Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat

National Institute of Technology Surat

SVNIT, Surat
Motto	विज्ञानम सारथि (Vigyanam Saarthi)
Motto in English	Charioteer of Science
Type	Public
Established	1961
Chairman	Jaya Panvalkar
Director	Dr. Shailesh R. Gandhi
Academic staff	210
Undergraduates	2500 (approx)
Postgraduates	850 (approx)
Location	Surat, Gujarat, India
Campus	Urban, 617 acres (2.5 km2)
Website	www.svnit.ac.in, www.svnitalumni.com

The Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat (Hindi: सरदार वल्लभभाई राष्ट्रीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान , सूरत) (Gujarati: સરદાર વલ્લભભાઈ રાષ્ટ્રીય પ્રૌદ્યોગિકી સંસ્થાન) popularly known as National Institute of Technology, Surat, NIT Surat or SVNIT, is an engineering institute of higher education established by the Parliament of India in 1961. It is one of 30 National Institutes of Technology in India recognized by the Government of India as an Institute of National Importance.^[1] According to the MHRD Ranking of Indian Universities 2016, it is ranked as the 2nd best NIT and in the top 15 engineering and science institutes in India. It is the Anchor Institute for the Auto and Engineering sector and will be training the workforce.^[2][3] The project is also designated as the "Center of Excellence" in water resources and flood management and is supported by the World Bank.^[4]

NIT Surat is a premier institute that was established to train scientists and engineers to cater to the country's growing need for R&D and technological manpower. It shares its organizational structure and undergraduate admission process with sister NITs. The students and alumni of NIT Surat are informally referred to as SVNITians. The institute offers undergraduate, postgraduate and Doctoral courses in Engineering and Technology, Science, Humanities and Management.

The institute organizes annual cultural and technical festivals: MindBend (technical festival), Sparsh^[5] (social and techno-cultural festival) and Autumnfest (automotive festival) as well as IGNIS (all India inter engineering college sports festival) that attract participants from all over the country and abroad.

History

In order to serve the growing demand for trained quality technical manpower, the Government Of India started fourteen RECs between 1959 and 1965 (NITs located at Bhopal, Allahabad, Calicut, Durgapur, Kurukshetra, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Nagpur, Rourkela, Srinagar, Surathkal, Surat, Tiruchirappalli, and Warangal).

Sardar Vallabhbhai Regional College of Engineering and Technology was established in June 1961 as a co-operative venture between the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat. It is named after India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

A review committee (HPRC) was set up by the Union Government in 1998 for review of RECs. The HPRC, under the chairmanship of Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, submitted its report entitled "Strategic Road Map for Academic Excellence of Future RECs" in 1998. Following the recommendations of HPRC, in 2002, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India upgraded, all the seventeen Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) to National Institutes of Technology (NITs). On 4 December 2002 the institution was granted Deemed University status with the approval of the UGC/AICTE and was renamed Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology.

On 5 June 2007, the Parliament of India passed the National Institutes of Technology Act declaring it an Institute of National Importance which came in effect on Independence Day 2007.

Administration

NIT Surat shares a common Visitor (a position held by the President of India) and the NIT Council with other NITs who is the most powerful person in the NIT organizational structure.

Below the NIT Council is SVNITs Board of Governors consisting of 12 members that includes representatives of the state of Gujarat, MHRD in addition to other members appointed by the NIT Council and the institute's senate. The Director serves under the Board of Governors, and is the school's chief academic and executive officer. Under the director and the deputy director are the deans, heads of departments, registrar and Chief Hostel Warden.

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). Director is the chairman of Council of Wardens and the wardens of hostels are placed under the Chief Hostel Warden of individual hostels in the organization.

NIT Surat receives funding from Government of India of Rs.500 million per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding by industry-sponsored projects. NIT Surat subsidizes undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all M.Tech. students and research scholars to encourage them to pursue higher studies.

The academic policies of NIT Surat 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 academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards. The director is the ex officio chairman of the senate.

NIT Surat 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. The medium of instruction is English.

Campus

The campus is located at Ichchhanath in the city of Surat at a distance of about 10 km from the Surat Railway Station. It is on the way to a small sea-side resort known as Dumas, from the railway station. The city buses regularly ply from early morning till midnight, between Surat Railway Station and College Campus/Piplod. Any bus heading for Ichchanath or Piplod, can be taken to reach the NIT, Surat campus. Auto rickshaws (more commonly) or taxis can also be hired. The lush green campus is spread over 250 hectares (617 acres). The main entrance is located on the northern end of the campus, facing Surat-Dumas Road 13 km from the Surat Railway Station. The 617 acre campus has 5000 inhabitants which includes 210 faculty members and approximately 3,500 students living on the campus hostels. The campus is very near to the various entertainment hubs of Surat, it also is a much favored place for joggers and walkers who come on a regular basis to the campus in morning and evening time.

Academic buildings

In addition to laboratories and central research facilities,NIT Surat has ten academic departments. The institute's academic facilities are located in the north-western part of the campus; these include the department buildings, laboratories, lecture halls, the central computer center and the central library. Each department has its own library, in addition to the central library.

The departments of SVNIT^[6] are:

1. Applied Mathematics and Humanities
2. Applied Mechanics Department
3. Chemical Engineering Department
4. Civil Engineering Department
5. Computer Engineering Department
6. Electrical Engineering Department
7. Electronics Department
8. Mechanical Engineering Department
9. Applied Physics Department
10. Applied Chemistry Department

The Administrative building houses most of the administrative offices of the institute. It has lecture halls and drawing hall as well.

The Central Library is located near the Administrative (Admin) building of the institute and is amongst the major technological libraries in the area of science, engineering and technology. Its collection includes over 150,000 books and documents, and it subscribes to more than 600 printed and online journals and conference proceedings. The library has four halls and book bank section which is mainly for SC/ST students and Students of Lower Income Groups. The library's collection consists of books, reports, conference proceedings, back volumes of periodicals, standards, theses, microforms, CD-ROM, floppies, 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. Digital library also allow students access to online journals and other periodicals through the AICTE-INDEST consortium.

Central Computer Center, is the heart of computing resource of the institute as well as kernel of the internet connectivity of the institute. The institute has a Campus-wide fiber optic 10-gigabit network, almost the entire campus is covered by LAN and Wi-Fi. Central Computer Center provides services to T & P Section for On-line tests, centralized admission process, manages web & mail server, provide e-mail services, manages AMC of all IT products.

Central Computer center has five computer labs based on Blade Servers with 14 TB of storage space. Various operating systems and software packages are available in the laboratories.

The Mechanical Department consists of a main department building as well as 8 auxiliary buildings that serve as laboratories. The labs are named according to the area they deal with example IC Engine Lab, Boiler Lab, Fluid Lab, Cryogenics Lab, CAD Lab etc. In addition, a Seminar Hall (termed as LT-2) also is a part of Mechanical Department. A new Classroom Complex is used to conduct regular classes. The admissions to the Department of Production Engineering were stopped in the year 2009 and the department was merged with Mechanical Engineering Department.

Civic amenities

The institute campus has three guest houses, a dispensary, a post-office, one nationalized banks and two ATMs within its campus. The campus has a water pumping station, electrical sub-station, telephone exchange and one cafeteria. The cafeteria provides subsidised foods.

SVNIT's Main Guest House is located opposite to the SVNIT main gate on Surat-Dumas road. It has well furnished rooms with telephone lines and television. It provides boarding and lodging facilities for the Institute guests, invited guests, visitors, newly appointed faculty, staff members, delegates and participants attending conferences, seminars, symposiums and workshops.

Residential facilities are provided on campus for students, faculty and staff of the institute. Most students live on campus in the residential hostels. There are 10 hostels (9 for boys and 1 for girls) that accommodate 3,500 students. With the exception of the girls' hostel, they are located on the southern side of the campus. Meals are served by all messes located in the hostels.

Student halls of residence

SVNIT has ten hostels with nine for boys and one dedicated to girls named after personalities of India. Each hostel is administrated by the Chief Hostel Warden. Each hostel elects representatives from the hostel residents for areas like Entertainment, Computer Facility, Network, Environment and Cultural. Two mega hostels for boys and one mega hostel for girls with large number of facilities have been constructed.

Each hostel has its own mess, TV room, Sports room and computer facility.

Athletic facilities

The Students Activity Center has indoor badminton courts, Table Tennis Tables and a well maintained gymnasium. Adjoining this building are two basketball courts, two synthetic tennis court, a cricket ground and football ground. Other facilities on campus include two volleyball courts. There is one Handball ground too. There are also table-tennis tables and volleyball courts in the residential hostels.

The girls hostel has a badminton court exclusively for girls.

Admissions and academics

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in NIT Surat is granted through written entrance examinations. Admission to M.Tech. and Ph.D. programmes is based primarily on a personal interview, though candidates have to take written tests as well.

Admission to undergraduate programmes in all NITs is through the All India Engineering Entrance Examination now known as JEE Mains. Candidates who qualify for admission through JEE Mains can apply for admission in B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology) and integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences) courses at NIT Surat.^[7] The admissions to postgraduate programmes (M.Tech.) are made primarily through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).

NIT Surat 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).

Undergraduate education

NIT Surat offers a number of degrees as part of its undergraduate programmes, including Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in six engineering disciplines and the five-year integrated Master of Science in three science disciplines. The B.Tech. degree is the most popular undergraduate degree in NIT Surat in terms of student enrollment. It is based on a four-year programme with eight semesters. The first year of the B.Tech. curriculum has common courses from various departments. At the end of the first year, an option to change the departments is given to meritorious students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.

From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their departments that are known as core courses. In addition to these, the students have to take inter-disciplinary courses known as elective courses. Separate courses from the humanities and social sciences department, and management and information technology are also required. At the end of the third year, the B.Tech. and Dual Degree students undertake mandatory industrial training or a project as part of the undergraduate curriculum.

In the final year of their studies, most of the students are offered jobs in industries and other organizations through the Training and Placement (T&P) section of the institute. Some students opt out of this facility in favour of higher studies or by applying to recruiting organizations directly.

Postgraduate and Doctoral education

NIT Surat offers postgraduate programmes including Master of Technology (M.Tech.) and Master of Sciences (M.Sc.). The admission to M.Tech program is made through GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) exam conducted by IITs and IISC, Bangalore. The admission is given as per the score obtained in the GATE Exam. Presently the GATE Qualified students of M.Tech are offered a stipend of Rs. 12400 p/m from MHRD. The institute offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) as part of its doctoral education programme in all disciplines. The doctoral scholars are given a topic of academic interest by the professor, or sometimes work on the consultancy projects sponsored by industries. The duration of the programme is usually unspecified. Ph.D. scholars submit a dissertation and conduct an oral defense of their thesis. Teaching assistantships (TA) and research assistantships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's academic profile.

Sponsored research

Research in the institute is sponsored by government agencies including Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST); in 2008–09, research grants from these agencies exceeded one crore Indian rupees (Rs. 1,00,00,000; approx. US$200,000). The campus also boasts of having India's first solar plant to desalinate seawater. This was set up at an investment of Rs 3,50,00,000^[8]

Ranking

According to rankings released by National Institutional Ranking Framework of Ministry of Human Resource Development on April 4, 2016; SVNIT (NIT Surat) is ranked as the 2nd best NIT and in the Top 15 engineering and science universities in India.^[9] SVNIT has also been ranked 16th best Engineering College of India in the Times of India rankings of 2016. ^[10] In the past, it was ranked to be in top 5 NITs and overall 18th engineering institute in India by India Today in 2011.^[11]

Student life

NIT Surat provides on-campus residential facilities to its students, research scholars, faculty members and staff. The students live in hostels (referred to as the Bhavans) throughout their stay in the NIT. Internet facility is extended to all the hostels via Wi-Fi and LAN and the entire campus is connected via Gigabit LAN.^[12] The first Linux User group in India, Bharat Linux User Group was formed in early 1997 at NIT Surat.

Festivals

The institute has student-organised festivals like MindBend, Sparsh, Autumnfest, Quest (by ACM), Chunouti (Sports festival), JoyFest (by iIndia), MMNCT and Prakriti (organised by Applied Science department).

MindBend is SVNIT's annual technical festival, the largest of its kind in Gujarat. Technical competitions and events covering all areas of engineering expose students across India to practical engineering. There are competitions, guest lectures, workshops and quizzes. The robotics events of Mindbend are famous in western India.

Sparsh is SVNIT's annual cultural festival. It usually takes place in the second week of February. This five-day festival,the largest of its kind in South Gujarat consists of literary and debating events/competitions in the morning and gala cultural shows in the evenings. The 'Sparsh Nights' are the Singing Night, Dance and Skit Night, Fashion Night, Inaugural and the Celebrity Night. Celebrity Night has seen performances by Euphoria, Udit Narayan, Shaan, Abhijeet Bhattacharya.

In March 2007, Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi came to perform on the celebrity night. The 2008 version was graced by Mohit Chauhan and Gaurav Dagaonkar. The 2009 version saw Bombay Rockers come to the college. The 2011 version boasted of Kailash Kher's performance. SPARSH'12, which marked the golden jubilee of SVNIT Surat was a grand success with KK performing in the celebrity night. This event also marked the beginning of mega shows in Sparsh such as Stuntmania, Hypnotism, Street Dancing. An Inaugural Night was added to the event which was graced by Flute performers and singer Rishabh Srivastava. The Sparsh of 2013 witnessed stellar duo of Salim-Sulaiman along with Shrraddha Pandit perform for the celebrity night. In Sparsh 2014, Javed Ali mesmerised people of SVNIT with his vocals on celebrity night. Also Paradigm Shift,^[13] Mumbai based rockband performed on singing night. In Sparsh 2015, Well known music directors and singers Vishal and Shekhar were the Celebrity of the Fest and Singer KK was Guest of celebrity night in SPARSH-2016.

Occasionally events like Kavi sammelan and Ghazal nights have taken place during Sparsh. The personality contest is conducted by the Literary and Debating Committee.

AutumnFest is SVNIT's annual Automotive-Entrepreneurial festival. In 2007 events included The Apprentice, Business baazigar, Spark the B-plan event, Strategem, and Lock stock and trade. A workshop by Mantis was part of Entru-meet '07.

Manoj Memorial Night Cricket Tournament (MMNCT)^[14] is a cricket tournament, organised by the students with the help of SVNIT Board of Sports, Hostel Office and Bihar Students Alumni. This tournament was first organised in 2006.It is in remembrance of a student, Manoj Kumar,who was pursuing electrical engineering in the institute and died of dengue. All the matches are played under floodlights. Nikhil Maheshwari holds the record for highest runs.

Student organisations

• Student Council consisting of the General Secretary, General Lady Representative, Secretaries and Joint secretaries
• Official Language Implementation Committee (Hindi Cell)^[15]
• ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Student Chapter^[16]
• Drishti, Technical hobby club
• Entrepreneurship Cell
• ISF (IETE Student's Forum)
• CHRD (Centre for Human Resource Development)
• CEV (Cutting Edge Visionaries)^[17]
• LAC (The Literary Affairs Committee)
• i-INDIA (initiative-India) for help of Labor's children
• Nirvana
• SPICMACAY
• CES (Civil Engineering Society)^[18]
• SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers)^[19]

• SCOSH (Society for Cultivation of Sciences and Humanity)^[20]

Student publications

Various media bodies managed by students are also present in the campus, which includes 'AS WE ARE' Student publication^[21] (annual college magazine ) "सम्मुख"( राजभाषा विभाग की वार्षिक पत्रिका ),"Renesa" (monthly college magazine).

Alumni network

The SVNIT Alumni Association^[22] is the organization in SVNIT which fosters the interaction between the institute and its alumni. The association consists of a group of SVNITians who maintain a rapport with their predecessors through networking, publications and alumni meets. The group is guided by the Dean, Alumni and Resource Generation and his office.

The SVNIT Alumni Association has chapters in India and abroad that hold annual meets to socialize and network.

Notable alumni

• Perry Mehta, President & CEO of Futurenet Group.He was acknowledged as the "Most Outstanding Engineer/Scientist of Indian Origin" by Time Magazine in 2003.He is serving his second term as National President, American Society of Professional Engineers. He is the only Gujarati to be awarded in White House for Entrepreneurial Awards. He was also recently honoured by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) as Small Minority Business Person of the Year.^[23][24]
• Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer, IT Business at Wipro Technologies^[25]
• Mr. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director & COO- Marketing & Commercial, Toyota Kirloskar^[26]
• Amit Sharma, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, TATA Consulting Engineers Limited^[27]
• Dr Kuldip Singh Sayann, Director(Retd.) of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology for almost 32 years. He has also served as Director of Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology and Principal of Continental Institute of Engineering & Technology.Currently, he's an Adviser at Continental Group of Institutes.^[28]
• Prof. (Dr.) Bharat Raj Singh, Ex-Managing Director UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam(Retd.). He's presently the Director of School of Management Sciences, Technical Campus, Lucknow, Uttar-Pradesh, India and Chairman, CV Raman Centre for Research & Innovation, Lucknow. He has been recognized consecutive two years by Limca Book of Records 2014 & 2015 for i). First Air-powered bike and ii). First academician work in US high school text book respectively.^[29]
• Suman Saraf, Chief Technology Officer, BlueStacks.^[30] He previously worked as Chief Architect at Solidcore which was acquired by McAfee.
• Nalin Jain,^[31] President and CEO, South Asia, GE Transportation, GE Aviation
• Raj Lakhani, Managing Director of Peri India.

• Jalaj Srivastava, Chief Financial Officer, Imperial Oil, Head Pension Manager, Exxon Mobil^[32]

• Anshul Kothari, international swimmer.
• Anish Mulani, CEO- , Prana Studio

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Institute of Technology Surat.

• SVNIT homepage

Coordinates: 21°09′52″N 72°47′07″E / 21.164583°N 72.785239°E / 21.164583; 72.785239