auto and manufacturing sector,” the director said.

The institute is now working on multi-million pound plans to set-up laboratories such as Materials and Tomography. It may also think of procuring rapid prototyping, which is used for automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. Rapid prototyping is needed for the unique materials and tomography laboratory, which is being dubbed as unique.

Prof. Chakraborty, who just spent a month at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) of United Kingdom-based Warwick University working with its technology specialists, said the institute was looking at a long-term collaboration with the university.

… IIT, Bhubaneswar director said the institute is trying to establish long-term tie-up with industries which could work with its students in institute’s facility centre.

The institute proposed to set up a school of design and creative arts, besides their main focus on environment and climate science which is an important issue for the region often battered by natural disasters, Mr. Chakraborty said.

… The institute has been provided with 936 acres of land near Jatni, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Contour survey of the land has been completed while master plan for construction is ready. The construction would start in December 2010.

See also:

• News from Warwick.
• Telegraph.

  • WMG, University of Warwick will help IIT-Bhubaneswar set up high-end research laboratories on its main campus. IIT-Kharagpur, the mentoring institute of IIT-Bhubaneswar, recently entered into a joint venture with the university in this regard.

    “WMG will help us set up its research laboratories here,” said IIT-Bhubaneswar director M. Chakraborty, who is back after spending a month at WMG.

    The director, in association with technology specialists there, held discussions and planned on the superspeciality laboratories.

    “We will work together towards setting up of high-end laboratories for materials and tomography processes as for example,” said the director, who has been appointed a visiting professor at WMG.

    … “We wish to draw on WMG’s successful record procedures of engaging with the local industry,” he said, adding that during his visit to the UK he worked with WMG director Lord Kumar Bhattacharya and other people on industry-academia relationships and development of some new education modules.

    A team of WMG research staff and industrialists will shortly be visiting IIT-Bhubaneswar to explore opportunities for the partnership. Experts from mineral and materials technology, e -security design disciplines and those who will foster good industry–academia relationship will comprise the team, he said. IIT-Bhubaneswar has already appointed an architect — the first among the new IITs to do so.

    “Consulting Engineering Services India Private Limited has been roped in for the purpose. The master plan is ready. We plan to start from November,” he said.

• Excerpt from Warwick VC’s statement: WMG’s technology specialists have advised on IIT Bhubaneshwar’s multi-million pound plans to set up laboratories in materials and tomography and a dozen WMG research staff and allied industrialists will now visit India in November to continue to build the overall partnership with Kharagpur and Bhubaneshwar.

Add comment August 27th, 2010

Standing advertisement for faculty positions at IIT Bhubaneswar

The following is from http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/admin/notice_board/1282304362WebAdvt-2010.pdf.

IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications for faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor (on contractual basis) in the following five Schools:

Schools (Disciplines): School of Mechanical Sciences (Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Materials), School of Electrical Sciences (Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering), School of Infrastructure (Civil Engineering), School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Bioscience) and School of HSS & Management (English, Economics, Philosophy and Psychology).

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION
Ph.D. with first class or equivalent in the preceding degree in appropriate branch with a very good academic record throughout and evidence of ability to pursue independent high quality research.

EXPERIENCE

Professor: A minimum of 10 years teaching / research / industrial experience of which at least 4 years should be at the level of Associate Professor in IITs, IISc Bangalore, IIMs, NITIE Mumbai and IISERs or at an equivalent level in any such other Indian or foreign institutions of comparable standards.

Associate Professor: At least 6 years teaching / research / industrial experience of which at least 3 years should be at the level of Assistant Professor, Senior Scientific Officer / Senior Design Engineer.

Assistant Professor: At least 3 years teaching / research / industrial experience excluding, however, the experience gained while pursuing Ph.D.

Assistant Professor (on contractual basis): May have less than 3 years teaching / research / industrial experience.

SCALE OF PAY:

(Position; Pay Band; Minimum Pay In the Payband; Academic Grade Pay)

• Professor; PB4: Rs. 37400 – Rs. 67000; Rs. 48000; Rs. 10500
• Associate Professor; PB4: Rs. 37400 – Rs. 67000; Rs. 42800; Rs. 9500
• Assistant Professor; PB3: Rs. 15600 – Rs. 39100 ; Rs. 30000; Rs. 8000 (On completion of 3 Yrs of service shall move to PB4: Rs. 37400 – Rs. 67000; Rs 9000)
• Assistant Professor (on contractual basis); PB3: Rs. 15600 – Rs. 39100; Rs. 20140;
  • With less than or equal to one year experience: Rs. 6000
  • With more than one year experience: Rs. 7000
  • In the above cases experience will be counted excluding that gained while pursuing Ph.D.

In addition to above pay, allowances as admissible to Central Government employees are applicable.

OTHER INCENTIVES

1. A cumulative Professional Development Allowance of Rs. 3 lakhs for every block period of 3 years on reimbursement basis to meet the expenses for attending international/national conferences, paying membership fees of professional bodies, covering book grant, paying telephone charges and meeting contingent expenses etc. as per Institute guidelines.

2. Initial seed grant up to Rs.5 lakhs for initiating research project in a chosen area.

3. Reimbursement of relocation charges at the time of joining up to a ceiling of Rs. 90,000/- as per Institute norm.

4. Honorarium of Rs. 15,000/- per month to the faculty members who have obtained Bhatnagar Award OR are Fellows of at least two National Academies. A faculty member is entitled for only one honorarium.

NOTES

• Reservation for SC/ST/OBC/PH as per Government of India rules.
• Minimum requirement of experience may be relaxed in respect of outstanding candidates.
• Mere eligibility will not vest any right on any candidate for being called for interview. The decision of the Institute in all matters of selection will be final.
• The Institute reserves the right to call only the requisite number of candidates for interview after shortlisting in terms of the candidates’ qualification, suitability and experience.
• For the post of Assistant Professor the candidates should be preferably below 35 years of age
• Canvassing in any manner would entail disqualification of the candidature.

NO INTERIM ENQUIRIES WILL BE ENTERTAINED.

HOW TO APPLY

Candidates possessing the requisite qualification and experience may submit their application in the prescribed form either in hard-copy or by e-mail to the Assistant Registrar (A&E), Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar – 751013 (email: faculty.app@iitbbs.ac.in).

Application form can be downloaded from the Institute website (www.iitbbs.ac.in or www.iitbbs.gov.in).

Applicants desiring to apply for more than one School should send separate application for
each School.

The candidates applying from Government Organizations or Public Sector Undertaking should have their applications duly forwarded by their present employer.

The candidates may apply any time throughout the year. The Institute will consider the applications at any date in the year received up to that date depending on its requirements and/or the quality of the applications.

First round of selection process will start after 20th September, 2010.

Registrar
Advt. No : R/5/2010 Dated 20.08.2010

1 comment August 21st, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar Research Park: Question in Rajya Sabha

1 comment August 19th, 2010

Mathematics faculty in institutes and universities in the Bhubaneswar area

Earlier we reported on the shortage of Math Ph.D’s in India. Slowly the Bhubaneswar area is emerging as a center for Mathematics starting from mentoring at the high school level (at IMA) to pursuing Ph.D at NISER, IIT, Utkal and Ravenshaw. There is also a good chance that one of the proposed 10 science magnet high schools will be established in this area. (The top Math center in India is Chennai which has IIT Madras, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Chennai Mathematical Institute.) Below we list Math faculty (mostly with Ph.Ds) in institutes and universities in the Bhubaneswar area.

Related pointers from the past:

• Shortage of Math Ph.D’s in India.
• Postings on IIT Bhubaneswar.
• Postings on NISER Bhubaneswar.
• Postings on IMA Bhubaneswar.

Add comment August 4th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar plans several specialised schools that will be made with corporate partnerships

Following is an excerpt from a report in sify.com.

… The schools proposed to be set up by the fledgling IIT include the School of Metallurgical and Minerals Engineering; School of Ocean and Environmental Sciences & Climate Change; School of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and the School of Design and Creative Arts. An academic advisory committee has already been constituted and it will soon submit a detailed project report to the Union ministry of human resource development on the establishment of such schools.

"These specialised schools, which will run with corporate partnerships with our strong focus on climate change research, are what we feel will differentiate IIT-Bhubaneswar from the other IITs in the country," says Madhusudhan Chakraborty, director of IIT-BBS. He adds that the time-frame for setting up these schools and the expenditure involved would be known only after the submission of the detailed project report.

IIT-BBS is in talks with some corporate houses with the objective of running the proposed schools in sync with industry requirements. It has already entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the MGM Group for the establishment of a Chair Professor of eminence at the School of Metallurgical and Minerals Engineering. …

Meanwhile, IIT-BBS has started PhD programmes from the academic session 2009-10 with the focus areas for research being climate change, alternative energy, manufacturing and mineral development.

It is offering a seed funding of Rs 5 lakh to each of the faculty members to boost research. "The seed funding is expected to give a big boost to research at IIT-Bhubaneswar. The institute has also started consultancy in a small way", says Chakraborty.

IIT-BBS … has 45 full-time faculty members besides visiting faculty. …

Chakraborty hopes to have a pool of 2,500 students and 250 faculty members. In the next 15 years, he expects a student intake of 10,000 and faculty strength of 1,000. IIT-BBS also expects to receive a funding of Rs 60 crore from the Government in the current financial year.

3 comments July 27th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar gets its first Chair Professorship

MGM Minerals Ltd, Bhubaneswar has paid Rs 1.5 crores to create a Chair "Professor of Eminence" in Minerals and Metallurgical Engineering for 5 years. According the Director of IIT Bhubaneswar: "This is historic for IIT Bhubaneswar."

1 comment July 23rd, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar to take over the multi-lakh sq ft Toshali Bhawan?

Following is an excerpt from a 2005 report in Hindu.

Toshali Plaza mansion, constructed by the Orissa Housing Development Corporation in 1998 over an area of 3.19 lakh square feet at a cost of Rs 15.65 crore, resembles a deserted palace in a posh locality of Bhubaneswar. The unoccupied mansion has more than 2 lakh square feet of office space.

A page linked from the IIT Bhubaneswar home page (click on Facilities) mentions that some classes will be held in Toshali Plaza this year and the boys hostel will be 5 minutes from it.

The tender at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/pdf/tender/RFP_Toshali_Satellite.pdf for installing networking and wi-fi in Toshali Bhawan (earlier called as Toshali Plaza) refers to it as a satellite campus. It also gives the floor diagram of the first four floors.

Finally the article http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4801 on progress of the new IITs says the following:

IIT Bhubaneswar: .. claims to be the first IIT out of the eight new IITs to be operating on its own infrastructure. "This is partially our own campus and we are the only IIT to be operating out of our own campus. Even after we move out to our permanent campus at Arugul, this building will continue to be our city centre.

Does this mean that IIT Bhubaneswar has bought or taken a very long term lease on Toshali Bhawan? That is my guess.

I guess they are or will be renovating it and it will look much prettier than the above picture. However, the picture gives an idea on how big that complex is. 3.19 lakh sq feet is huge. That is 29,636 sq meter. As a comparison the size of the planned academic township of NISER Bhubaneswar is 65,000 sq meter. Similarly the size of the planned academic complex of IISER Pune is 34000 sq meters. Thus IIT Bhubaneswar will have plenty of space to grow and hire more faculty until its main campus is ready in Argul.

Toshali Bhawan is also located centrally in Bhubaneswar; only about 2 kms from the Bhubaneswar station. It is four hundred meters from the Forum mall (the first mall of Bhubaneswar; with a Pizza Hut and many other eating places) and fairly close (about 3 kms) to the SBI colony where some of the student and the faculty housing are.

If indeed IIT Bhubaneswar was able to buy this huge complex, besides the current Director (Prof. Chakraborty) and Registrar (Mr. Ray) one must also thank Prof. Damodar Acharya who most likely (my speculation) saved IIT Bhubaneswar tons of money by having the first year classes in Kharagpur at almost zero cost to IIT Bhubaneswar. Also, the second year classes were partly held in the IIT Kharagpur extension center in Bhubaneswar, possibly at a low rent.Those savings may have played a big role in this purchase. All those savings plus the projected rental cost until the main campus is ready probably covers the cost of buying and renovating Toshali Bhawan. Kudos to IIT Bhubaneswar Director and Registrar for this financial and real estate masterstroke.

Down the road, after IIT Bhubaneswar has its main campus ready, this satellite campus in the middle of the city would be very useful in being the venue for offering graduate courses and short courses.

Add comment June 26th, 2010

Progress report of the new IITs

Following are excerpts from a report in sify.com.

• IIT Mandi: … nestled in the lowermost climatic zone of the serene Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh.The institute plans to involve its research scholars in teaching to enhance its faculty strength. It will launch doctoral programmes this August and plans to request the ministry to fund research scholars who will be involved with teaching at the institute."… At present, recruitment of full-time faculty is underway. Nine faculty members have accepted the offers. Additional 10-12 faculty members are expected to do so shortly. …" says S P Gupta … has received 513 acres of land for its main campus …
• IIT Hyderabad: … is banking on its faculty members to consolidate its research activities. According to U B Desai, director of IIT-H, faculty members have not only begun receiving research grants from DST, MCIT/DIT and other organisations, but have also begun publishing research papers in international journals. … 100 for M Tech programmes and 50 for PhD. Moreover, as against a full-time faculty strength of just over 40 last year, IIT-H is expecting the number to go up to 50 faculty members in its 10 departments. … "About 531 acres of land has been given by the state of Andhra Pradesh. While master planning of the new campus is done, we have called for expression of interest by architects. The new campus should be ready in about two years."
• IIT Indore: … expects its permanent campus to be ready by the end of 2011. "At present, the need for independent infrastructure, including lab facilities, is an issue. However, it does not imply that we will compromise on quality" … The institute does not plan to start the MTech programme at least for the next three years. As for faculty, the current capacity is 26 while the required capacity is 30 per year at all IITs.
• IIT Rajasthan: Apart from its B Tech programme getting its third batch since inception, IIT Rajasthan is also initiating PhD programmes for the first time from this year. Running from MBM Engineering College in Jodhpur, IIT Rajasthan has also been provided 300-odd PWD quarters for offering residential facilities to faculty members, staff and students alike. While IIT Rajasthan has been able to admit 120 students per batch so far, with its own campus coming up on a sprawling 900 acre land, the institute expects the numbers to rise.
• IIT Gandhinagar: … currently functioning from a makeshift campus at Vishwakarma Engineering College near Ahmedabad, saw the latter’s students protesting to shift the temporary campus of IIT-Gn from their college premises. The Gujarat government has now zeroed in on a 385-acre plot for the purpose of building the campus for IIT Gandhinagar.
• IIT Bhubaneswar: .. claims to be the first IIT out of the eight new IITs to be operating on its own infrastructure. "This is partially our own campus and we are the only IIT to be operating out of our own campus. Even after we move out to our permanent campus at Arugul, this building will continue to be our city centre. We have also selected project management consultants who will design our permanent campus and we expect the construction to begin by the end of this year and to be completed by 2014," says BK Rai, registrar at IIT Bhubaneswar. The institute has been allotted 936 acres of land by the Orissa government for its permanent campus designed to have a self contained campus for 10,000 students and 1100 faculty and an estimated amount of Rs 780 crore will be spent in next few years to develop this institute. A science park will be part of this institution. IIT Bhubaneswar will also the first IIT to set up a separate marine campus in 2011 for conducting interdisciplinary research in rising sea levels, ecology, disaster management, marine ecosystems, fishery development, and other areas.
• IIT Ropar: … has 10 PhD candidates at present and will add another 15 by January next year. IIT Ropar currently runs BTech and PhD courses. As it faces hostel accommodation constraints, the institute is "not ready" to start MTech courses in the immediate future. This year, 25 faculty members will be joining the institute by July adding strength to the institute which has 27 faculty members at present.  …At present, the IIT is functioning from its Ropar-based transit campus, which was earlier The Polytechnic College for Women. The Government of Punjab has provided 500 acres of land near the banks of Sutlej river which is expected to be ready by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2013.
• IIT Patna: The institute has recruited 47 faculty so far and has 240 students including 11 PhD students till date. As it readies to welcome its third batch of students, IIT-P has new building ready on the premises of the New Government Polytechnic, from where the institute is currently functioning. As for the labs, IIT-P has hired the building of Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Patna.

The current faculty strength of IIT Bhubaneswar is 40. (It was 16 as per its webpage in October 24, 2009 and 37 on April 26, 2010.) I am not sure how many new ones are expected to join in Fall 2010. While browsing the websites of the various websites some things jumped out. (i) IIT Ropar has a large number of faculty with foreign Ph.Ds. (ii) IIT Hyderabad is recruiting faculty in departments other than basic sciences, Humanities and the three disciplines in which it offers B.Tech. It is offering M.Tech programs in these additional departments. (iii) IIT Patna has hired the maximum number of faculty (47) closely followed by IIT Hyderabad (45) and IIT Bhubaneswar (40).

1 comment June 21st, 2010

NISER Bhubaneswar advertises for faculty positions

Update:The expanded ads are now in the NISER web site. See the links below.

• Regular Faculty Positions- Humanities
• Regular Faculty Positions- All Schools
• Non-Academic Staff Positions (10)

One thing to note is that NISER is likely to implement the PRIS (Performance related incentive scheme) of DAE under which there is provision for monthly incentive of 20% of basic salary. This is already implemented in some DAE institutions. See for example http://www.saha.ac.in/cs/adm.cs/ADM/PRIS.pdf.

The expanded version of this ad is not yet in NISER website. The ad from last year is at http://niser.ac.in/notices/2009/new-faculty.php and gives an idea of how much the initial salaries will be. following is an excerpt.

ASST. PROFESSOR : Pay Band Rs 15,600 – 39,100 + Grade Pay 7,600
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 29,920 + 22% D.A at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 44,438/- per month.

READER (F) – Pay Band Rs 37,400 – 67,000 + Grade Pay 8,700
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 46,100 + 22% DA at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 67,414/- per month.

Currently NISER has the following numbers of faculty in the various disciplines:

• Chemical Sciences: 12 permanent + 5 visiting
• Biological Sciences: 10 permanent + 5 visiting
• Physical Sciences: 10 permanent + 4 visiting
• Mathematical Sciences: 5 permanent + 3 visiting
• Others: 4 visiting

This adds up to a total of 37 permanent and 21 visiting faculty.

As a comparison IIT Bhubaneswar currently has 37 permanent faculty and 4 visiting faculty with the following break-up.

• Basic Sciences (14 permanent: Chemistry -7; Math -3; Physics – 4; and 2 visiting)
• Electrical Sciences (5 permanent)
• Infrastructure (6 permanent)
• Mechanical Sciences (8 permanent)
• Humanities, Social Sciences & Management (4 permanent and 2 visiting)

1 comment June 1st, 2010

Education through entrance tests: Excerpts from an interesting article by Profs. P. Jalote and A. Singh

Prof. Jalote is the Director of IIIT Delhi and is on leave from IIT Delhi. Previously he taught at IIT Kanpur and University of Maryland. Prof. Singh is a professor at Auburn University, Alabama. Both are alumni of IITs. Following are excerpts from their article in Economic Times.

… The difficulty of cracking these tests have led to the booming coaching industry — it seems the vast majority of students appearing in these exams undergo some form of coaching for them. This impact of coaching has been decried by many. In academic circles, it is a common complain that coaching is allowing even average students to crack the exams, and how exams ought to be changed so that deserving students can clear even without coaching.

It should be clearly understood that the success of coaching is not due to the nature of the exams, but due to the low acceptance ratio in these exams. With these low accept rates, it is irrelevant whether the nature of exam is such that coaching will help or not.

… Anybody who thinks that coaching can be made redundant by reforming the admission tests is living in a state of denial.

There is another aspect of coaching that deserves attention. Coaching is big business: by some accounts, coaching for IITs is bigger than IITs themselves in terms of turnover. Consequently, it is able to attract good teachers by offering high salaries. One hears about IIT/IIM grads teaching in these coaching institutes, but one cannot come across an IIT/IIM graduate as a teacher in a school — even elite schools do not have this distinction. So, in many coaching centres, the quality of education is superior to that of schools, particularly with respect to the entrance test subjects. As the business success depends on how well they help the students do in the entrance exams, their teaching, as measured with respect to success in these exams, continues to improve and they take great care to improve it.

So, we have the following situation. Coaching institutes will continue to thrive as long as the accept ratio remains small. And coaching business will ensure that its teachers and teaching processes are well-equipped to impart training to students to do better at the competitive exam.

This situation, undesirable thought it is, can, however, be converted into an opportunity to improve education. As coaching institutes focus on the entrance tests and the syllabus for them, it provides a power to these exams in that whatever they put as syllabus or as expected knowledge, the coaching institutes will ensure that students get good at that. Even for those students who do not undergo coaching, these exams are highly influential — students learn/ study for these exams with a mission and dedication that they don’t show for anything else.

IF THESE large exams were to be oriented such that preparation for them will make the foundations for the key subjects much stronger and will force the students to really understand the subjects better, the coaching industry will ensure that this knowledge is imparted to students. That is, the syllabus and expectation is potentially a strong force on what students learn in the 2-3 years they prepare for the entrance exams, through coaching or on their own.

If this learning can be strengthened, then even if the students do not get through in these exams — which the vast majority will not — the preparation for them will give them strong foundations in some key subjects. This can be leveraged by other institutions.

… So, instead of fighting coaching by making exams like JEE harder and more theoretical every year, such large exams can leverage the competition for the larger good of improving the education and preparedness of students.

If these exams are thought of as a potential tool in the armory of the country for fighting the poor education standards, rather than just for admitting students into these institutes, then they can favourably impact the lakhs of students who attend JEE, and not just of the selected few thousands who actually enter the IITs, whose skills will be upgraded anyway to top levels by the top quality education that they will be provided. By doing so, institutions like the IITs and the entrance exams they have, will be making a solid contribution to improving the workforce in the country , as they have done in creating the top-level manpower.

I agree with the main point in the above mentioned article. Earlier I wrote my views on coaching at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4178.

However, there is an issue with respect to many students not being able to afford coaching. Couple of things that the governments may do are:

• Provide coaching in some government schools such as Navodaya Vidyalayas.
• Provide other avenues for good coaching such as attempts to replicate the Super 30 in Bihar by other governments.
• Bring coaching classes and the +2 level under the ambit of RTE and require that certain percentage of the students there are from poorer background.
• Provide scholarships to poor students to be able to afford good coaching.

2 comments May 16th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar faculty list

Update on August 26 2010:

• N. Barik, School of Basic Sciences
• Y. V. Rao, School of Basic Sciences (Mathematics)
• Animesh Mandal, School of Mechanical Sciences
• Anamitra Basu, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (In IIT Bhubaneswar 2010-11 brochure)
• Sisir Kumar Nayak, School of Electrical Sciences (In IIT Bhubaneswar 2010-11 brochure)

With this the total faculty count is at 46: Basic Sciences (17), Electrical Sciences (6), Infrastructure (8), Mechanical Sciences (9), Humanities and Social Sciences (6)

Update on August 20 2010:

• Dukhabandhu Sahoo, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Update on June 11 2010: Since the list below was made, some new faculty have joined. They are:

• Arindam Sarkar, Infrastructure
• Dipti Ranjan Sahoo, Infrastructure
• Tarakant Nayak, Mathematics

Merging the lists at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ver3/facultymember.html and http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ver3/pdf/pic.pdf we get the following list of 37 faculty at IIT Bhubaneswar. (Our earlier list was at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3364.) The schoolwise break up is as follows:

• Basic Sciences (14: Chemistry -7; Math -3; Physics – 4)
• Electrical Sciences (5)
• Infrastructure (6)
• Mechanical Sciences (8)
• Humanities, Social Sciences & Management (4)

1 comment April 26th, 2010

IIT act to be ammended to include medicine; Despite objections by the Health Ministry IIT Kharagpur to start medical school in collaboration with Indian Railways

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, minister of state for HRD D Purandeshwari said the ministry has decided to amend the IIT Act, the law that governs IITs, to include medical science. The health ministry had said that IITs should not be allowed to start conventional courses in medicine.

The amendment, Purandeshwari said, would help IITs to offer programmes bringing together the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering. Referring to the health ministry’s objection, she said, "However, appreciating the fact that the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all the developed and most of the developing countries are seen hand-in-hand, the government proposes to incorporate `medicine’ in the IIT Act."

Purandeswari said the programme would bring the two important disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

… IIT Kharagpur has come up with a concrete proposal in this regard and plans to start a medical college in collaboration with Indian Railways. At a meeting of experts in the health ministry in February this year, it was observed that IITs should start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or starting MBBS courses.

There are several lessons that Odisha can draw from this.

• As Purna Mishra suggested in a comment, VSSUT and the VSS Medical College in Burla should combine to form a single university.
• NIT Rourkela and IIT Bhubaneswar should consider adding a medical college as part of the institute; NIT could include the proposed ESI medical college and IIT could include the proposed Railways medical college.

Add comment April 22nd, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar makes some key hires

Update: IIT Bhubaneswar web site is now updated and lists most of the new faculty that have joined.

A key hire that IIT Bhubaneswar recently made is of Prof. S C De Sarkar.

Prof. De Sarkar was the deputy Director at IIT Kharagpur and my teacher (in the Compiler course) when I was doing my B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering. He was the best teacher I encountered during my B.Tech degree. He has had many star Ph.D students including some who have won the Bhatnagar award.

He has joined IIT Bhubaneswar as the Dean of Faculty. In the words of IIT Bhubaneswar director Prof. Chakraborty: "He is now a great strength of IIT Bhubaneswar."

Some of the other highlights releted to recent hires (obtained from the IIT Bhubaneswar web page) are:

• Dr. C.N. Bhende, Asst. Prof. of Electrical Sciences received the best thesis award at Doctoral level from INAE.
• Dr. Sumanta Haldar Assistant Prof. of school of Infrastructure has been adjudged as the best Ph.D. thesis in India in the field of Geotechnical Engineering by the Indian Geotechnical Society.

Add comment April 18th, 2010

Prof. Damodar Acharya Committee reportedly proposes to scrap IIT JEE and other entrance exams

Update: Following are excerpts from a follow-up Telegraph report which mentions about the committee’s recommendation to have wide-spread consultations before making the changes.

But it has advised caution in implementing the reforms. The panel has suggested detailed consultations and workshops with the state governments, other top engineering institutions like the National Institutes of Technology, and private universities.

The recommendations of the panel can be fine-tuned based on the outcome of the consultations, the team led by IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya has suggested. The panel is likely to meet soon and may draw up a schedule for the consultations at that meeting.

… At a meeting of the panel in Chennai on March 16 with representatives of state and central school boards, some participants suggested that rural students be given more opportunities than urban students. The participants proposed two attempts for urban students and three for rural students.

The panel and the HRD ministry will also need to convince state governments that the move to end state-specific engineering tests is not against their interests.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The panel, appointed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, has recommended replacing the four-decade-old IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and myriad other engineering entrance examinations with a common test modelled on the US-based scholastic aptitude test (SAT).

The panel has suggested that the IITs accord a 70 per cent weightage to board examination scores in picking students, ..

Scores in the common aptitude test that will replace the IIT-JEE will contribute the remaining 30 per cent weightage in determining which candidates are selected, the panel has recommended.

Unlike the current engineering entrance examinations including the IIT-JEE, the common aptitude test will not have questions on physics, chemistry and math, but will test students’ powers of logical reasoning and communication skills.

If the recommendations are accepted, the IITs will for the first time admit students based more on their board examination marks than on their performance in a special entrance test.

…The minister had announced in February that he was setting up a panel under IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya to study proposed reforms to the IIT-JEE. The panel was appointed in March, with the directors of the IITs in Mumbai, Roorkee and Chennai as the other members.

…  The panel has recommended that the government develop a Comprehensive Weighted Performance Index (CWPI) to calculate a student’s overall score based cumulatively on his performance in the board examinations and in the common aptitude test. The report appears principally based on discussions at a meeting held with other government representatives, including Central Board of Secondary Education chairman Vineet Joshi and select state representatives in Chennai on March 16.

The HRD ministry is already working towards a plan to introduce a common high school curriculum in the sciences and math, cutting across the 35 boards — central and state — that govern Indian school education.

The common curriculum would make easier a comparison between the board examination scores of students from schools affiliated to different central and state government boards, Joshi had told the meeting.

The CWPI proposed by the panel is aimed at normalising any differences that remain between difficulty levels of school-leaving examinations under different boards.

There is a big danger that the above approach will make the XIIth exams a high stakes affair and bring it under the microscope with every aspect of it being scrutinized and judged by everyone. Most coaching classes may reinvent themselves and start coaching how to score more marks in the XIIth exam and the proposed SAT type exam. This approach may bring in bias favoring students from families with educated parents. English being a compulsory subject in XIIth, this may put students in rural areas and other areas where English is less used at a disadvantage.

So one has to wait and see how this will pan out.

My guess is if the above idea is adopted, it will go through some changes such as specific types of colleges may be allowed to give different weight to Class XII marks in different subjects. Some may introduce interviews or other tests.

One change that should be made is that when possible specialty branches should not be assigned to most  students (say 70-80% in any college/institute) immediately after they join a college/institute after the XIIth. That should be determined after a year in that college/institute based on the performance in that year. This will make the class XII exam less cutthroat and ensure that students after they get into a college/institute continue to give importance to academics.

One alternative idea may to test the proposed idea (of using class XIIth marks) on 50% of the seats for a few years before deciding whether to completely abandon the current approach or not.

6 comments April 14th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar pitches a Climate Change research center to the Odisha government

Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar has proposed establishment of Innovative Centre for Climate Change (ICCC) here.

Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Madhusudan Chakraborty who met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here at the Secretariat today along with a team of experts gave this proposal to him.

Chakraborty said school of earth, ocean and environment is being established in Bhubaneswar IIT.

The school will impart teaching on land, water, air and environment and proposed research in the subject.

The IIT is keen on establishment of research institute of this school on climate change, he said.

Prof Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the American University of Massachusetts, said the institute will conduct research on climate change, adding, information on climate will be availed from different sources for research.

Rise in sea level, extreme weather, changing eco-system, air quality and pollution, affect of the changes in the human health, shortage of drinking and energy needs will be dealt with in this advanced research centre, he said.

The institute will also conduct research on the impact of climate change on the ecosystem of Chilika lake. He requested the Chief Minister to provide land with necessary infrastructure for the institute.

A similar center proposed in 2007, called "Center for Climate Change Research" (CCCR), was established at the Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune last year. This center has 20 scientists positions.

Add comment March 31st, 2010

Alma Fiesta, the student organized socio-cultural festival of IIT Bhubaneswar, March 26-28th 2010: http://www.almafiesta.com

The web site of this event is http://www.almafiesta.com/. Their blog is at http://almafiesta.com/blog/. Following are some planned highlights of this festival.

We start with the most important one:

Alma Fiesta, IIT Bhubaneswar and Smt. Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust Presents

Perspective: The Social Case Study Competition

Problem Statement:

Politics in India continues to be a murky and tabooed business which is being rarely taken up by the youth of present generation. Youth owns the key to dynamic thinking and action and thus are the indispensable part of a country’s politics. Present your views highlighting the current scenario of the youth participation in politics, the plan to increase this participation and also the plan to bring out the transparencies in the work of a politician.

Method of Submission: The participants are required to submit online their aforesaid visionary plan in form of a presentation in .pdf format by 25 March 2010 before 11.55 PM. The selected participants will present their plan before judge and audience on 27 March 2010. The presentations can be mailed to submissions@almafiesta.com before the deadline. No registration fees are required for submitting your presentations. So pen down your ideas and get the title of ‘SNSMT-IIT BBS Social Change maker of 2010′ along with various exciting prizes. For any queries contact: Mudit Sharma mudit@almafiesta.com +91 93385 75352.

Following are the rest of the events.

• Topsy Turvy : Inter College Group Dance Competition

  Topsy Turvy, Put your best foot forward, because Topsy Turvy inter-college dance competition is sure to excite everyone to put on their dancing shoes. Be a part of our fiesta and drink in from the excitement.

• Face Off

  Imagination is reality; dreams, thoughts and delusions are no less real than the "outside" world. Reality is a consensus, the same consensus the audience accepts when they enter a theatre to see a play and, for a time, pretend that what they are seeing is real. FACE OFF, an intercollegiate stage play event, is one of those platforms to experience the "reality”. So come, witness the reality on the stage and the director’s mind at work behind the scenes.

• N-Circled

  Give the audience a hint of a scene, no more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the Street Play meaning: when it becomes a social cause. So be there to be a part of a social causes @ N-CIRCLED – an intercollegiate street play competition.

• EUPHONY

  In the Iron Maiden edition of the Dream Theatre pluck the MetallicaStrings to elevate from the System of a Down and let the world Parikrama around you to attain Nirvana. If music is your passion and life then euphony, an inter college band competition for both eastern and western genres, is the right chance to test your ardor. The vim and vigour of music bands will be at its peak and the spirit of music is going to fill the entire ambience with a tone of mesmerisation.

• TRACK THE TRACK

  Music is the harmony between melody, rhythm and expressions and thus for a song to touch the soul one needs to properly ‘Track the Track’. This sing-along karaoke event is a unique opportunity for the music enthusiasts to show up their talent. So hit the music loud and prove your mettle.

• ANTAKSHARI

  A contest for the movie track fanatics who are experts in the lyrics. A common, Classic game yet can be mind-boggling at times. To triumph in the event means to be quick and sharp enough to get the right song. It is time to fine tune your musical knowledge and portray it to the world.

• Decoding Shakespeare
• Gone in 60 seconds
• Lit-Spree
• IIT Bhubaneswar Youth Quiz

  A Quiz on Pan Youth Topics. Be it movies, music, gadgets, ads or IT-this quiz comes as a whole some package of fun entertainment.

• Heads or Tails: Citius, Altius, Fortius!

  Bored of traditional quizzes of Tech, Biz, India…? Want a change? We could sense that. So here is an offbeat quiz purely dedicated to the Sports Turf. For all Sports Frenzied Junta Heads or Tails? Call it right!

• Youth Marathon
• Your Honour: The mock board room event.

  Motion:

  Ostracism, humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of family members, community and the medical fraternity are increasing in Orissa. Not only people living with HIV and AIDS but also their family members are equally suffering and facing the challenges in different setting. The question is whether we need to practice a differential treatment/approach to address the issue of people living with HIV-AIDS or not?

• PALETTE

  With the brush in your hand swipe the fog out of the sky and give life to your imaginations. Let the world acknowledge your endless dreams. Colours being your mouthpiece tell the unspoken and leave the beholder standstill. Mismatch the colours on this palette and paint life.

• LEAF COLLAGE

  Attention!!

  Dare not miss this opportunity to expose your ingenious dexterity. Let the foliage mirror your imagination and creativity in your grey cells. Leaves are waiting to reflect your artistic thoughts. Share your ideas, feelings, no matter what you want to express, through leave collage. Give a shape to your imagination and let the clutters of leaves take the pride to represent the artist in you.

• Mahfile-E-Hansi: Dr. Kumar Vishwas
• Classical Reloaded: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt; Akram Khan
• Leela: Orissa Dance Academy led by Aruna Mohanty
• Headbang: Kryptos
• Celebration of World Theater Day on 27th March in collaboration with Natya Chetana
• Commemoration of Earth hour on 27th March

One important aspect of this festival is that it is mainly organized by the students with some (minimal) guidance from the faculty and a very small percentage of funding from the IIT. The students find sponsors who cover most of the budget. They organize the events.

Add comment March 26th, 2010

Some future plans of IIT Bhubaneswar

Following are excerpts from a report in expressbuzz.

IIT Bhubaneswar will have four more schools with inter-disciplinary approach by 2011-end.

While the first one would be on mines, minerals and material technology, the other three would include school of chemicals, school of design and creative arts and earth and ocean sciences.

While the campus construction will start by the year-end, within 10- 15 days the contract would be ready for awarding the architectural and design side of the new campus, said IIT-B Director Prof. Madhusudan Chakraborty.

… Prof. Chakraborty said, however, the institute plans to have a marine campus on the coastline for research on rise in sea-level, effects of climate change, extreme weather conditions, changing ecosystems, air quality and pollution and human health.

… The marine campus will be called Centre for Climate Change and would be established on the lines of marine centres of University of Massachusetts and University of California, he said adding even the varsities have expressed their desire to have future collaborations in research and exchange of faculties and students.

As the marine campus will be very close to the sea, the State Government would be requested at an appropriate time to provide adequate land, he said adding it would have specialists in geology, geophysics, atmospheric and ocean sciences, he added.

Following are some excerpts from a report in Telegraph.

IIT, Bhubaneswar, is planning a marine campus as part of its upcoming School of Earth, Ocean and Environment Science.

The campus, probably be the first marine campus in the country, will study climate, sea level rise, extreme weather events, changing ecosystem, fishery development and wildlife, air quality and pollution, water shortage, human health and hydrological cycles.

Such a campus exists for schools in the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and University of California, Santa Cruz, said IIT, Bhubaneswar, director M. Chakraborty.

Expected to come up by 2011, the school will be “interdisciplinary”, conducting research focusing on geology, geophysics, marine sciences, ocean science, atmospheric science, atmospheric change, disaster mitigation and management, he said.

… The IIT also plans to open three other schools — school of mineral, metallurgy and material engineering, school of chemical sciences and school of design and creative art,” he said.

… “IIT, Bhubaneswar, believes in a border-less academic environment. We do not have departments like other IITs. We are trying to break the barrier so that people from various disciplines come together and work in tandem,” Chakraborty said.

The above plan of IIT Bhubaneswar opens up opportunities for the South Odisha people who wanted the IIT to be located there. If they co-ordinate intelligently (and even offer their own land) they could now have a piece of the IIT. Other parts of coastal Odisha may also go after this.

I think similar opportunities will open up with respect to NISER and AIIMS. In particular, a branch of either in Gandhamardan hill foothills of Balangir/Baragarh in Western Odisha focusing on medicinal plants could be a possibility. (Dr. Sanjib Karmee was championing for an institute like that in that area.)

Water and rain forests are big attractors.

Other locations (such as next to Hirakud or Mandira Dam) could vie for a pie of these national institutes by coming up with an idea about an appropriate research center and approaching the leadership of these institutes.

2 comments March 20th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar landscape – next to picturesque and historical Barunei hill

Add comment March 1st, 2010