IIT-Bhubaneswar: Eight campuses try to make a mark

IIT-Bhubaneswar (IIT-BBS) functions from eight campuses scattered across the city, while the permanent campus is coming up at Arugul. But Sumant Laxmeshwar, 21, an undergraduate, does not regret his decision to join the institute that is still an infant and has just concluded its first convocation.

Laxmeshwar, from Karnataka, got 44th rank in the state list of successful candidates in the IIT examination and was also eligible for getting into National Institute of Technology, Surathkal. He had opted IIT-BBS as his first choice for admission and is glad he did so.

“I am happy that I got the opportunity to study at this new IIT,” said Laxmeshwar, who has bagged an offer from a reputed core industry company with a lucrative pay package in the campus placement.

Satisfied with the faculty-student ratio at the new institute, which had started its journey in 2008 from the campus of IIT Kharagpur, the mentor institute, he says, it’s been a good journey so far and the labs here are good enough compared to the older ones.

The Arugul campus will be spread over 935 acres, about 25 km from Bhubaneswar, with an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore after cost escalation. The Centre provided a budget of Rs 388 crore in 2008 for setting up the new campus.

The institute plans to move to its permanent campus by the beginning of 2014.

“Though the institute runs on temporary premises, we are running like a full-fledged institute,” said M Chakraborty, director, IIT-BBS.

It has invested around Rs 50 crore to set up the facilities and tied up with Central Tool Room and Training Centre (CTTC) and Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology for laboratory and workshop facilities.

“The absence of a permanent campus is compensated with the quality of academic facilities provided here”, explained B K Ray, registrar, IIT-BBS.

IIT-BBS has produced 93 B Tech students from three undergraduate programmes with an intake of 40 each and two Ph.D scholars.

So far, about 40 per cent of students of the current graduating batch of 107 have got shortlisted by globally renowned companies such as Malaysia-based Finisar, Flipkart (online trading company), Bharat Petro Chemicals Ltd, Tata Steel, Samsung, Avitec, etc with lucrative pay packages and many more companies are in the queue. These companies are hiring students in the pay range of Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per annum.

This compares well with the Rs 5 lakh average annual salary offered last year. “As the placement season is going to continue till March, we are hopeful that all the students will be placed with handsome pay packages”, said T V S Sekhar, professor-in-charge of career development cell.

As part of its growth plan, the institute will introduce joint M.Sc-Ph.D programme in chemistry, earth science, physics and mathematics from the next academic session. In addition, IIT-BBS plans to set up an innovation centre for climate change for its School of Earth, Ocean and Science spread over 75 acres along the Puri-Konark marine road, to study the impact of climate changes.