Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
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The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) is one of the Indian Institutes of Technology, set up in the (then) industrial city of Kanpur in 1960. Today, IIT Kanpur has grown into the top technological institute in India, primarily focused on research in engineering and science, and the teaching of undergraduates.
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History
IIT Kanpur was established by an act of Parliament in 1959. The institute was started in December 1959 in a room borrowed in the Canteen Building of the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute at Agricultural Gardens in Kanpur. In 1963, the Institute moved to its present location, on the historic Grand Trunk Road near the village of Kalyanpur in Kanpur district. During the first ten years of its existence, IIT Kanpur benefited from the Kanpur Indo-American Programme, where a consortium of 9 US universities helped set up the research laboratories and academic programmes. The first Director of the Institute was Dr. P. K. Kelkar (after whom the Central Library was renamed in 2003).
Laboratories and other facilities
The Institute has a number of facilities, including the National Wind Tunnel Facility. Apart from a large number of engineering laboratories, IIT Kanpur also has its own airfield, for flight testing and gliding activities. Other large research centres include the Advanced Centre for Material Science,one of the country's best Bio-technology centre, the Advanced Centre for Electronic Systems, and the Samtel Centre for Display Technology.
Students
The undergraduate students at IIT Kanpur are selected through the Joint Entrance Examination of the IITs, arguably one of the toughest selection processes anywhere in the world. Presently, the institute has around 3800 students, with an equal distribution of graduate and undergraduate students.
Students at IIT Kanpur reside in the hostels, or 'halls of residence', most of which have their own unique history and lore. There are eight hostels for boys and one for girls.
The annual cultural festival is called Antaragni. It is held around the end of October every year. The annual science and technology festival, Techkriti, is held at the end of February each year. The annual sports festival, Udghosh is held around the end of November each year, All three are amongst the most popular college events in North India.
Alumni
- Ashoke Sen (String theorist)
- N.R. Narayana Murthy (founded the software corporation Infosys)
- Manindra Agrawal, Nitin Saxena, and Neeraj Kayal (proved that the problem of finding "Primality is in P-space", a major result in theoretical computer science)
- Umang Gupta (Entrepreneur, wrote first business plan for Oracle, first PC-implementation of SQL and currently CEO of Keynote Systems)
- Raj Singh (Venture Capitalist, former billionaire, funded Teligent among others, married to Nita, also an alumnus of IIT Kanpur)
- Ambuj Goyal (VP/GM of IBM's Lotus business)
- Satish Kaura (Padma Shri and founder Samtel Group)
Miscellaneous
It was rated the no. 1 engineering institute in India by India Today in 2004.
External Links
- Official Website (http://www.iitk.ac.in)
- Alumni Website (http://www.iitkalumni.org)