National Institute of Technology Calicut
Encyclopedia
The National Institute of Technology Calicut is a federally funded technical university and an institute of national importance
Institute of National Importance
An Institute of National Importance, in India is defined as one which serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled personnel within the specified region of the country/state. Institutes on the list are usually supported by the Government of India...

 governed by an act
NIT Act
The National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007 was enacted by the Parliament of India to declare India's National Institutes of Technology as Institutes of National Importance. The Act received the assent of the President of India on 5 June 2007 and became effective on Independence Day ,2007...

 passed by the Parliament of India
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...

. The campus is situated 22 km north-east of Kozhikode
Kozhikode
Kozhikode During Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Kozhikkode was dubbed the "City of Spices" for its role as the major trading point of eastern spices. Kozhikode was once the capital of an independent kingdom of the same name and later of the erstwhile Malabar District...

 (Calicut) city on the Calicut – Mukkam Road. It was established in 1961 and was known as Calicut Regional Engineering College (CREC) until 2002. It is one of the National Institutes of Technology
National Institutes of Technology
The National Institutes of Technology , are a group of higher education engineering institutes in India. Comprising thirty autonomous institutes, they are located in one each major state/territory of India. On their inception decades ago, all NITs were referred as Regional Engineering Colleges ...

 established by the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 for imparting technical education to students from all over the country. The college is among the very few institutions in the country to host a Supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...

 of its own.

Initial years

NITC was set up in 1961 as Regional Engineering College, Calicut (CREC) as the ninth of its kind and the first one to be established during the Third Five-Year Plan
Five-Year Plans of India
The economy of India is based in part on planning through its five-year plans, which are developed, executed and monitored by the Planning Commission. The tenth plan completed its term in March 2007 and the eleventh plan is currently underway...

 period. Until the formation of Calicut University in 1963, the institute was affiliated with Kerala University
Kerala University
The University of Kerala, formerly the University of Travancore, is an affiliating university located in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India. It was established in 1937, long before the birth of the state of Kerala in India...

. It was largely due to the efforts of Pattom Thanu Pillai, then Chief Minister of Kerala, that the institute came into being. Prof. S. Rajaraman, first principal of Government Engineering College, Thrissur
Government Engineering College, Thrissur
The Government Engineering College Thrissur is a technical education institute in Kerala, India. It is the second oldest engineering college established in Kerala and the first engineering college to be established after the formation of Kerala State...

 was appointed as the special officer in 1961 to organise the activities of the college until Dr. M. V. Keasva Rao took charge as the first principal of the college. The classes were initially held at the Government Polytechnic at West Hill, Calicut before it moved to its present campus in 1963. The college started with an annual intake of 125 students for the undergraduate courses, on a campus of 120 acre (0.4856232 km²).

Expansion

The intake for the undergraduate courses was increased to 250 in 1966, 150 for the first year and 100 for the preparatory course. The annual intake was reduced from 250 to 200 from the year 1968–69 on account of industrial recession.

After Prof S. Unnikrishnan Pillai took charge as principal in 1983, the Training and Placement Department was started to organise campus recruitments for students. The college moved into the area of Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 in 1984 with the commissioning of multi-user PSI Omni system and HCL workhorse PCs. In 1987 the college celebrated 25 years of its existence, and postgraduate courses were started. The CEDTI was established on the campus the following year.

In 1990 Shankar Dayal Sharma
Shankar Dayal Sharma
Shankar Dayal Sharma was the ninth President of India serving from 1992 to 1997. Prior to his presidency, Dr Sharma had been the eighth Vice President of India, serving under President Ramaswamy Venkataraman...

 inaugurated the Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 Department Block and construction of a computer centre was completed. In 1996, the institute website (the first in Kerala) was launched. The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode is one of the 13 Indian Institutes of Management set up by the Government of India. The Institute founded in 1996 in collaboration with the State Government of Kerala was the 5th IIM to be established....

 functioned from the NIT Calicut campus in its first few years of existence before moving to its new campus in Kunnamangalam
Kunnamangalam
Kunnamangalam is a census town located about 15 km east of Kozhikode city on the Calicut-Bangalore National Highway. Nearby places are Koduvally, Chathamangalam, and Kettangal. The locality is home to one of India's premier management institute Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode and Spring...

 in 2003.

Recent developments

The Ministry of Human Resource Development
Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)
The Ministry of Human Resource Development is an Indian government ministry, responsible for the development of human resources...

, Government of India, accorded NIT status to REC Calicut in June 2002 granting it academic and administrative autonomy. It was a lead institute under the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

-funded Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP) which began in 2002. In 2003, students were first admitted to the flagship undergraduate B.Tech through the All India Engineering Entrance Exam. With the passing of the National Institutes of Technology Act in May 2007, NIT Calicut was declared an Institute of National Importance. The National Institutes of Technology Act is the second legislation for technical education institutions after the Indian Institutes of Technology Act of 1961. In 2007 NIT Calicut raised its annual intake for its undergraduate program to 570.

Engineering departments

  • Department of Architecture
  • Civil Engineering Department
  • Computer Science and Engineering Department
  • Department of Chemical Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering Department
  • Electronics and Communication Engineering Department
  • Mechanical Engineering Department

School of Natural Sciences

  • Department of Chemistry
  • Department of Mathematics
  • Department of Physics

Schools

  • School of Management Studies
  • School of Biotechnology
  • School of Nano Science and Technology

Centres

  • Centre for Biomechanics
  • Centre for Information Technology and Communication
  • Sophisticated Instruments Centre
  • Centre for Value Education
  • NITC IBM ACE Centre
  • Centre for Continuing Education
  • Campus Networking Centre

Courses

Undergraduate course offered by NITC include Bachelor of Technology
Bachelor of Technology
The Bachelor of Technology is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after completion of a three or four year program of studies at an accredited university or accredited university-level institution...

 (B.Tech.) in various engineering fields and Bachelor of Architecture
Bachelor of Architecture
The Bachelor of Architecture is an undergraduate academic degree designed to satisfy the academic component of professional accreditation bodies, to be followed by a period of practical training prior to professional examination and registration. It is awarded for a course of study that lasts up...

 (B.Arch.). These are paralleled by postgraduate courses offering Master of Technology (M.Tech.) and Master of Architecture
Master of Architecture
The Master of Architecture is a professional degree in architecture, qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation that result in receiving a license.-Overview:...

 (M.Arch.). In addition, NITC offers an applied computer science course granting Master of Computer Application (M.C.A.), a business course granting Master of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...

 (M.B.A.) and a three year Master of Science
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

 (Technology) (M.Sc.(Tech.)). Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 programmes are available on all engineering and science disciplines.

School of Management Studies

The School of Management Studies offers a two-year Master of Business (MBA) program for graduates in Engineering, and a Ph.D. program in various domains of management. The admission to the MBA program is based on CAT scores, performance in group discussions and interviews.

IT Finishing School

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, has started IT finishing schools at NIT Calicut and seven other national institutions: the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) at Durgapur, Kurushetra, Jaipur, Surathkal, Trichy and Warangal. This school is supportd by NASSCOM
NASSCOM
The National Association of Software and Services Companies of IT software and services related activities for use of both the software developers as well as interested companies overseas....

 and some of the major IT companies in India.

International Liaison Office

The institute has set up an International Liaison Office to follow up the MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) signed between NITC and other institutions in the world. It also guides current students from abroad and those interested in joining the institute.

Academic Quality Management Initiatives

The institute has initiated an academic audit of all the programmes conducted based on a format prepared at a National Workshop on Academic Quality Management in which experts on technical education from IITs and other universities gave presentations. Academic audit has been conducted successfully during 2009 and 2010. A teacher evaluation by students has been place for the last several years and has been made online.

Hostels

NITC is a fully residential institution with 12 hostels on the campus to accommodate students. The boys' hostels are named by letters A, B, C, D, E, F, F', G, PG I, PG II and three girls' hostels (LH). A, B, and C hostels have triple rooms but accommodate four or five students per room due to increase in intake of students and shortage of hostel facilities. D, E, F, G, PG I, and PG II are single-seated but, due to high intake of students, some rooms are being used as doubles.

A and PG I hostels accommodate I year B.Tech students. II year B.Tech students are accommodated in the B, G and PG II hostels. III year B.Tech students are accommodated in C and G hostel. Final year B.Tech students are accommodated in D, E and F hostels. M.Tech. and MCA students reside in apartments.

The boys' hostels are close to the academic area while girls' hostels are in the residential campus. There are around 2200 students in NITC hostels. A mini-canteen is available in the hostel premises. STD/ISD facilities are available in almost all hostels.

Each hostel has its own mess and students are allowed to join the mess of any hostel with an exception of A and PG I which are exclusive for first years. The type of food served in the hostel messes are as follows:
  • Cosmopolitan: A, PG I
  • Vegetarian: C (South Indian), E and F (North Indian)
  • Non-vegetarian: B, G, D, PG II (Kerala)


B mess is managed by the students under the supervision of the Students Affairs Council.

There is an extension counter of the NITC Multipurpose Co-operative Society store in A and D hostels.

Students are permitted to use their own computers in their rooms. All hostels are connected to the Campus Networking Center through which internet connectivity is provided for free. Every year, students set up LANs in the hostels according to their needs. Each hostel contains a common room with cable TV.

There are three hostels in NIT Calicut to accommodate female undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. programme students. Two cosmopolitan messes are available in the girls' hostel premises. Other facilities like mini-canteen, indoor shuttle court, gymnasium and an extension of the Co-operative Society store are available in the girls' hostel.

Sports

NITC has a gymnasium, swimming pool, an open air theatre, an auditorium and facilities for outdoor sports like tennis, football, volleyball, badminton, roller skating, hockey and basketball. It also has a cricket ground where Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...

 matches have been played.

Central Library

NITC's Central Library, with more than 100,000 books, is one of the largest technical libraries in India. It subscribes to more than 200 print journals. The institute has a digital library
Digital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...

, Nalanda (Network of Automated Library and Archives), which houses online resources. Users of the institute and networked institutions can access around 17,000 journals, proceedings, databases, electronic theses, dissertations and online courses at Nalanda. It is part of the Indest consortium, which networks the libraries at technical institutions in India.

NIT Calicut's supercomputer, Purna (Parallel Universal Remote Numerical Analyser), is accessible from anywhere in the campus and is provided for the use of all students and faculty members. PURNA has a peak speed of 1.5 Tera Flops
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...

.

Technology Business Incubator

The Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at NIT Calicut was set up with the help of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB). Its objective is to help the development of start-up ventures in electronics and IT.

Culture and student life

NIT Calicut holds two major annual events, the techno-management festival Tathva
Tathva
Tathva, the annual techno-management festival, organized by the National Institute of Technology, in Calicut Kerala, India, is organized during odd semesters in the month of October....

, held in the monsoon semester and the cultural festival Ragam
Ragam (music festival)
RAGAM is the annual inter-collegiate fiesta of National Institute of Technology, Calicut , Kerala, India, which started in the late seventies to commemorate the death of a former student P. Rajan, who died after being held under police custody...

, which is held in the winter semester.

Tathva

Tathva
Tathva
Tathva, the annual techno-management festival, organized by the National Institute of Technology, in Calicut Kerala, India, is organized during odd semesters in the month of October....

 is the annual techno-management fest organized by NITC. It is usually held during the month of September and lasts for four days. Tathva has come to be regarded as one among the biggest technical festivals of South India. It has been held every year since its inception in 2001. Aimed at inspiring innovation and technical interest among students and awareness among the public, Tathva has played host to lectures, seminars, workshops by companies like ParaMek Technologies, competitions, paper presentations, exhibitions, quizzes, model displays and robotics events. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Dr. G. Madhavan Nair
G. Madhavan Nair
G. Madhavan Nair is the former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India since September 2003. He is also the Chairman, Space Commission and acts as the Chairman of Governing Body of the Antrix Corporation, Bangalore...

, Dr. Harold Kroto
Harold Kroto
Sir Harold Walter Kroto, FRS , born Harold Walter Krotoschiner, is a British chemist and one of the three recipients to share the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley....

, Dr. Johans Orphal, Dr. Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....

 (founder of Wikipedia), Suhas Gopinath, were some of the eminent guests of the previous editions of Tathva.

Ragam

Ragam is the cultural festival of NITC. Colleges and universities all over Kerala and outside the state compete with each other in events such as trivia quizzes, dance competitions, rock shows and music concerts. Some of the performers who have performed in previous years include Shaan, Shankar Mahadevan, Kartik, Benny Dayal, and Parikrama. 'Breathe Floyd' a Pink Floyd tribute band from the UK performed during Ragam 2009. Ragam 2010 featured KK, Naresh Iyer and "Higher On Maiden" a tribute band to Iron Maiden.

Ragam is held in the memory of the former student P. Rajan
Rajan case
The Rajan case refers to the death of P. Rajan, a student of the erstwhile Regional Engineering College, Calicut, due to torture in police custody in Kerala, during the nationwide Emergency in India in 1976, and the legal battle that followed, which brought out the facts of the incident.-...

. He died after being held (ostensibly for being a Naxalite
Naxalite
The word Naxal, Naxalite or Naksalvadi is a generic term used to refer to various militant Communist groups operating in different parts of India under different organizational envelopes...

) in police custody.

Student organizations

The student organizations at NITC include The Industrial and Planning Forum (IPF), Club Unwired (Engineering and Technology Club), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) student chapter, the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Students' Chapter, Club Mathematica, Literary and Debating Club, The Forum for Dance and Dramatics, Enquire (the NITC Quiz Club), the Nature Club and the Indian Cultural Association.

Professional bodies with student chapters include the Computer Society of India, the Indian Society for Technical Education, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...

 (IEEE) and The Institution of Engineers (India).

Admissions

Students are taken in for the undergraduate courses through the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) conducted by CBSE, New Delhi. Around one million students wrote this test in 2009 to gain admission to one of 20 NITs. This makes it one of the largest such examinations in the world. Admission to some other autonomous national level technical institutes (called Deemed University
Deemed University
Deemed university is a status of autonomy granted to high performing institutes and departments of various universities in India. This status of ‘Deemed-to-be-University’, is granted by Department of Higher Education, Union Human Resource Development Ministry, on the advice of the University Grants...

) is also through AIEEE.

Admission to the graduate M.Tech and PhD courses are primarily based on scores in the GATE exam, conducted by the IITs. Admission to the MCA programme is done through the NIMCET conducted by the NITs. The first NIMCET in 2006 was conducted by NIT Calicut. Faculty from other institutes work as research scholars in NITC under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP). It is the national coordination centre for the QIP of polytechnic institutes.

Administration

Under the constitution of the National Institutes of Technology Act 2007, the President of India
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...

 is the Visitor to the institute. The authorities of the institute are Board of Governors and the Senate. The Board is headed by the Chairman, who is appointed by the Visitor. The Director, who is the secretary of the Board, looks after the day-to-day running of the institute. The Board of Governors has nominees of the Central Government, the State Government, the NIT Council and the Institute Senate.

Rankings

NITC was ranked 23 in the India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...

Best Engineering colleges 2011. It was not ranked on the Dataquest
Dataquest
Dataquest is India's oldest IT publication. A fortnightly, Dataquest is published by Cyber Media India Ltd, South Asia's largest specialty media group. The magazine targets senior IT managers in user organizations as well as the IT industry professionals in India.Dataquest has grown with the Indian...

 Top Engineering Colleges in India of 2010. In the 2009 edition it ranked 16.
NITC was not ranked in the Outlook India Top Engineering Colleges of 2011 and did not participate in the 2010 edition either. In 2009 it ranked 32.

Principals/directors

  • M. V. Kesava Rao (1961–1969)
  • K.M. Bahauddin (1969–1980)
  • P. K. Charlu (acting 1980–1983)
  • S. Unnikrishna Pillai (1983–1996)
  • M.P. Chandrasekharan (1996–2003)
  • S.S. Gokhale (2003–2004)
  • B.N. Nagaraj (acting 2004–2005)
  • K.N. Dutta (acting 2005)
  • G.R.C. Reddy (2005–2010)
  • E. Gopinathan (acting 2010–2011)
  • T. L. Jose (acting 2011)
  • Sandeep Sancheti (Director NITK Surathkal as acting director in 2011)
  • M. N. Bandyopadhyay (2011-)

Notable alumni

  • Jishnu
    Jishnu (actor)
    Jishnu Raghavan is a Malayalam film actor. He is the son of Malayalam actor Raghavan. He started his career through a superhit Malayalam film Nammal...

    , Malayalam film actor
  • Prabhakaran Paleri
    Prabhakaran Paleri
    Dr. Prabhakaran Paleri is an Indian former naval and coast guard officer, scholar in national security studies, and presently, an academician. Paleri served as the 16th Director General of Indian Coast Guard from 28 Feb 2006 to 31 August 2006.-Education:Dr...

    , scholar in national security studies, former Head, School of Management Studies, NIT Calicut

External links

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