Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Foundation and Vision

With the help of Bidhan Chandra Roy (chief minister of West Bengal), Indian educationalists Humayun Kabir and Jogendra Singh formed a committee in 1946 to consider the creation of higher technical institutions "for post-war industrial development of India". This was followed by the creation of a 22-member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar. In its interim report, the Sarkar Committee recommended the establishment of higher technical institutions in India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and consulting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign along with affiliated secondary institutions. The report urged that work should start with the speedy establishment of major institutions in the four-quarters of the country with the ones in the east and the west to be set up immediately.

On the grounds that West Bengal had the highest concentration of industries at the time, Roy persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first prime minister) to establish the first institute in West Bengal. The first Indian Institute of Technology was thus established in May 1950 as the Eastern Higher Technical Institute. It was located in Esplanade East, Calcutta, and in September 1950 shifted to its permanent campus at Hijli, Kharagpur 120 kilometres south-west of Calcutta. Hijli had been used as a detention camp during the British colonial rule in India, to keep Indian freedom fighters captive.

IIT Kharagpur is the 3rd oldest technical institute in the West Bengal state after Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur (1856) and Jadavpur University (established as Bengal technical institute in 1906) When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers in the ten departments of the institute. The classrooms, laboratories and the administrative office were housed in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp (now known as Shaheed Bhawan), where political revolutionaries were imprisoned during the British rule. The office building had served as the headquarters of the Bomber Command of the U.S. 20th Air Force during World War II.

Early Developments

The name "Indian Institute of Technology" was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on 18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it an Institute of National Importance. Prime Minister Nehru, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said:

Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.

The Shaheed Bhawan was converted to a museum in 1990. The Srinivasa Ramanujan Complex was incorporated as another academic complex of the institute with Takshashila starting operation in 2002, Vikramshila in 2003 and Nalanda in 2012.

Administration

IIT Kharagpur shares a common Visitor (a position held by the President of India) and the IIT Council with other IITs. The rest of IIT Kharagpur's organisational structure is distinct from that of the other IITs. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur is under the IIT Council, and has 13 members that include representatives of the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, in addition to other members appointed by the IIT Council and the institute's senate. Under the Board of Governors is the institute director, who serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. He is aided by the Deputy Director. Under the director and the deputy director are the deans, heads of departments, registrar, president of the students' council, and chairman of the Hall Management Committee. The registrar is the chief administrative officer and oversees day-to-day operations. He is the custodian of records, funds, and other properties of the institute. Under the charge of the heads of departments (HOD) are the faculty (full-time professors as well as those of associate and assistant status). The wardens of hostels are placed under the chairman of the hall management committee in the organisation.

IIT Kharagpur receives comparatively more funding than other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around Rs. 100–200 million (US$2–4.5 million) per year, IIT Kharagpur gets nearly Rs. 1,300 million ($30 million) per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding by industry-sponsored projects. IIT Kharagpur provide scholarships to all MTech students and research scholars to encourage them to pursue higher studies. The cost borne by undergraduate students, including boarding and mess expenses, is around Rs. 2,75,000 ($4110) per annum. 35% of undergraduate students are given additional financial support based on personal need and economic background, with their annual expenses being nearly Rs. 64,000 ($975).

The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its senate. It consists of all professors of the institute, and administrative and student representatives. The senate controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards. The Director of IIT Kharagpur is the ex officio chairman of the Institute Senate.

IIT Kharagpur follows the credit-based system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, with a grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. For each semester, the students are graded by taking a weighted average from all the courses with their respective credit points. Each semester's evaluation is done independently with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) reflecting the average performance across semesters.

Campus

IIT Kharagpur is located 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of Kolkata. The campus is located five kilometres away from Kharagpur's railway station. The layout of the present campus and the design of the buildings were carried out by a group of engineers and architects under the guidance of Werner M. Moser, a Swiss architect. The 8.5 square kilometres (2,100 acres) campus is residence to about 22,000 inhabitants. In 2015, IIT Kharagpur had about 605 faculty members, 1,933 employees and approximately 10,010 students living on the campus. The campus has a total of 55 kilometres (34 miles) of roadways. The Institute plans to go Green by 2020.

The 22 student hostels are located on either side of Scholars Avenue, which extends from the institute gate to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. The three earliest halls—Patel, Azad, and Nehru—together constitute the PAN loop or Old Campus, which is located just next to Scholar's Avenue. There are ten hostels for undergraduate male students (MMM, LBS, RP, RK, MS, LLR, HJB, Patel, Azad and Nehru) and two for undergraduate female students (SN/IG and MT). There are a few post-graduate students' hostels including four for women(RLB, Gokhle, Nivedita and SAM) and hostels for research scholars (BCR, VS, BRH and JCB) and a separate hostel for scholars from the armed forces. The Jnan Ghosh stadium and Tata Sports Complex host large-scale sports competitions. The Tagore Open Air Theatre has a capacity of 6,000 people, and is used to host cultural programs. The Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park (STEP) provides infrastructure facilities to alumni who want to become entrepreneurs but lack infrastructure to start their own corporation.

In addition to the main campus at Kharagpur, the institute has an extension centre at Kolkata to provide venues for continuing education programmes, distance learning courses, and guesthouse accommodation. The institute plans to expand the Kolkata extension centre at Rajarhat, and use it to offer full-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses from the 2008 session onwards. The 10-acre (40,000 m²) Rajarhat campus will house 2,500 students, and will eventually expand to 250 acres (1.0 km²). The institute's plan for a similar branch campus of 200 acres (0.81 km²) in Bhubaneswar was scrapped following rejection by the Union Human Resource and Development ministry.

Academic buildings

IIT Kharagpur has 19 academic departments, eight multi-disciplinary centres/schools, and 13 schools of excellence in addition to more than 25 central research and development units. Apart from the main building in the central academic complex, the Srinivasa Ramanujan Complex also has common academic facilities. In the S. R. Complex, the Takshashila building houses the G. S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication, the School of Information Technology and the Computer and Informatics Centre; and has facilities for conducting lecture classes as well. Vikramshila is another academic building in the S. R. Complex, having four lecture halls, several seminar rooms, and Kalidas Auditorium, which has a seating capacity of 850. The School of Medical Science and Technology is housed in the basement of the Vikramshila building.

The institute main building houses most of the administrative offices, the lecture halls, and two auditoriums on either side. The signage at the front displays the message," Dedicated to the service of the nation." The tower of the main building has a steel tank with 10,000 imperial gallons of water capacity for emergency supply needs. The Netaji Auditorium in the main building is used for official functions and events, and doubles as a cinema theatre on weekend nights, showing films to the IIT community at subsidised rates.

IIT Kharagpur's first library was located in a small room of the institute's Old Building (Shaheed Bhawan). At the time of its opening in 1951, the library had a collection of 2,500 books. Now located in the main building of the institute, the Central Library is one of the largest of its type. Its collection includes over 350,000 books and documents, and it subscribes to more than 1,600 printed and online journals and conference proceedings.

The library has six halls and a section exclusively for SC and ST students. The library's collection consists of books, reports, conference proceedings, back volumes of periodicals, standards, theses, micro-forms, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and audio-visual material. The library's transaction service is automated and online searches are possible through an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The Electronic Library section has a collection of databases, video lectures and miscellaneous other resources.

The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology has over a hundred indoor exhibits that include technical models collected from institutions across India. The park outside the museum contains 14 open-air demonstrations and outdoor exhibits, including a hunter plane and a steam engine. The museum has an archive room, showing documents relating to the history of the institute and West Midnapore district. The Rural Museum, located in the Rural Development Centre of the institute, has a collection of exhibits in local culture.

Civic amenities

The institute campus has six guest houses, a civic hospital, four nationalised banks, four schools, a railway reservation counter and a police station. The campus has a water pumping station, electrical sub-station, telephone exchange, a market, six restaurants, and a garbage disposal section for the daily needs of the residents. Construction is going on for another guest house and a convention centre having a capacity of 2,000. The institute draws its supply of water from wells near the Kosai river (located 112 kilometres away from institute) by harnessing sub-surface water. Three deep wells near the institute supplement the supply from the river. The water is supplied by a 16-inch (410 mm) pipeline to 12 tanks in the campus with a total capacity of 2,800,000 litres (615,000 imperial gallons). However students have recently shown dissatisfaction with the current level of amenities, especially the civic hospital, forcing the director to resign.

IIT Kharagpur is located just outside the town of Kharagpur, in the Hijli village. The civic amenities provided to the campus of IIT Kharagpur make it nearly self-sufficient with regards to the basic needs of the residents. As Kharagpur is a small town, there is limited direct interaction between the campus community and the town. There is also little opportunity for the employment of family members of the faculty. Unlike some other IITs (such as IIT Bombay), IIT Kharagpur does not restrict outsiders' entry into the campus. IIT Kharagpur provides much of its benefits to the local community through the Rural Development Centre (RDC) located in the campus. Established in 1975, the RDC helps the local community by developing customised technologies. The RDC also co-ordinates the National Service Scheme (NSS) programs in IIT Kharagpur, with the members of NSS taking part in weekly community service activities such as sanitation, road construction, teaching and building educational models.

In 2005, IIT Kharagpur started construction of a boundary wall for the security of the campus, which is now complete. Mild restrictions apply to entry of outside vehicles. The boundary wall was opposed by the local community as it would hinder their access to amenities provided by the institute. Campus residents have also been denied direct access to the adjoining Hijli railway station as a result of this wall. The local community opposed the construction of a flyover from the railway station to the campus formerly, under the pretext that it would lead to substantial losses of opportunity for the shops along the roads. After the flyover construction had been completed and became operational, things ensued in a manner as the local community had anticipated, but the flyover has resulted in more convenience for transport. The construction of the 1052.69 m long flyover was approved by the Indian Railways and West Bengal state government. It's called Hijli Road overbridge, and was constructed for estimated cost of Rs. 237 million ($5.3 million).

Academics

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in IIT Kharagpur is granted through written entrance examinations. Admissions to M.S.(by Research) and PhD programmes are based on written tests followed by personal interviews.

Admission to undergraduate programmes in all IITs is tied to the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE). Candidates who qualify for admission through IIT-JEE can apply for admission in four-year BTech (Bachelor of Technology), five-year BArch degree, five-year Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology) and five-year integrated MSc (Master of Sciences) courses at IIT Kharagpur. The admissions to postgraduate programmes (MTech) are made primarily through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). Other postgraduate entrance exams include Joint Admission to MSc (JAM) for MSc, and Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by IIMs for management studies.

15% of the seats are reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes (ST). As of 2008, 27% separate reservation exists for the Other Backward Classes.

IIT Kharagpur is a member of LAOTSE, a network of universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.

Undergraduate education

IIT Kharagpur offers degrees as part of its undergraduate programmes. They include Bachelor of Technology (BTech.Hons), Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) and the 5-year integrated Master of Science. The BTech degree is the most common undergraduate degree in IIT Kharagpur in terms of student enrolment. It is based on a four-year programme with eight semesters. The first year of the BTech curriculum has common courses from various departments. At the end of the first year, an option to change departments is given to students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters. Unlike other IITs which evaluate their students on the basis of others' performance which does not foster shared learning and communication,IIT- Kharagpur uses absolute scores.

From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their departments that are known as depth courses. In addition to these, the students take inter-disciplinary courses known as breadth courses. Separate courses from the humanities and social sciences (HSS) department, and management and information technology are also required. At the end of the third year, the BTech and dual degree students undertake industrial training for a minimum period of eight working weeks as part of the undergraduate curriculum. In the final year of their studies, most of the students are offered jobs in industries and other organisations through the Training and Placement section of the institute. Some students opt out of this facility in favour of higher studies or by applying to recruiting organisations directly. In addition to the major degree as part of the undergraduate education, students can take courses from other departments, and by demonstrating knowledge of a discipline based on objectives set by the department, earn a minor in that department.

Postgraduate and doctoral education

IIT Kharagpur offers postgraduate programmes including Master of Technology (MTech), Master of Business Administration (MBA), and Master of Sciences (MSc). Some specialised post graduate programmes offered by IIT Kharagpur include Master of Human Resource Management (MHRM), Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), LL.B in Intellectual Property Law (LL.B Honors in IP Law), and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation and Management (PGDMOM). The institute offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) as part of its doctoral education programme. The doctoral scholars are given a topic by the professor, or work on the consultancy projects sponsored by industry. The duration of the programme is usually unspecified and depends on the discipline. PhD scholars submit a dissertation as well as conduct an oral defence of their thesis. Teaching assistantships (TA) and research assistantships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's academic profile. IIT Kharagpur offers an M.S. (by research) programme; the MTech and M.S. being similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course-based) and thesis (research-based) master programmes respectively.

IIT Kharagpur (along with other IITs) offers Dual Degree programs that integrate undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected pairs of branches and specialisations. Most of the Dual Degree programs involve specialisation in the major field of education of the student. For a dual degree involving an MBA from Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, the selection is made on the basis of an aptitude test of students across all engineering streams. The Dual Degree program spans five years as against six years in conventional BTech (four years) followed by an MTech or MBA (two years).

IIT Kharagpur has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur), an entrepreneurship school (Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship) and a law school (Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law) on its premises. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law has been opened in collaboration with George Washington University. The School of Medical Science and Technology in IIT kharagpur is the first and also the "only" of its kind in the country where M.B.B.S. graduates are trained in art and science of medical research with aim to provide a platform for interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of medical science and technology. IIT Kharagpur will invest around Rs 2.30 billion for its 400-bed super specialty hospital in the campus which will impart undergraduate medical course to students.The institute is expected to start the course in 2017 which will be recognised by Medical Council of India (MCI).

Continuing education

The institute offers the Continuing Education Programme (CEP) for qualified engineers and scientists to learn technologies and developments in their academic disciplines. As part of CEP, the institute offers formal degree programmes (MTech and PhD) and an Early Faculty Induction Programme (EFIP) under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP), short-term courses supported by the All India Council for Technical Education, self-financed short-term courses supported by course fees, and certificate courses conducted as distance education. In addition to conducting educational courses, the CEP develops model curricula for engineering education. As of 2006, the CEP has facilitated publication of 103 course curriculum books. The CEP administers SIMAP (Small Industries Management Assistant Programme) and STUP (Skill-cum-Technology Upgradation Programme) on behalf of IIT Kharagpur; the institute being a corpus institute of SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India).

Sponsored research

The institute received 171 research revenue worth Rs. 417 million ($9.25 million)—and 130 consultancy projects in the 2005–06 session. The institute transferred 15 technologies to industry during the same session. The institute has filed 125 patents and 25 of them have been granted. This does not include patents obtained by individual professors or students. During the same session, the value of the international projects was Rs. 9.9 million ($220,000), and the revenue from transferred technologies was about Rs. 2.5 million ($55,000). The institute earned Rs. 520 million ($11.5 million) from research projects in the 2005–06 session. Major sponsors for research include the Indian National Science Academy, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Microsoft Corporation, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India) and Indian Space Research Organisation. IIT Kharagpur has had a cell known as the SRIC (Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy) cell since 1982. It handles sponsored research projects and industrial consultancy assignments, and has the infrastructure to simultaneously administer 600 R&D projects.

Academic Units

Departments

Centres

Schools

Rankings

Internationally, IIT Kharagpur is ranked 286 in the QS World University Rankings (Quacquarelli Symonds) of 2015 and 60 in the QS Asian University Rankings of 2014. IIT Kharagpur is ranked 3 in National Institutional Ranking Framework published by Ministry of Human Resource Development in April 2016.

IIT Kharagapur is ranked in the 351-400 range by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2013-14. Recently, it was declared the top educational hub in India as per the Times Higher Education, Asia Rankings. It was ranked 439 in the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP). In India, among engineering colleges, it ranked 3 by India Today in 2013, 2 by Outlook India in 2013 and 4 by Dataquest in 2011. In India, among universities, it has ranked 3 by Careers360 Top Universities in India 2016. In the Mint Government Colleges survey of 2009 it ranked 4. IIT, Kharagpur, has emerged as the top engineering college in EDU-RAND ranking 2014 followed by IITs in Delhi and Kanpur.

Placements at IIT Kharagpur

The international placements began in 2006. Two foreign companies, oil giants Schlumberger and Royal Dutch Shell, visited IIT Kharagpur that year and offered annual salaries to the tune of $80,000. The reason for late international placements was that earlier the IIT Kharagpur was fully dedicated to the service of the nation but after the fee hike, it had to abandon its policy. According to IT magazine Dataquest's annual survey, IIT Kharagpur is the second best technology college in terms of placement in India.

The top domestic compensation in 2008 came in at Rs 1.8 million per annum. In 2011 batch, Goldman Sachs recruited 10 students on a package of ₹2.6 million (US$39,000) per annum.

Barclays Capital recruited 11 students with a package of ₹2 million (US$30,000) per annum in December 2009. The highest salary offered till now is ₹17 million (US$250,000) per annum by social networking site Facebook in an off-shore recruitment (of which Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) were offered valued at Rs 10 million) in December 2010. The 2010 batch of BTech students saw 94% placements while the remaining preferred IIMs or entrepreneurship.Deutsche Bank recruited 9 students on a package of ₹1.5 million (US$22,000) per annum. For 2012 batch, Facebook has made the highest offer US$150,000 to four students. For 2013 batch, Three students have bagged salaries of ₹8 million (US$120,000) a year while eight others have got offers of ₹7.5 million (US$110,000) from Google, Facebook and Microsoft. For 2014 batch, the highest package, offered to a student stands at around ₹9 million (US$130,000) from Google.

Halls of Residence

IIT Kharagpur provides on-campus residential facilities to its students, research scholars, faculty members and many of its staff. The students live in hostels (referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT. Hostel rooms are wired for internet, for which students pay a compulsory charge. Most of the rooms in the older halls of residences are designed to accommodate one student, but due to scarcity of sufficient student accommodation, two students share the single seater room in first two years. The new rooms of Lal Bahadur Shastri hall & new blocks of few other hall of residence accommodate three students in one room.

The halls of IIT Kharagpur are:

Undergraduate students choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation (NSO) for their first two years of study. IIT Kharagpur has common sports grounds for cricket, football, hockey,one court for volleyball, two for lawn tennis, four indoor badminton court, tracks for athletics; and swimming pools for aquatic events. Most of the hostels have their own sports grounds. The institute organises Shaurya, an annual inter-collegiate sports and games meet in October

The students of IIT Kharagpur compete among themselves in various events held under the purview of open-IIT and inter-hall events, and the results of the latter contribute to the points that determine the winner of General Championship. The four categories in which General Championships are decided are Sports, Social and cultural activities, Technology, and Hall affairs. The women's hostel together participate as a single team in all events with the exception of sports, where women's team do not participate at inter-hall level. IIT Kharagpur participates in the Inter IIT Sports Meet, held annually in one of the IITs by policy of rotation.

The students choose their representatives by elections held under the control of the Technology Students' Gymkhana.A fortnightly newsletter called The Scholar's Avenue, named after the avenue common to the student halls, is also published by an independent student body. A Hindi monthly newsletter Awaaz is also published by another independent student body. Individual halls organise "Hall day" — an annual event that involves lighting and decoration of the organising hall, with a social gathering of students from all halls—during March. The event is also used by the halls to popularise their candidates for student body elections.

Students who violate the code of conduct of the institute have to defend themselves in front of the Hall Disciplinary Committee (HDC), which investigates the case and prescribes punishment if necessary. Students may appeal against the punishment to the Appellate-cum-Liaison Committee known as Inter Hall Disciplinary Committee (IHDC). The IHDC submits its recommendations to the Senate, which finalises the punishment. Extreme cases of indiscipline are referred directly to the IHDC. The IHDC is empowered to give punishments to students for acts of indiscretion committed anywhere in India. IIT Kharagpur has strict provisions dealing with physical and mental harassment of junior students (ragging). Students found harassing their juniors are suspended from the institute, without going through the Disciplinary Committee.

Festivals

IIT Kharagpur has festivals like Spring Fest, Kshitij. Spring Fest, the annual socio-cultural fest of IIT Kharagpur is the largest student managed socio-cultural fest of Asia. It is held in January. Spring Fest includes cultural competitions in addition to stage shows (known as Star-nights) by singers and performers such as Sunidhi Chauhan, Farhan Akhtar, Salim-Sulaiman, Vishal-Shekhar, K.K., Pritam, Kailash Kher, Shaan, Breathe, Led Zepplica, Parikrama, Indian Ocean etc. The magnitude of Spring Fest is huge and attracts participation from more than 150 colleges across India. IIT Kharagpur organises a techno-management festival known as Kshitij. It is the biggest techno-management festival of Asia with a total budget of more than 15 million and a total prize money worth Rs 5 million. An annual techno-management festival organised in January or February, it receives participation from foreign universities as well. Events include technical workshops, seminars, and competitions.

Robotix, the annual robotics competition held by IIT Kharagpur, is organised during Kshitij. IIT Kharagpur organises an annual inter-collegiate sports and games meet known as Shaurya. It is held in the autumn semester in October. Events include cricket, hockey, volleyball, basketball, badminton, table tennis, lawn tennis and aquatics. Workshops for archery, boxing and handball are held.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering organises Bitwise IIT Kharagpur, an online programming contest annually in February. Programming and algorithmic challenges are given in a span of 12 hours. In Bitwise 2011, 5000 teams participated from 80 countries. Bitwise 2012 was held on 12 February 2012.

In January the Entrepreneurship Cell organises a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which consists of guest lectures, workshops, a start-up camp and other events relating to entrepreneurship and starting-up.

There are also other department festivals like Esperanza (organised by department of Electronics and electrical communication engineering) Prithvi (organised by department of geology)

A petroleum-themed technical fest 'Petrofiesta' is organised in the month of November by the Society of Petroleum Engineers IIT Kharagpur Chapter. This is a one of a kind fest which provides a platform for students from all over the country to compete and share their ideas and knowledge in the field of petroleum industry.

Kharagpur Robosoccer Students' Group (KRSSG)

Kharagpur Robosoccer Students' Group, often abbreviated to KRSSG, is one of IIT Kharagpur's first endeavours in robotics research. It is a research group sponsored by SRIC as part of Centre for Excellence in Robotics. The aim of the research group is to make autonomous soccer playing robots and participate in international competitions like Robocup and FIRA Roboworld Cup. Students from all departments and years have been part of this including undergraduates and post-graduates. The principal Investigator for the project is Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay and it is also mentored by Prof. A.K. Deb, Prof. D.K. Pratihar and Prof. Sudeshna Sarkar.

KRSSG participated in FIRA 2013 Malaysia,FIRA 2014 Beijing, China and FIRA 2015 Dajeon, South Korea, winning the Bronze Medal. and Humanoid Simulation League 2016, Germany, winning 8th position.

Team KART (Kharagpur Automobile Racing Team)

Kharagpur Automobile Racing Team, better known as "Team KART" is a group of students who like to explore the practical side of automotive engineering.The team designs and builds formula student prototype race-cars and represents IIT Kharagpur at Formula Student UK. It was founded in 2008 and has made three cars since—the KX-1, the K-1 & the K-2. K-2 secured a rank of 67th out of 120 teams worldwide at Formula Student UK 2013. Several design oversights in K2 were fixed in K-2.2 by a new chassis and intake-exhaust system. The team participated in FDC 2015 and passed technical scrutiny and took part in dynamic events securing the first runners up position in Business Presentation and Cost Report, 2nd in Business Plan Presentation & 2nd in Cost and Manufacturing Report. Construction of K-3 is ongoing.

Gopali Youth Welfare Society

Gopali Youth Welfare Society is a government registered NGO run by students of IIT Kharagpur with the help of professors of IIT Kharagpur and local members of Gopali village. The main initiative of GYWS is an English Medium School, Jagriti Vidya Mandir. Quality education is provided absolutely free of cost to underprivileged children. The school is located in Tangasole village, Salua outside the IIT Kharagpur campus. There are about 200 students enrolled in the school from Nursery to Class V. Books, Uniform and transportation is provided to the kids. .

Entrepreneurship Cell

Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) is a student's organisation, functioning under STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park), from within the Institute, with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship among students throughout India. It provides mentoring and support to start-up companies and helps them with financing, through Venture Capitalists and incubation, through STEP and SRIC, IIT Kharagpur.

It conducts two major events, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit(GES), which is a three-day event, held in January at the institute, and the Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive (EAD), a 20-day event, consisting of guest lectures in 20 cities across India. Knowledge Camp is conducted annually for the benefit of students within IIT-Kgp, while the Innovation Platform and Fund-a-KGPian programs continue throughout the year, to recognise and support innovative ideas among students of IIT-Kgp, besides workshops and guest lectures throughout the year.

Professors Sunil Handa, Padma Shri Anil K. Gupta, Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Vinod Dham, Arjun Malhotra, Rajat Sharma and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw are some of the speakers who have delivered lectures within and outside IIT -Kgp.

E-Cell has been instrumental in the establishment of Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship. The E-Cell has played a key role in the Deferred Placement Programme (DPP), whereby, a student can opt for placement a year after the completion of his/her course, in case they are involved in a start-up company. This is the first time such a programme is being offered at the undergraduate level in India.

Space Technology Student Society

Space Technology Student Society (spAts) is a student initiative that functions as the student body of Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell(KCSTC),the contact point of Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) at IIT Kharagpur.It hosts an annual Space-festival "National Students' Space Challenge". spAts has been constantly instrumental in organizing space-themed talks, sky gazing sessions, lectures and presentations within IIT Kharagpur. The group publishes a bi- semester newsletter, 'The Moonwalk', on latest ventures in space technology and various astronomy related articles.

Technology Filmmaking and Photography Society

Technology Filmmaking and Photography Society(TFPS) is another students' interest club of IIT Kharagpur which aims to provide a platform to students interested in filmmaking and photography to work together and pursue their interests. Biswapati Sarkar is one of the founding members of TFPS.

Alumni

Alumni-institute interaction is maintained through the Alumni Network under the aegis of the Dean of Alumni Affairs and International Relations, his office staff and student representatives. It also helps in conducting the annual alumni meets.

Notable alumni

Alumni initiatives

The Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) and Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law were established with donated funds from Vinod Gupta (founder, Infogroup) along with support from the government of India. VGSOM started in 1993 with a batch of 30 students. Other centers built by funding from alumni include the G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication and VLSI-CAD laboratory. The IIT Foundation, started by Vinod Gupta in 1992, is the alumni association of the institute with chapters in cities in India and abroad. Subrata Gupta is the Director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. The alumni association publishes the quarterly newsletter KGPian for the alumni. The institute also publishes a monthly e-newsletter titled KGP Konnexion for alumni. IIT Kharagpur has a dean for alumni affairs to manage liaisons with alumni. The US-based alumni of IIT Kharagpur have started the Vision 2020 fundraiser, to provide infrastructure (like labs and equipment) and attract and retain faculty and students. The objective of Vision 2020 is to raise a US$200 million endowment fund by the year 2020 for technology education, research and innovation related growth of the institute. On 20 April 2013 ex-graduates from IIT Kharagpur formed a group Kharagpur-in-Mumbai group and held a meeting in Bandra,Mumbai to chalk out "the easiest and pragmatic ways" on how they can given back to society.