Nurturing innovation: Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar

Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology is considered as a dream destination by most upcoming technocrats.Tribune reporter Deepkamal Kaur and lensman Malkiat Singh explore the various facilities on the campus that help in nurturing great minds

Ranked among the top 25 institutions across the country in the Atal Ranking of Institutes on Innovation and Achievements, Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jalandhar, has certainly become the most happening innovation hub of the region.

The top scientists at this Centre-run deemed university have got four patents granted, as many as 50 IPRs filed, five technology transfers, eight research outputs related to Covid-19, as many as 3,500 publications and 28,733 citations to its credit just in the past five years.

Established with the support of ISRO, the NIT’s Rs 2.71 crore set up of Space Technology Incubation Centre that came up here two years ago has got nine projects worth Rs 80 lakh already sanctioned.

Incubating ideas

Some passouts of Jalandhar NIT have been making a big name as entrepreneurs. Upasana Taku, co-founder of Mobikwik, a Gurgaon-based company with $700 million valuation, was an alumnus of this institute and so was Bengaluru-based Furlenco owner Ajith Mohan Karimpana. The latter’s furniture rental company has a turnover of Rs 500 crore.

In Covid times, an alumnus, Gaurav Kumar, developed a learning app Rancike Gyan. The app helps students connect, exchange notes, network, share e-books for free, post queries, promote discussions, get updates on examination and government notifications. It targets students from the CBSE and ICSE school students of Classes IX to XII and even provides them with mentors.

Some recent start-ups of the institute are FreeCo, Eskairo, Genesis, Controls, Inventix, Sanved, NIT Tech, Kayrio, Kowera, Instawashing and Knoniq Stream.

NIT students are not just making a mark in start-ups. They have also been getting a very good placement. Recently, Deeksha, an alumnus, got appointed as the Junior Scientist at ISRO. The last batch of passouts had a student being inducted into Microsoft on an annual CTC of Rs 43.30 lakh.

Facilities and strength

The institute with a massive annual budget of Rs110 crore is spread on a sprawling area of 154 acres. It is offering UG courses in 11 streams with an intake of 1,137 students per year through JEE. The 14 MTech programmes have an intake of 540 students a year. In addition, there are 124 research scholars enrolled on the campus.

The NIT has a huge strength of teaching faculty which includes 108 Assistant Professors, 53 Associate Professors and 30 Professors, 12 of them being on Higher Administrative Grade.

Prof Balbir Singh Kaith from the chemistry department here got recently ranked among top 2 per cent scientists in the world as per Stanford University of the US. The recognition came on account of extensive research work he had pursued and 250 papers that he got published in various national and international journals of repute.

In Covid times, the classrooms are being converted to automated studios for simultaneous offline and online learning. The institute also has a swanking student welfare centre set up at a cost of Rs26 crore with a top-class gym, badminton and table tennis courts, facilities for playing chess, carom and other indoor games, besides grounds for volleyball, basketball etc.

While the NIT already has seven boys’ hostels and two girls’ hostels, but to cope up with an increasing student strength, it has also set up a new mega 459-room hostel for girls at Rs57.23 crore. In the next plan are mega hostel for boys with 288 rooms at Rs40 crore, 27 lecture theatres for Rs37 crore and expansion of central library for Rs7.5 crore.

History

The institute was originally established as the Regional Engineering College (REC), Jalandhar, in 1987 in a joint venture of the Government of India and the Punjab Government. The land for the same was provided by Bidhipur and Suranussi villages on the Jalandhar-Amritsar stretch of the GT Road. It got the status of National Institute of Technology (Deemed University) by GoI on October 17, 2002. It has been declared as an Institute of National Importance under the MHRD under the Act of Parliament (2007). It is one of the 31 National Institutes of Technology of India.

Technology Transfers

• Air purifier
• Face mask (for 2 companies)
• UV-based surface disinfector
• Robotic modular transportation system

Some IPRs of NIT

• Single piece full body cover PPE
• Air cooled and breathable single piece bodysuit for personal protection
• An apparatus for UV sterilisation of the surface
• Vehicle disinfection system
• Wheel sanitisation system for light weight vehicle
• An apparatus to disinfect items and method thereof
• Shoe sanitiser with contact time alert
• Breathable filter fabric with reusable mask

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