National Institute of Technology, Silchar

Location

The institute is located at 24.75°N, 92.79°E by the Silchar-Hailakandi road, twelve kilometers from the city of Silchar in the state of Assam.

History

The Regional Engineering College at Silchar (Assam)was founded in 1967 as a joint venture between the Government of India and the State Government of Assam to cater to the country's need for manpower in technology. RECs were jointly operated by the central government and the Assam state government.

The college was conferred with autonomy in financial and administrative matters. In 2002, the institution was granted Deemed University status with the approval of the UGC/AICTE and was renamed the National Institute of Technology, Silchar. In 2007, through the NIT Bill, the Indian government declared the National Institutes of Technology as "Institutes of National Importance". Now NIT Silchar is a premier engineering institute in Assam along with IIT Guwahati.

Academics

NIT Silchar offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Engineering, Science and Humanities with 11 departments. The annual intake for the B.Tech. program is more than 632 (632 as of 2015). The institute also offers different post graduation programs in Engineering, Science and Management. The Institute also has a Kendriya Vidyalaya school up to Class VIII functioning from a temporary building in Campus. Now, the Kendriya Vidyalaya has got its own campus inside the institute. The Institute has its own kids school near to computer science building.

Awards

Rankings

NIT Silchar is ranked 65th best engineering college of India and 17th among 31 NITs in 2016 by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. It is also ranked 4th best engineering college in the North Eastern region of India after IIT Guwahati, NIT Agartala and National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya by National Institutional Ranking Framework

Departments

Engineering departments

Non-engineering departments

Undergraduate programs

The institute awards B.Tech. degrees in all six disciplines under the engineering departments. Admission to these programs is through the JEE-Main. NITS follows the Reservation Policy declared by the Supreme Court of India, by which 27% of seats are reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 15% for Scheduled Castes (SCs), and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

The institute also accepts foreign nationals through scholarships awarded by the Government of India, and Non-Resident Indians through an independent scheme known as Direct Admission for Students Abroad (DASA).

In the four-year program of B.Tech, the first year instruction is common across all disciplines, in which students are taught the basic courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Professional communication, Basics of Computer Programming, Basic Engineering Drawing, and Basic Mechanical Workshop.

Postgraduate programs

The institute offers M.Tech. degrees in-

. The Institute has also started MBA program from 2012.

Central Library

The Central Library, established in 1977, has around 85,000 documents as of 31 March 2012. The library has been fully computerized and automated with Libsys software and has implemented RFID and DVR technology for security purposes under a TEQIP grant, becoming the first library in the northeast region to implement RFID and DVR technology.

The institute has completed six projects, including E-learning projects "Virtual Classroom" and "Digital Library", sponsored by MHRD, India under the MODROB scheme, which enabled the library to digitalize old and rare books, manuscripts and documents.

Hostels and guest houses

NIT Silchar is a fully residential campus. There are eight hostels for boys and two hostels for girls, each equipped with LAN with high-speed Internet access. All hostels are under the care of a warden and Board of Hostel Management (BHM). Messes are run privately or by students themselves.

Most of the teachers and the staff members reside in the residential quarters provided by the Institute. The Institute has two guest houses for catering to the need of visitors. Students are allotted different hostels every year. Two more boys' hostels and a hostel for PhD scholars are under construction.

Societies

On-campus Societies:

Student union body

The institute has an elected student body "Gymkhana" that takes responsibility for student welfare and extracurricular activities. The members are selected for various posts and work with the Dean of Students Welfare for the overall development of students.

Some of Gymkhana's activities include the technical festival "Tecnoesis" and cultural festival "Incandescence", which includes the rock music event "Thundermarch". It is also responsible for publishing the college magazine IGNITS and organizes regular quizzes, debates, freshers social and sports events.

Activities

Provisions have been made for extracurricular activities and games and sports on the hostels premises, in other locations and in the student activity center, which includes a stadium. Hostels are equipped with indoor games facilities such as Carom and table tennis. The Student Activity Center (SAC Building) is used as an indoor stadium. Two playgrounds each with capacity of 1000 spectators are used for outdoor games. Besides these, students, faculty and staff have facilities for lawn tennis, basketball, football and volleyball. Inter-hostel Carom, Chess, Cricket, Tennis, Kabaddi, Volleyball, Football and Badminton tournaments are conducted every year. The gymnasium center houses fitness and gym equipment.

Admissions

Students are admitted for the undergraduate courses through the JEE-Main conducted by CBSE, New Delhi. Admission to the M.Tech and PhD courses are primarily based on scores in the GATE exam, conducted by the IITs. Faculty from other institutes work as research scholars under Quality Improvement Program (QIP).

Administration

Under the constitution of the National Institutes of Technology Act 2007, the President of India is the Visitor to the institute. The authorities of the institute are the 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.

Achievements

1. The institute has a 1.0 MW solar power plant, the second such institute to have its own power plant after NIT Pune.
2. The 11th Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, (C-DAC) of India was established at the NIT Silchar campus and inaugurated on 21 February 2014.
3. First institute in North-East India to enforce library security by RFID and DVR
4. A solar-powered wheelchair project completed by students Rohit Thakwani, Rajarshi Choudhury and Shubham Jain won the European Renewable Energy Research Centres Award 2013 and the Indian National Academy of Engineering Award 2013.