IITGN, a students-first institute

Established in the year 2008, IITGN started its journey in a temporary campus at Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, Chandkheda, with BTech programmes in three streams: Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. July 2012 saw the first convocation of this institute and July 2015 marked the start of its adventure at the permanent campus on the banks of the river Sabarmati.

I joined this institute in July 2016 as an MTech student. Ours was the pioneering batch in Biological Engineering! I had managed to secure a seat at IIT – which is the biggest dream of thousands of children across India – and was really nervous about what would happen on my first day here. How tough would be to keep up with the curriculum? What would be the professors like? Many such questions swam in my mind.

The very first positive and happy ‘shock’ I received was during our first party at this institute where apart from our seniors, all the professors were present to welcome us. We all talked and joked about our hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes and had a lot of fun together! This was the first time I realised that there is a completely different level of student-faculty interaction here. This institute is a firm believer of the open-door policy where formal discussions and informal chats between us and our Gurus are not restricted to the classrooms, lectures and exams. I had never come across such a unique and friendly co-existence in my life and now understand that it is unique to my institute!

Well, this was just the beginning. As time passed by, I slowly grasped the fact that IITGN builds on top of the IIT system and frameworks and has leveraged numerous innovative ideas to create distinctive opportunities for its students. It is among the most globalised campuses in India offering vibrant study-abroad and visiting faculty exchange programmes with renowned universities of almost all the continents, to its students. It supports us with the most liberal branch-change policies, flexible curriculum, leadership, self-governance, cutting-edge research and exciting placement opportunities. The institute offers a large number of the first-of-their-kind initiatives to its students, like the Invent@IITGN, Non-degree Programme, Foundation Programme, Explorers Fellowship, project-oriented learning, Tinkerer’s Lab, Makers Space, Research Park, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, and many more!

Be it a career or a skyscraper – everyone knows that anything can be secure, substantial and successful only if its backbone is strong. A zealous world-class faculty with over 50 per cent having a PhD from leading overseas institutions and average publications record of 3.2 publications per faculty forms the baseline of this institute. One of the core features of this campus is maximum interdisciplinary interactions promoted by seven interdisciplinary research centres. More than 20 per cent of the faculty is part of multiple disciplines and many students have PhD advisors/Principal Investigator/Co-PI from an outside discipline. There are no department buildings and no heads of departments. The research infrastructure is commonly shared and not monopolised by departments.

Overall student growth is promoted in the form of many workshops and conferences, with nearly 40 per cent overseas experiences, programmes like Earn While You Learn, student-managed clubs, inter- and intra-institute sports, events and celebrations.

The two most crucial aspects in present times are clean environment and healthy food. On the same lines, IITGN is rated India’s first five-star GREEN campus for minimising the negative impact on the environment with comprehensive solid waste management system, solar water heaters, biogas plant, water-less urinals and central water treatment plant. It is also recently declared India’s first five-star campus for ensuring food safety and promoting healthy eating.

This institute also contributes to the local community through formal and informal initiatives, outreach activities and educational engagement. In the words of the IIT Council, “The exemplary practices of IIT Gandhinagar (labour welfare and community outreach) should be introduced in all IITs.”

It is that time of the year when the social media, platforms like Quora and numerous educational websites are flooded with questions since students are in the process of getting admissions in various colleges and universities after the declaration of twelfth standard and competitive examination results – Which Institute and what branch/stream is the best for me? Should I go with simple or dual-degree programs? What are the career prospects of a particular degree in India or abroad? Since college-life forms the baseline of a strong career, students and their parents want to gather all the possible information about all institutes of their interest before proceeding towards making a commitment of three to four years with one of them.

Various online platforms try their best to provide information on crucial aspects of taking admission in a particular institute, but the essence of detailed discussion is absent. This will only be possible when people gather at a place to express and share their experiences and exchange notes in face to face conversations! A unique initiative by IIT Gandhinagar in this direction is the Open House, which happens every year and is a perfect opportunity for JEE qualified students and their parents to interact with the faculty, students and alumni of this Institute so that they can make an informed decision about their future. This year, it will be happening on June 22 at New Delhi followed by Gandhinagar and Mumbai on June 23.

After successfully completing my MTech, I recently became a part of the IITGN family again as a Senior Project Associate in External Communications. Now, when I look back upon the time when I decided to be a part of this institute as a student, I feel that I really made the right decision. This institute has given me a lot and is constantly striving to provide more to its students in every sphere, be it in terms of world-class hostel facilities like central AC and poker in students’ lounge or in terms of world-class lab equipment! The institute has completed its glorious 10 years and has set very high standards in the eyes of students about what an ideal institute should do for its pupil. It is a ‘students first’ institute in every sense.