IIT Roorkee continues to be recognized as one of the best technical institutions among older IITs

Roorkee: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee witnessed a successful year with major accomplishments in academics, research as well as in fundamental sciences, engineering and management studies. Overall, it was a year of growth, exemplary recognition and outstanding research from both faculty and scholars in 2017. It has been a successful year with many firsts. Few major highlights from 2017 are:

Research:

IIT Roorkee has the rare distinction of having work carried out in its campus being published in Nature publishing journals and other international journals with high repute. The five top most journals that scientists from all over the world aspire for. research by Prof. Shailly Tomar, Department of Biotechnology developed medicine for Chikungunya; Prof. Ranjana Pathania, Department of Biotechnology developed path-breaking technique to help reverse drug resistance; Prof. K.L. Yadav, Department of Physics to develop a low- cost method of Osteoarthritis; Prof. Davinder Kaur, Department of Physics developed breakthrough In Memory Device Technology; the Early Earthquake Warning system developed and installed by Prof. M. L. Sharma, Department of Earthquake Engineering; Prof. N.K. Padhy and Prof. E. Rajasekar from Department of Electrical and Architecture respectively for smart grid project; Morphological Study of Ganga, Sharda and Rapti Rivers by Prof. Z Ahmad from our Civil Engineering department, or the ‘Low-cost Jamun Solar Cells’ developed by Prof. Soumitra Satapathi’s group in the Department of Physics are some of the outstanding work being undertaken by the researchers at the Institute to address critical problems of the society.

Awards and Achievements:

In the past year, the Institute witnessed many student and faculty achievements. Prof. G.D. Ransinchung R.N., Mr. Surender Singh (Research Scholar), Prof. Praveen Kumar and Prof. Manoranjan Parida received IRC National Award on Road Research; Prof. Kaustav Chatterjee, Department of Civil Engineering was selected for the John Carter Award 2017 for his outstanding research potential in Geomechanics. Sidharth Arora, PhD Scholar in the Department of Biotechnology for being awarded the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) by BIRAC for his project on production of thermo-tolerant and acid-stable Phytase in a novel solid-state fermentation (SSF) bioreactor. A team of students Ekdeep Lubana, Anisha Godha, Ankit Bagaria and Utkarsh Saxena won the First prize of 25,000 Euro at the Ericsson Innovation Awards 2017, in a global competition at Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. The IITR team developed an app SNAP which uses a precision agriculture technology based on principles of hyper-spectral imaging of crop leaves to determine the optimum fertilizer inputs for the crop. Also, Mr. Raja Jain, 3rd year student, Department of Biotechnology and Ms. Nimisha Gupta, 4th year student, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Roorkee, have Developed EvaCool, a Low-Cost Evaporative Air Cooling Solution and emerged as the winners in the finals of Go Green in the City 2017. An IIT Roorkee team consists of Mr. Rohit Joshi and Mr. Renju K Kokkattu was selected as the winners of B-Plan Competition of Droom’s merchandise. Additionally, the IIT Roorkee PhD student Mr. Repaul Kanji won France-India 24H Chrono Entrepreneurship Challenge.

International and National Major Research/Consultancy Sponsored Projects:

IIT Roorkee was part of major international and national projects carried out this year. The Institute partnered with organisations and other institutes from Russia, France, Belarus, UK, Canada, Mexico, Germany and Korea for international projects. The number of major sponsored or consultancy projects with funding of more than Rs. 50 lakhs are 38.

Placements:

The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee witnessed one of the best placement season this year with over 843 offers handed out to students in first phase of placements. A total of 205 companies visited the campus for recruiting students.13 International offers were handed out to students by Microsoft, Webstaff Co. Ltd. and Mercari. 5 PSU companies ONGC, ISRO, IOCL, C-DOT and UIAI participated in the placements. 37 start-up companies offered jobs to the students. 824 Under graduate and 502 Post Graduate students had registered for placements this year, out of which the offers to Under Graduate students were offered 630 jobs and Post Graduate students were offered 212 in the first phase.

Convocation:

IIT Roorkee celebrated its 17th Convocation on 23rd and 24th September 2017.The Convocation ceremony was organized for two days and 2153 degrees were awarded to students.
Key highlights of Achievements this year at IIT Roorkee:

· Key research from the Institute published in Nature publishing group – the three top journals for scientific research

· Various faculty members research was major highlights in media

· Prof. Kaustav Chatterjee, Department of Civil Engineering was selected for the John Carter Award 2017 for his outstanding research potential in Geomechanics

· Sidharth Arora, PhD Scholar in the Department of Biotechnology for being awarded the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) by BIRAC

· A team of students Ekdeep Lubana, Anisha Godha, Ankit Bagaria and Utkarsh Saxena won the First prize of 25,000 Euro at the Ericsson Innovation Awards 2017

· 843 offers handed out to students in first phase of placements

· 205 companies visited the campus for recruiting students.13 International offers were handed out to students by Microsoft, Webstaff Co. Ltd. and Mercari

· 2153 degrees were awarded to students during convocation

· Mr. Raja Jain, and Ms. Nimisha Gupta Developed EvaCool, a Low-Cost Evaporative Air Cooling Solution.

· Mr. Rohit Joshi and Mr. Renju K Kokkattu was selected as the winners of B-Plan Competition of Droom’s merchandise.

· IIT Roorkee PhD student Mr. Repaul Kanji won France-India 24H Chrono Entrepreneurship Challenge.