About
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee or IITR) is a public technical and research university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India, headed by Director Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi. It was formerly known as University of Roorkee (1949–2001) and Thomason College of Civil Engineering (1847–1949). Established in 1847 in British India by the then lieutenant governor, Sir James Thomason, it is the oldest technical institution in Asia. It was given university status in 1949 and was converted into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2001, thus becoming the seventh IIT to be declared. IIT Roorkee has 22 academic departments covering Engineering, Applied Sciences, Humanities & Social Sciences and Management programs with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.
IIT Roorkee has a strong entrepreneurial culture, with many alumni who have moved on to found technological and social ventures in India and abroad, and have played an important role in the development of India. Ten alumni have won the Padma awards and twenty-five alumni have won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology. The institute has produced seven chairmen of the Indian Railway Board, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, more than a hundred secretary-level officers in the Government of India, two presidents of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Governors of states of India, chairmen of University Grants Commission (India), six directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology, Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of prominent Indian Universities, and presidents of Engineering and Scientific organizations like the Indian Institution of Engineers, the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering.
History
In 1847 it was officially established. It was renamed as the Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854 in honour of its founder, James Thomason, lieutenant governor 1843–53. The first Indian to graduate from the Roorkee College was Rai Bahadur Kanhaiya Lal in 1852.
The first edition of Thomso, the institute’s annual cultural festival was held in 1982.
On 21 September 2001, an ordinance issued by the Government of India declared it as the nation’s seventh Indian Institute of Technology, renaming it to the current name, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The ordinance was converted into an act by the Parliament to make IIT Roorkee an “Institution of National Importance”.
Campus
The main campus in Roorkee has an area of 365 acres (1,480,000 m2).
IIT Roorkee has a separate campus of 25 acres (100,000 m2) in Saharanpur which offers courses in Polymer Science, Process Engineering, Paper Technology & Packaging Technology In addition to this, a new ten-acre campus has been established in Greater Noida, Knowledge Park II, which was inaugurated on 4 April 2011. The Noida extension centre has 16 lecture rooms, software laboratories, faculty offices, a library and a computer center.
There are nine hostels for married students, doctoral students and foreign students. Each bhawan has a mess. Mess administration consists of a staff advisor, a chief advisor, and a student mess secretary.
Academics
IIT Roorkee offers academic programmes in Engineering, Technology, Applied Sciences, and Management. It runs eleven undergraduate (UG), one integrated dual degree, sixty one postgraduate (PG) and several doctoral programmes.
The selectivity of REE was close to 0.25%. After IIT-JEE, it was considered to be the second toughest engineering entrance examination in India. Admission to PG programmes in engineering and architecture is on the basis of GATE score and/or a written test and interview. For PG programmes in fundamental sciences admission is based on the Joint Admission Test (JAM).
According to statistics published by institute in 2007–08 4137 students were enrolled in the institute across all programs. The student-to-academic-staff ratio was 2.6:1 and that of UG/PG students was 1.4:1.
Library
Mahatma Gandhi Central Library
The library contains rare manuscripts including a 1623 edition of William Shakespeare’s complete works. Providing information through e-resources is the main focus of the Library. It has around 90,000 sq ft of fully air-conditioned space. It can accommodate more than 500 readers at any point of time. The library building is WiFi enabled and contains a total 75 user terminals, dedicated for readers. It also contains an 80-seater open reading room.
Research
Apart from these, a number of major research organizations who have awarded projects to IIT Roorkee include the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Space Research Organisation and others. The State Emergency Operation Centre(SEOC) in Dehradun is planning to soon link data centre of an earthquake early warning system developed by IIT Roorkee with the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun which would come as a great recognition for the establishment.
Academic collaboration
Every year students from more than 50 countries join IIT Roorkee for full-time or short-term training courses. WRDM and the Department of Hydrology run special postgraduate programmes for students of the Afro Asian region. The department has so far trained over 2469 in service engineers and agricultural scientists from 48 countries including India. The courses offered by the Department of Hydrology are presently sponsored by the Government of India and the UNESCO.
“Above mentioned information taken from Wkipedia”