IIT  Kharagpur

History:

IIT Kharagpur is the first IIT of the country. IIT Kharagpur was established on the recommendation of the educationalists Humayun Akbar Jogender Singh and passed by a committee of 22 members headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar. The need to develop Higher Technical Institutions was realized and IIT Kharagpur was developed on the lines of Massachusetts Institute of technology.

The Institute was first set up in Esplanade East, Calcutta and was later shifted to Hijli, Kharagpur in September 1950. It was inaugurated by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad on August 18, 1951 and was declared as an Institute of national importance by the parliament of India in 1956.

Campus:

IIT Kharagpur is located 120 Kms west of Kolkata. The campus is spread over an area of 8.5 km (2,100 acres) and its occupants are an estimated 20000 people who consists of the Faculty members, students and other workers. Apart from this huge campus, the institute also has an extension center at Kolkata which acts as a venue for continuing education programs, distance learning courses and guest house accommodation.

Hostel:

There are in total 18 hostels at IIT Kharagpur to provide accommodation to the large no of students at the Institute. Each hostel is equipped with all the amenities and facilities that the students would need including access to computers, internet, common room with television, Sports facilities and uninterrupted power and water supply. There are 8 hostels exclusively for the undergraduate students- 7 for boys and 1 for girls. Another girl’s hostel is under construction.

Departments and Centres:

Departments:

    * Aerospace Engineering
    * Agricultural and  food Engineering
    * Architecture and Regional Planning
    * Biotechnology
    * Chemical Engineering
    * Chemistry
    * Civil Engineering
    * Computer Science and Engineering
    * Cryogenic engineering
    * Electrical Engineering
    * Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering
    * Geology and Geophysics
    * Humanities and Social  Sciences
    * Industrial Engineering and Management
    * Information technology
    * Material Science
    * Mathematics
    * Mechanical Engineering
    * Medical Science and Technology
    * Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
    * Mining Engineering
    * Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture
    * Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences
    * Physics and Meteorology

Centers:

A center unlike department deals with two or more disciplines. Following are the disciplines:

    * G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications
    * Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law
    * Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management
    * Reliability Engineering Centre
    * Rubber Technology Centre
    * Rural Development Centre
    * School of Water Resources
    * Vinod Gupta School of Management

Cultural Activities:

It is compulsory for undergraduate students at IIT Kharagpur to choose among National Cadet Corps(NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS), National Sports Organization(NSO) as part of the extracurricular activities. The institute also has a common sports ground for Cricket, Football, Hockey, Volleyball, Lawn Tennis, Badminton and Athletics along with a Swimming pool. The students compete among themselves in different events to be the winner of General Championship.IIT Kharagpur organizes Kshitij, its techno management festival with an astounding budget of Rs 50 lakhs and is the biggest of its kind in Asia. The institute has a very high level of discipline and stringent laws against ragging, any student found guilty of ragging or harassing other students is suspended without going through the disciplinary committee.

Alumni:

All the students that pass out of this institute are more likely to succeed than students from any other institute but still there have been some students who have done exceedingly well in their respective fields.

List of such Alumni:

    * Sushant Kumar Bhattacharya has been awarded CBE( a Knighthood) and Padma Bhushan
    * V.C. Kulandaiswamy has been awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan
    * Mani Lal Bhaumik invented the Excimer Laser
    * Srikumar banerjee has been the director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
    * Kirit Parikh - Founder director of Indira Gandhi Institute of development Research(IGIDR)
    * Suhas Patil -  Founder of Cirrus Logic
    * Arjun Malhotra –  Co-founder of HCL Technologies
    * Vinod Gupta – Founder of InfoUSA
    * Ajit Jain – President of Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group
    * Arun Sarin – CEO of Vodafone
    * Gopalkrishnan – Director of Tata Motors and Tata Power
    * Prith Banerjee – Worldwide Director of HP labs