On the move ...

January 9->June 1-> September 4 read the dates of last 3 posts here. Quite infrequent for an institute students blog. So let’s break it here.

A short account of, what has been highly eventful timeline, is what I attempt to pen down (yeah I know, type down) here. First in the bag. The in-coming of 120 more JEE clearers into the IIT BBS family has been the most noteworthy and potentially the most game-changing occurrence. More guys, more vigour, more drive and its evident reflection in that IIT Bhubaneswar is presently most happening than ever before.

One word to describe the span of time between the last update post and this is –Stabilisation. A oft-used word holding a deep meaning. The horse (read IIT Bhubaneswar) was set in motion by rather an unprecedented equivalent of throw of a dice (I am not getting into that) and left to itself in totality. And now, the horse as nurtured itself steadfastly through its stride and presently gearing itself pretty effectively to gallop. In short, Stabilisation. This period has seen IIT Bhubaneswar put on stage- its first socio-cultural fest Alma Fiesta that was no short of an impressive show. Better put, that was the largest and inarguably, the best debut college cultural fest. (Look up to www.almafiesta.com for more details). This period has also seen the establishment of the first student council- Students' Gymkhana. This is extremely significant an event in being the single most enhancer of the development in more respects than one.

And more, the Institute administration has made good (no use of superlatives here) headway in its work as can been had from here. These instances are merely reflective of the wide pool of activities happening-be it technical, sports or cultural.

To put it in the same way, one word to describe the present and near future of IIT Bhubaneswar- Divergence. More and more issues are entering the fold of the institute affairs and routine. With the student size growing, with the academic requirements multiplying, with arena of impending works expanding, the works can only get more pressing. Foremost, with the first batch of students into their penultimate year of study, the stage of summer internships emerges. For those uninitiated on this, summer internships are part of the academic curricula and regarded to hold prime importance in the learning curve of the students. With the Training and Placement Cell established, IIT Bhubaneswar is well set into this course and at present, is in the process of instituting relationships with both industry and academia. (A subsequent post shall detail on this topic). Next up, the sports infrastructure. With IIT Bhubaneswar taking part in more sports this time at the annual inter IIT sports meet, sports activity is at an all-time high. That shall though, not imply that the infrastructure for the same is adequate. Next major event is Alma Fiesta 2011- the second version of the cultural fest. The Intro page for the same is up at www.almafiesta.com and it promises to be bigger and even better this time around.

There is much more in store, encompassing varied domains and all of those shall spring up at its own right time. Justifiably, this phase of growth shall be highly decisive in regard of the future. We shall keep you all posted as it all unfurls.

Gymkhana

On Sep 4th, 2010, IIT Bhubaneswar held its first Gymkhana Elections for the appointment of its student council. Out of a total of 354 registered students, 332 turned up for voting. The results are as follows:

Vice President : Rai Awani Bhushan

General Secretary (Socio - Cultural) : Anshuman Kumar

General Secretary (Science & Technology) : Surya Vara Prasad

General Secretary (Sports) : Manda Kartik Reddy

Secretary (Music & Dance) : Godaba Hareesh

Secretary (Fine Arts) : Kovuru Siddhartha

Secretary (Literary) : Boggavarapu Sukesh

Secretary (Dramatics) : Chada Sricharan

Secretary (Technology) : TNS Nihar

Secretary (Robotix) : Kalangi Sai Santhosh

Secretary (Web & Design) : Karthikeyan P

Secretary (Event Coverage) : Avvaru Satya Venkata Sandeep

Secretary (Cricket) : P Vinay Kumar

Secretary (Football) : Y Vineel Kumar Reddy

Secretary (Athletics) : CHPR Sandeep

Secretary (Indoor Games) : Palla Gouri Prasad

Secretary (Other Sports) : Poorna Chandra

2010 IIT JEE Qualifiers - Pre Counseling Note

First up, Congratulations to all those brilliant minds who have managed to crack IIT JEE 2010 in spite of all its shortcomings and difficulty. You guys deserve more than a clap on the back and will be duly rewarded with a seat in the top colleges of our country. The time has come for you to decide on what you wish to graduate in. The enormity of the decision may not strike you at the moment, but what you do in college (and what you don't do) will steer the course of the remainder of your life. I urge you to choose wisely and to help you choose (if you are interested) I shall shed some light on a few things about the coveted IITs.

I'm not going to get into the history of IITs as it is retold on all IIT websites, just walk down with me 3 years before this date. 2007.. There were 7 IITs in the country, the oldest being over 50 years of age and the youngest around 13 years. All of them 'established' and having a distinct culture and trend of its own (do note the emphasis on established). Spread over 4000-4500 seats, the system seemed fair on the then brilliant minds who had qualified in IIT JEE 2007. There existed a balance. A year passes, 2008 comes, another batch of qualifiers (myself included :-) ). However, the balance about which I previously elaborated was shattered. 6500+ seats in the offering and 13 IITs to choose from - 6 new IITs. If you are unable to grasp what I just said, grab a cup of coffee/tea (sugarless if you are diabetic) or a soft drink and a bag of pop corn while I spin out another yarn..

6 new IITs - IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Patna, IIT Rajasthan, IIT Ropar - each offering 120 seats over 3 disciplines were announced by the MHRD. The courses offered were lucrative viz. Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering. The effect it had was similar to opening a Pandora's Box and unleashing the demons. It created a wave of confusion as it put quite a few of us in a tight spot. The situation was further enhanced (or decimated) the following year with 2 more IITs being opened (IIT Indore and IIT Mandi). What the new IITs meant was that even a person with an AIR of 4000 would get a chance to pursue his/her under graduation in Computer Science Engineering which is the most sought after branch and had required an AIR of less than 600 (1000 in IIT Guwahati) until 2007 to get into. Isn't that good? Now that would depend entirely on a per capita basis. There is a downside to this, that being the IIT you join. Let's face it, there are innumerable rankings of the top engineering colleges of our country and you would notice that the top 5 spots are occupied (with a probability 0.999) by 5 of the oldest IITs viz. Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur (order mentioned here is purely alphabetical and not on the basis of any ranking). IIT Roorkee and Guwahati fall in the top 10. If lined up with the top colleges where would the new IITs be? Be my guest, take a wild guess! If you expect the top 15 spots to be IITs then you are either daft or have just traveled backward in time by about 50 years. To put it in simpler words, there are better options available at the moment. 15 years ago, students would have had to take a similar leap of faith with IIT Guwahati which is now in the top 10 and what you are going through now is just the same. History has the uncanny habit of repeating itself. Even though doubt is the absence or incongruence of reason at this point the doubt that you are facing is acceptable and more importantly - valid.

Having spent the first year in an established IIT (IIT Kharagpur) and the second year in so called temporary campus of IIT Bhubaneswar, we are more than aware of the glaring differences. Yes, the new IITs are challenging, and very challenging indeed. At the end of the day, when you sit down and recall, I'm not sure whether the challenges were worth leaving the comfort of the 'establish'ment. And I won't be sure till the first batch gets placed (or misplaced). Only time will tell. This post is not meant to deface new IITs but just to shed more light and show you a part of reality that does not meet your eye. It will take the new IITs a few years (5-6) to setup their own campuses at the earliest, following which their development will be in full swing and in fast forward mode. At the moment, the water is murky. To test it or not to test it, now that is your question.. And again, only time will tell.

I hope you have finished your drink and pop corn by now and more importantly I hope you found this post useful. Tune into this web space over the coming weeks as we guide you through the Counseling and Admission processes. If you have any queries, do post them here or shout in the Shout Box or email us! Until next time..