Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IITB)

Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay  (IITB)

Foreword:

Established in 1958, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, is the college every aspiring engineer dreams to be in. Although there aren’t any ‘official rankings’ in India, it is widely regarded as THE place to be if you want to pursue a career in engineering. The college has reached new highs of success in research and is now trying to enter the big league of engineering education and research.

Location:

The beautiful campus is located near Hiranandani Complex in Powai (which explains the name IIT-Powai, as it’s called in Mumbai). The lakeside view of Powai Lake makes the location even more exquisite.

Campus and Infrastructure:

The huge 500 acre campus looks like nothing else you may have seen in Bombay, primarily because it’s lush green! The lakeside view adds some more to its aesthetic appeal. But IIT Bombay isn’t just about nature, of course – it’s arguably the finest technological institute of the country because of its excellent faculty, and its amazing facilities.

There are 14 hostels with 2 more coming up. Older hostels have 400 students while new ones will accommodate 800 students. Separate apartment facilities are provided for PG students and their families. Each hostel is equipped with its own mess, sports facilities, music room etc. The wing culture is unique to each hostel and is a matter of pride during intra hostel competitions. Each of them has a unique name, the most interesting being Hostel 7 - "The Lady of the Lake" which is a lake facing hostel. There is a gymkhana with the latest facilities for sports, music etc. The central library is huge, with lots of research work and latest editions of all books. Each hostel also has its own library. There is high speed LAN access in every room without any restrictions on download limits, while the academic area is WiFi enabled. There's a LAN ban from 1.30am to 5am during semesters and it is taken down only during end-sems and vacations. Active DC++ (intranet) provides access to important shared data and media quickly.

There's no hostel or institute curfew. Only opposite sex isn't allowed after 10 PM, but you can do anything in common space whenever, and you can enter and leave the institute whenever you wish.

Indoor badminton, basketball courts, brilliant grounds, 50m swimming pool, TT room, squash court, tennis court are the facilities available at the institute level, not to mention facilities available in hostels.

Courses Offered:

Under Graduate Courses: B.Tech & Dual Degrees
Aerospace Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Science & Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science
Energy Sciences and Engineering
Engineering Physics
All the above departments also offer integrated 5 year dual degree programs (DD) in which you are awarded a bachelors (B.Tech) and a masters degree (M.Tech) at the end of the course. Choice of specialisation for M.Tech is to be made only from parent bachelors department.

There is also a 5 year integrated M.Sc Chemistry course.


Post Graduate Courses
Doctorate Courses: Ph.D

Fees:
Rs 67876 per year
View breakup of fees, hostel/mess charges & fees for SC/ST students

Faculty:

Every professor here holds a PhD from IIT or from a reputed university. They are all highly experienced and are actively involved in research. They are fantastic teachers, too, and students are full of praise for them. The college faculty tries to make learning innovative by using slides, projects and experimental ways of learning.

Attendance varies with professor, but most require 80%. DX grade given in case required attendance as stated is not achieved and the student has to repeat tthe course.

Crowd:

Oh dear. When you have the finest minds in the country coming together, you can’t exactly expect a fashion show. The boy:girl ratio is abject, worse than other institute (you can imagine what it would be like here – it’s about 10:1). Girls here come at a premium – even the ugliest woman would be worshipped like a deity.

It’s not altogether bad, though. Fortunately, the rest of Mumbai doesn’t have a similar scarcity of women. Plus, the boys at IIT Bombay can be fun too (not in that way). Oh and there’s no serious ragging, which trust us, is a pretty big thing.

Rankings:

It is without doubt the top IIT at the moment. Around 90 from top 100 ranks in JEE joined IITB last year. If you harbour hopes of getting into Comps, you need to rank among the first 50! Admissions to most of the major branches close well before the 2000 mark. The seats have recently been increased, so figures might change a little bit, but don’t expect much.

Placements and Internships:

At the best institute in India, you expect some brilliant internships and placements, and IIT Bombay does not disappoint. Some of the best companies from all fields – including investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the big names of management consultancy like McKinsey, BCG and Bain pick up a number of IITians at some hair-raising salaries. It’s one of the very few colleges visited by IT leaders like Samsung,Microsoft and Google, and the salaries can go as high as 80 lac per annum (provided you’re extremely lucky, and terribly good at what you do, of course). The average package stands at about 9 lac. In short if any company visits India for recruitment their first choice will be IIT Bombay.

Festivals and Activities:

IIT Bombay hosts one of the most eagerly anticipated festivals in Asia, called 'Mood Indigo'. There is wild participation from across the whole continent, and it regularly attracts a number of established as well as upcoming rock bands for its concert.

The technical symposium quite simply called "Techfest" is the playground for the tech gods across India and some from even neighbouring countries. Techfest receives more participation then even the cultural festivals of most other colleges.

Aside from the obvious cultural and technical fests, IITB also celebrates the Hindu festivals of Janmashtami and Holi on a grand scale.

There are active clubs like robotics club, Entrepreneurship cell, SINE (society for innovation and entrepreneurship) etc. At least one sport or NCC/NSS is compulsory in first year.

Canteen/Mess/Hangouts:

The food is edible, but we’ll be lying if we say it’s extraordinarily great. Night messes are available during midsem and end-sems. Canteens are open till 2am in all hostels, some are open even till 5am. Hiranandani is just 10 minutes away, so those of you with insatiable appetites, tricky taste buds, and bulging wallets can always find something of your liking to keep you happy. Nearest theater is Huma at Hiranandani. There are plenty of hangouts in Mumbai but students rarely leave the campus.

Contact:

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Powai, Andheri - East,
Mumbai - 400076. India.
Website: www.iitb.ac.in

Famous Alumni:

Jairam Ramesh - Minister of Rural Development, Formerly Environment and Forests
Nandan Nilekani - Founder, Infosys
Arun Netravali - Former President of Bell Labs
Victor Menezes - Former Vice Chairman, Citibank

Verdict:

There’s nothing to say that hasn’t already been said about IIT Bombay. Definitely the best engineering college in India, perhaps one of the best in the world – if you get in, don’t think, just go!