Manipal Institute of Technology

Manipal Engineering College (MEC) was inaugurated on 11 May 1957 by the then Chief Minister of Mysore, S. Nijalingappa.[4][5] The first President of the college was Roque Fernandes. In the initial months, lectures were held at the Kasturba Medical College, Manipal campus before the infrastructure was ready at its present campus towards the end of 1957. The institute started with 25 staff members and an annual intake of 120 students for the under-graduate courses, on a campus of 180 acres (0.73 km²).

Civil engineering was the first discipline to be offered at the institute, but by 1961, full undergraduate programs were also available in the areas of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Housing facilities were operational from 1961 for outstation students.

In initial years institute was affiliated to the Karnatak University.[3] In 1965, the institute got affiliated to the University of Mysore.[6] More courses were added over the decades as the college expanded. The MIT, Manipal Student Chapter of the Institution of Engineers (Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) was established in the mid-1960s.

In 1969, Chemical Engineering was introduced as a branch of study followed by Electronics and Communication engineering. In 1973, the semester scheme was adopted and a one-year postgraduate diploma in industrial engineering was offered. In the same year, the Venugopala Temple, modelled on the famous Kirti Mandir, Vadodara, Gujarat was built.

The MIT campus has been visited by several well-known persons at various times in its history. The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama visited the college in 1966. The 1970s saw the visit of Smt Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.[7]

In 1974, it was renamed as Manipal Institute of Technology. The institute was brought under the purview of Mangalore University in 1980.[3] In 1979, other branches of study such as Industrial Production and Architecture were introduced. The construction of the 4-floor library building with an area of 83,000 square feet (7,700 m²) and more hostel blocks including 7th, 9th blocks and women's hostels were completed in the 1980s. The swimming pool was inaugurated in 1986, the floodlit basketball court at Kamath Circle in 1989.

In 1993 Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) was granted deemed university status[8] and Manipal Institute of Technology became its constituent college.

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, visited the college and interacted with the students in 2003. This visit was late repeated in 2010 by the then President of India Pratibha Patil.[9]

The dawn of the new millennium brought in the construction of new buildings. 2006 saw the construction of the Innovation Center housing companies such as Phillips and EMC² and associated research and development. The 7-floor 13th Block located between the 3rd and 4th blocks for housing lady students was also completed during this period. The adjoining New Lecture Hall complex ('NLH') was built anticipating the increase in intake and was inaugurated in the year 2006. 2007 saw the inauguration of Academic Block 5, the largest academic building on campus housing classrooms, academic and research labs, and department and faculty offices.

Undergraduate courses in Instrumentation and Control Engineering were added in 2001 and Mechatronics was added in 2006 and those in Aeronautical Engineering, Automobile Engineering were added in 2008. The department of Architecture was rechristened as The Faculty of Architecture in 2006, and then as Manipal School of Architecture and Planning and Design, as a separate institute under the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in 2011. In 2013, an integrated course in Computer Science and Communication Engineering was added, under the department of Information and Communication Technology. The annual undergraduate student intake increased from 800 spread over 12 engineering disciplines in the year 2003 to 1500 spread over 16 disciplines in 2008. As of July 2011, the institute has an intake of more than 2300 students.[10]

The institute was also visited by Smt. Pratibha Patil, the then President of India for the university's annual convocation in December 2010. The then Finance Minister and future President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee also visited the institute on 26 May 2012 to inaugurate one of the Academic Blocks.The institute was visited by acclaimed South Indian film director S.S. Rajmouli in October 2017.The institute also played host to the 49th annual convention of the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) in January 2007.[11]

The new logo of the institute was unveiled by alumni Nokia CEO Rajiv Suri during the institute's 2016 convocation.[12] It was designed by Kartikeya Rastogi, who was then a senior year Chemical Engineering undergraduate student.[13]

The New Lecture Hall Complex (near) and the Innovation Centre (far)

In 2016, the college announced a major campus upgrade including the construction of several new buildings:

1. The MIT-KEF R&D Center[14] (which will be constructed off-site) for research in Civil Engineering (primarily off-site construction) and Architecture
2. A 'student plaza' at KC[15] that will replace several iconic buildings and serve as the new hub for all social activity. It has a beautiful musical fountain at its centre.
3. MIT Tech Shop, modelled after Hackerspace that will meet the need for a dedicated space for the ongoing student activities in areas such as robotics, racing (Formula Student), solar and all terrain automobile projects, satellites, UAVs, aeromodelling and rocketry, among others
4. A new food court near the 15th and 16–17th hostel blocks
5. A new hostel block (the 22nd) for female students

A major road inside the campus is being converted into a bituminous mini race track by Royal Dutch Shell, which will be cordoned off after college hours to be used by the university's Formula Student racing team and other automobile and aeromodelling/UAV projects.[16]

16th and 17th Blocks, MIT hostels

MIT Hostel(Men)

MIT Basketball Court

Undergraduate students are guaranteed four-year housing in one of MIT's twenty-six hostel buildings. The total housing capacity is 7258 students, of which 70% is for men, and 30% is for women. Of this, 95% is occupied by undergraduate students. First years can choose their rooms on a "first come, first serve" basis, while academic performance, seniority and student preference determine the room allotments for subsequent years for undergraduate students. Hostel blocks for First year undergraduate students are different from senior blocks.[20]

The academic area of the campus is segregated from the rest of the campus. There are five academic buildings. Two of them – Academic Block 1 and Academic Block 2 have been there since the inception of the campus while the others were built as intakes increased. Academic Block 3 is also known as the New Lecture Hall, which was the first building to have fully centralized air-conditioning. Academic Block 4, commonly known as the Innovation Center, has Manipal's incubation center MUTBI (Manipal University Technology Business Incubator).[21] Academic Block 5 is the largest building on campus.

The MIT campus is dotted with sports facilities such as the Student Recreational Centre (2 tennis courts, 2 badminton courts and a gym), 2 basketball court, a cricket/athletics field, a volleyball court, a football ground, a hockey field, and a swimming pool. In 2019, a boxing ring was inaugurated on campus.[22] Marena Sports Complex is at a walking distance from the campus there are in-campus gyms in D Block and in 10th Block. A new girl's gym is to be inaugurated in 2020. The campus also houses several bookstores, stationery shops, restaurants, and a fruit shop. The campus also includes the Venugopal Temple, which was designed by undergraduate architecture students from MSAP (Manipal School of Architecture and Planning), which shares its campus with MIT.

Academic Block 1

MIT has been using a credit based system since 2001, in which each course is assigned a number of credits.[6] The odd semester starts around the month of July and ends by December and the even semester starts around January and ends by May. Manipal Academy of Higher Education is accredited by the Government of India's National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) .[23]

MIT Manipal offers full-time, four/five-year undergraduate (Bachelor's degree) programs in the various disciplines. as well as Master of Technology (M.Tech) degrees and various other postgraduate programs awarding Master of Science (M.S.) in Software Engineering, Master of Computer Applications (M.C.A.) and an integrated M.B.A. program (in conjunction with other programs in MAHE).

Admissions to postgraduate programs are either on the basis of an entrance exam or the performance in an undergraduate degree program. All applicants are required to have appropriate bachelor's degrees.

The institute also offers Ph.D. programs on a full-time or part-time basis for suitably qualified candidates.

Manipal Institute of Technology was ranked 21 among engineering colleges in India by India Today in 2020,[27] 20 among engineering colleges by Outlook India in 2019[25] and 45 among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020.[24]

Admission to Manipal Institute of Technology is through the Manipal Entrance Test (MET), that replaced the Manipal University Online Entrance Test (MU OET) for 2019 and beyond, and is carried out at centres across India. It is a computer-based exam and consists of 200 questions testing Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English, and logical reasoning and spans a duration of 2 hours and 30 minutes. The test is for 800 marks, +4 for every correct answer and -1 for every wrong one. MAHE offers two opportunities for a student to write the entrance exam, subject to additional payment and availability of vacancies. Under the old MU OET pattern, candidates needed to answer 200 questions in the span of 2 hours and 30 minutes, with +1 marks for every correct answer and no negative marking.[28] Unlike other entrance exams, the computer-based exam scores are displayed immediately after the exam ends, with which one may appear for admission counselling.[29]

The oldest student organizations are the Editorial Board and the Student Council. Overall, there are close to a hundred clubs and organizations in the institute. The clubs are completely run and managed by the students and they host a variety on events/ competitions throughout the year.[31] λΔQ (The Literary, Debate, and Quiz Club),Technical Clubs like SAE-IM (Society of Automotive Engineers- India| Manipal), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), IE-CSE, IE-Civil, IE-E&C, IE-Mechanical, Cultural Clubs like- Goonj, the Hindi literary club,Blank-101, Comedy Club Manipal and more clubs like Ada Dramatics, Aaina Dramatics and MAFIA(Music and Fine Arts Club) have bagged several awards at major cultural fests such as Unmaad, IIM Bangalore[32] and Mood Indigo, IIT Bombay.[33]

MIT Student Plaza

The college has an official student-run media body, The MIT Post.[34] It was founded on 19 November 2014. The MIT Post acts[35] The MIT Post keeps a record of all student activities on campus, including those of all other clubs and organizations.[36]

Teams from ManipalTech have won innovation and entrepreneurship competitions such as the GE Edison Innovation Challenge[37] and consecutive victories at the Schneider Electric India Innovation Challenge.[38]

The college has several technical clubs including international as well as national student organizations such as the ACM, IEEE, and ISTE. These clubs are very active on campus and organize workshops and various other events on a regular basis.[39]

Formula Manipal is a student initiative aiming to conceive, design, fabricate, develop and compete with other Formula style vehicles at International Formula Student events. They built a 600 cc race car that was selected to participate in the Formula SAE 2008 competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers held at Ferrari race track at Maranello in Italy, an international race car design competition which is attended by universities from across the world. In 2009, the team participated with the second prototype at FS UK, held at the Silverstone F1 Track.[40]

Project Manas is another initiative by students and is an AI robotics team that was founded in the year 2014. They have taken part in India's biggest driverless car challenge - "Spark the Rise" - organized by Mahindra. The team qualified for three stages and is one of the top 13 teams to qualify for the prototyping phase. The prototype is capable of detecting and navigating around pedestrians, a variety of traffic signs and signals, road and non-road regions, vehicles along with a wide range of other obstacles.[41]

AeroMIT is a student project aiming towards aeromodelling and drone research. They design and fabricate RC and autonomous aerial vehicles for competition as well as research purpose. The year 2019-20 was one of the most successful years for the team. They secured podium positions in national competitions like Aerophilia 2019 and Techfest, 2020. The team also secured World Rank 4 in their flagship competition SAE AeroDesign East 2020 held in Lakeland, Florida. Other than that, the team secured World Rank 1 in the category of Oral Presentation by scoring the highest points in the history of the competition and was also the only team to lift the maximum possible payload. Participating in competitions is not the only goal of the team; they also focus on various projects and research work.[42]

Mars Rover Manipal, one of the more recent endeavors by the undergraduate students, is a multi-disciplinary team that designs and builds rovers for exploration of extraterrestrial environments. They regularly compete in various competitions, and have steadily improved their rankings at the University Rover Challenge, since they first entered in 2016.[43]

MIT hosts one fest every semester, cultural festival Revels in even semesters. The 2020 Revels official theme was 'Qainaat' which was to promote the environmental crises around the globe to drive healthy environmental practices.[44] and technical festival TechTatva in odd semesters. These are student-organized fests, with participants from all over India and overseas where the students of the university along with the help from administration carry out these festivities in the college. The entire process of managing and organizing the fest is handled by the students with the work being divided amongst various categories.[45]