Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), formerly Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering, Nagpur (VRCE), is a public engineering and research institution in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in central India. It was established in June 1960 by the Government of India and later named in honor of engineer, planner and statesman Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.
VNIT Nagpur is centrally funded and belongs to the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) system. In 2007, the institute was conferred the status of Institute of National Importance by an Act of Parliament of India.
The Institute awards Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in engineering, technology and architecture, for which the entry is through the Joint Entrance Examination – Mains and Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering.
Key Description of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology:
Former Names: Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering
Motto in English: Excellence in action
Type: Public Engineering College
Established: 1960
Chairman: Shri. Vishram Ramchandra Jamdar
Director: Dr. P. M. Padole
Students: 3716
Undergraduates: 3150
Postgraduates: 705
Location: Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Campus Urban: 215 acres (87 ha)
Website: www.vnit.ac.in
Social Network: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology History
Earlier, the Institute was known as Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering (VRCE). It was established in the year 1960 under the scheme sponsored by Govt. of India and Govt. of Maharashtra. The college was started in June 1960 by amalgamating the State Govt. Engineering College functioning at Nagpur since July 1956. In the meeting held in October 1962, the Governing Board of the College resolved to name it after the eminent engineer, planner, and statesman of the country Sir M.Visvesvaraya.
The prime objective of establishing Regional Engineering Colleges was to impart quality technical education throughout the country and foster national integration. The College started functioning in 1960 from camp office in the premises of Govt. Polytechnic, Sadar, Nagpur and subsequently an area of about 214 acres was acquired to house an independent Regional Engineering College at present location.
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Campus
The VNIT Nagpur campus is located in the western part of Nagpur city near Ambazari Lake, about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from Nagpur Railway Station and 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport. There are three main entrances to the 225 acres (91 ha) campus: the Main Gate on South Ambazari Road, the Bajaj Nagar Gate and the Yashwant Nagar Gate. The campus has significant green space, and is mostly untouched by the pollution of the rest of the city.
The Institute has a well equipped gymkhana, as well as grounds for tennis, badminton, basketball, volleyball, football, hockey, and cricket. An NCC unit is also located on campus. The Institute's auditorium, which has traditionally held large events, such as convocations and college festivals, is currently undergoing renovation. A health centre with a full time residential medical officer also exists.
The campus has a State Bank of India branch, with ATM, a Canara Bank branch, a post office, and courier services. Residences and office buildings are near to the campus.
Academics of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur
Departments, laboratories and research centers
VNIT Nagpur has many academic departments, with over 30 specialized laboratories and research centres.
Departments and laboratories
- Applied Mechanics
- Applied Statistics
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology
- Architecture and Planning
- Biomechatronics
- Biomedical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Chemical Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science and Engineering
- Computational Physics
- Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- Electronics and Communication Engineering
- Geoscience and Technology
- Geobiology
- Humanities and Social Sciences
- Hydrologic Engineering
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Mathematics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
- Mining Engineering
- Physics
- Urban Design & Planning
Centers
- Center of Excellence for Commbedded Systems
- Computer Aided Design (CAD)
- Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
- Material Engineering Center
- Center for Remote Sensing
- Center for Water Resources
- Center for VLSI and Nanotechnology
- Incubation Center
Programs
Undergraduate programs are offered in Architecture (B.Arch) and eight engineering (B.Tech) disciplines:
- Chemical Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science and Engineering
- Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- Electronics and Communications Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
- Mining Engineering
The Engineering undergraduate programs are usually four years, while Architecture is a five-year program. The institute accepts an incoming freshman class of up to 798 students.
Graduate and research programs leading to Master's (M.Arch, M.Sc. and M.Tech) and Ph.D. degrees, are offered by the Architecture department, as well as all basic science departments and all eight engineering departments. A range of special fields of study are available in graduate and research programs in each discipline. The institute will soon offer Aeronautical Engineering. Up to 350 students are admitted to the Master's program each year.
The institute uses relative grading on a 10-point scale.
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in Admissions
Till 2012-13, admission to the undergraduate courses (B.Tech) at NITs was through the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). From 2013-14, admission to the undergraduate courses (B.Tech) is through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main. The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) have one of the lowest acceptance rates for engineering institutes, around 2 to 3 percent, second only to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India.
From 2015, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSSA) conducts common counselling and allocates seats jointly for all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs). In 2015, over 1,300,000 candidates appeared for the JEE exam for admission to 28,000 undergraduate engineering seats (B.Tech) in 68 centrally-funded technical institutes that included all 19 IITs (10,000 seats), 31 NITs (15,500 seats) and 18 IIITs (2,500 seats).
For B.Tech at VNIT Nagpur in 2015, the acceptance rates were as following:
- Computer Science and Engineering: 0.33 percent
- Electronics and Communication Engineering: 0.58 percent
- Mechanical Engineering: 0.67 percent
- Electrical and Electronics Engineering: 0.82 percent
- Civil Engineering: 1.23 percent
- Chemical Engineering: 1.50 percent
- Metallurgical and Materials Engineering: 2.18 percent
- Mining Engineering: 2.61 percent
Undergraduate admissions for foreign students and NRIs are done through Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme which considers SAT scores.
Eighty percent of students to the postgraduate programs (M.Tech) are admitted based on performance in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). These students receive stipends and tuition assistance from the institute and the Indian government. Another 20% of students are admitted based on industry or other research organization sponsorship, with full tuition typically paid by the sponsoring institution.
The institute invites applications for PhD degree admissions in all departments every academic year.
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Naggpur Ranking
VNIT Nagpur has been ranked 27th among engineering colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020, and 24th by Outlook India in 2019.
Academic collaboration and sponsored research
The 18th National Seminar on Aerospace Structures (NASAS) was organized by VNIT Nagpur in association with Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC) Nagpur, Aeronautical Research and Development Board (AR & DB), Ministry of Defence, Government of India, New Delhi and Maintenance Command, Indian Air Force, Nagpur.
The institute has academic collaborations with many universities in India and abroad. During 2015 alone, VNIT Nagpur signed 7 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with international universities and 21 MoUs with national institutions, laboratories and industries. These collaborative programmes include student and faculty exchange, internships for students and joint research activities among others. Some of the major universities with an MoU with VNIT Nagpur are:
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
- National Institute of Technology, Warangal
- National Institute of Technology Raipur
- National Institute of Technology, Uttarakhand
- College of Engineering, Pune
- Aichi Gakuin University, Japan
- ESIEE Paris, France
- Belarusian National Technical University, Belarus
- Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, Belarus
- New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
- Beijing Normal University, China
- Hunan University, China
- Southwest University for Nationalities, China
- Jiangshu University, China
- ISAN Medical Institute, South Korea
VNIT Nagpur was one of 12 institutes selected by the MHRD, Government of India, for the BRICS Network University on behalf of India. The institute was identified for the knowledge field ‘Ecology and Climate Change’ and participated in the Indian delegation that attended the Conference of the BRICS held at Ekaterinburg, Russia. A special protocol to the MoU on the establishment of the BRICS Network University was signed by Dr Narendra Chaudhari, Director, VNIT Nagpur.
Departments of the institute are involved in various research projects funded by the Department of Science and Technology (India) and other public and private corporations. VNIT Nagpur has been granted a World Bank assisted technical project for Applied Research in Combedded Systems with the status of Center of Excellence (CoE) under the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme Phase-II (TEQIP-II). This program includes a grant of Rs. 5 crore. This is one of six National Institutes of Technology centers which have the status of Center of Excellence.
VNIT Nagpur has also partnered with IIT Bombay and the College of Engineering Pune in an R&D project in "Biomedical Engineering and Technology Center Incubation" costing Rs. 39.4 crore.
The institute will soon have a state-of-the-art research laboratory for robotics on its premises as per a pact with the Switzerland-based robotic technology bellwether, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB).
A team from the faculty of Applied Mechanics (structural dynamics and earthquake engineering) at the institute was asked by NGO SEEDS to visit Nepal in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2015 to provide technical support. The team from the department had earlier visited Gujarat when an earthquake struck the state in 2001 and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2004 when a tsunami struck there after a massive quake in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation Limited (NMRCL) has joined with VNIT Nagpur for testing facilities and inputs on the metro's structural drawings, inspection and testing of materials.
VNIT Nagpur has adopted nine villages in Amravati, Nagpur and Jalgaon districts under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) aimed at bringing grassroots changes in rural areas through technological interventions from academic and research institutes, without affecting the local culture.
Festivities
The students club hosts a number of annual events, inviting participants from colleges across the nation. These include:
- Axis, a science and technology festival.
- Aarohi, a music and cultural festival.
- Consortium, an entrepreneurship summit.
Notable Alumni of VNIT, Nagpur
Arts
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Neelam Saxena Chandra | 1990 | B.Tech (Electronics and Power Engineering) | Poet and Author |
| Satyendra Pakhale | 1989 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Industrial designer |
| Sudev Nair | 2007 | B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) | Actor |
| Milind Ukey | Movie Director & Writer | ||
| Arati Kadav | 2002 | B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) | Filmmaker & Founder of Tangelo Production Private Limited |
Researchers and academics
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar | B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) | Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardee, scientist, Founding Director of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing | |
| Samir Barua | 1972 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Former Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad |
| Budaraju Srinivasa Murty | 1986 | B.Tech (Metallurgical Engineering) | Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad |
| Ramesh Jain | 1969 | B.Tech (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) | Bren Professor of Information & Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine |
| Nemkumar Banthia | B.Tech (Civil Engineering) | Professor of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia and the CEO of IC-IMPACTS | |
| Akhilesh K. Gaharwar | 2003 | B.Tech (Material Science) | Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University. |
Entrepreneurs
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Pradeep Kar | 1981 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Chairman and founder, Microland |
| Anil Kumar Reddy | 2016 | B.Tech (Metallurgical Engineering) | CEO & Co-Founder of Donatekart |
| Shashikant Chaudhary | 1983 | B.Tech (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) | Angel Investor. Former Managing Director, GlobalLogic India. Former CEO, President and Co-founder, Lambent Technologies Private Limited. |
| Shashank Garg | 1996 | B.Tech (Metallurgical Engineering) | Co-Founder, President, InfoCepts. |
| Mithun Srivatsa | 2005 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Co-founder, CEO, Blowhorn |
| Shantanu Deshpande | 2009 | B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) | Co-Founder, Bombay Shaving Company |
Business and corporate
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Dr. Dinesh Keskar | Senior Vice President of sales in Asia-Pacific and India at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. | ||
| Prasanna S. Ayer | 1994 | B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) | Vice President, Wells Fargo, USA |
| Harsh Vardhan | 1987 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Partner and Director, Boston Consulting Group, USA |
| Arjun Cholkar | 1996 | B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) | GM, Media Engineering, Prime Video at Amazon |
| Rajesh Kalra | Managing Director, India at Atkins | ||
| Nitin Bawankule | 1991 | B.Tech (Electronics Engineering) | President Ad Sales, Star TV Network |
| Upendra Mardikar | 1992 | B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) | Former Vice President Information Security Strategy, Arch, Identity, Engineering and Applications Security. |
| Niranjan Deo | 2000 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Director- Business Planning, Microsoft Corporation, USA |
| Shirish Andhare | 1991 | B.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) | Head of India Product and Growth, Uber. |
| Neeraj Jaitley | 1986 | B.Tech (Electronics and Power Engineering) | Sr. Vice President , Managed Services, Infrastructure & Cloud Computing Services at NTT Data. Former Vice President, Dell, USA. |
| Gautam Malik | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Chief Financial Officer, Xerox Canada | |
| Vaibhav Kaple | 2000 | Executive Director, J.P. Morgan, USA | |
| Nitin M Ambhaikar | 1986 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Former Vice President, Reliance Industries. |
| Rohit Suri | 1986 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | President and Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India |
| Vinita Paunikar | B.Tech (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) | Vice President, Oracle America, USA. | |
| Raju Shukla | Former Managing Director, Barclays Capital. | ||
| Vikas Sunkad | 1995 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Vice President Operations at The Coca-Cola Company. |
| Sameer Deshmukh | 1989 | B.Tech (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) | Senior Vice-President, Bank of America Merrill, USA. |
| Dilip Karandikar | 1988 | B.Tech (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) | Vice-President Product and Engineering, American Express, USA. |
| M.S Unnikrishnan | 1982 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Managing Director & CEO, Thermax India Private Limited. |
| Jagdish Ramaswamy | 1984 | B.Tech (Electrical and Power Engineering) | President and Chief Digital Officer, Hindalco Industries Limited. |
| Ashish Saraf | 1997 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Head of Region - India & South Asia Airbus Helicopters. |
| Manish Kothari | 1991 | B.Tech (Metallurgical Engineering) | President and Business Head, Kotak Mahindra Bank. |
| Santosh Panpaliya | 1994 | B.Tech (Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering) | Vice President Infosys |
| Satyavrat Pendharkar | 1991 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Former General Manager, VP, Gulf & Levant Foods PepsiCo |
| Harsh Kar | B.Tech (Civil Engineering) | MD Accenture Applied Intelligence | |
| Prakash M. Telang | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Former Managing Director Tata Motors | |
| Jayarama Prasad Chalasani | Former Chief Executive at Reliance Power Limited |
Public and defense services
| Name | Class
Year |
Degree | Notability |
| Hemant Karkare | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Late Chief of Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad | |
| Pravin Kumar Mehta | B.Tech (Civil
Engineering) |
Director General (Armament & Combat Engineering Systems), DRDO | |
| Jeetendra Singh | 1991 | B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) | Executive Director, Corporate Coordination (EDCC), Railway Board at Indian Railways |
| Sanjay Joshi | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Former member of the Bhartiya Janata Party national executive; Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Pracharak and Hindu fundamentalist. | |
| Ramnivas Miniyar | 1971 | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) | Chief, Project Management and GIS at US Air Force. |
Others
Anand Teltumbde, scholar, writer, and civil rights activist who is a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management.