IIIT, Bhubaneswar grows to an Institute of Repute
Student Teams achieve National and International acclaim
Bhubaneswar, 19 Feb
Chief Secretary directed to match the advanced institutes, Scaling up its credibility, the International Institute of Information Technology ( IIIT, Bhubaneswar, established by the Government of Odisha in the year 2006, has grown to an institute of national and international repute with improved quality of students, faculty, academic eco-system and higher placement records. This was known from the Board of Governors ( BoG) meeting of the institute held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Suresh Chandra Mahapatra in which the independent directors from different parts of India participated through digital mode.
While complimenting the achievements of the Institute over the last few years, Chief Secretary Sri Mahapatra thanked Director Prof Gopal Nayak and Registrar Prof Ajit Dash for their untiring efforts in developing the institute to its present level. Further, Sri Mahapatra directed to improve the quality of teaching, learning, research, and incubation so as to match IIIT, Bhubaneswar with other advanced institutes in the sector.
While placing the updates and issues for discussion, Director, IIIT Prof Gopal Nayak said, “IIIT, Bhubaneswar has joined JoSAA/CSAB counseling conducted for NITs and IIITs from OTA ranked students. All seats for the current academic session have been filled up. This year the average quality of the students at entry stage has improved significantly”. Available data show, the students above the ranking of 51490 in the OTA category have preferred admission to the institute. In the last years, the students with an OTA ranking of around 61000 in the OTA category were being admitted. Along with students of Odisha the students from other states and countries have also preferred admission in IIIT, BhubanesDiscussions in the meeting show that IIIT, Bhubaneswar has maintained a high placement record of around 95% during the last five years. Beating the adversities of the global pandemic during the current academic session, the institute has already achieved around 77% of placement with a maximum salary offer of Rs.15 lakh and an average salary offer of around Rs. 5 lakh per annum. This year around 39 companies including Amazon, Informatica, Juspay, Dell, Turtlement have visited the campus. The recruitment process of 9 more companies is going on. It is expected that the placement position will cross 90% this year.
Prof Ajit Kumar Das, Registrar, IIIT appraised, “ IIIT Team of Students was the first and only Indian Team to bag the eleventh position globally in Top 20 of International Digital Marketing Competition-2020 organized by Purdue University of USA. The team consisted of the students namely Dhairya Mehta, Sneha Betabyal, Sambit Mohapatra and Rachit Panda. Another IIIT team comprising Ankur Khandelwal, Baranya Kumar Panda, Kartik Kumar Singh and Zestha Patra won the MIT COVID-19 Challenge: India Turning the Tide conducted from 28 to 30 August 2020 at the national level. The teams are currently being guided by MIT Team and partner companies for converting their ideas into reality.
Considering the impact of the current pandemic on the economic condition of the students, the BoG reduced the hostel fees to Rs.3000.00 per semester for all students. Previously, this fee varied from Rs.12,000.00 to Rs.24.000.00 per semester depending on the type of accommodation provided to the student. A discount of Rs.1500.00 per semester on library services for the current academic year was also approved. Further, the BoG also waived the student welfare fee and power backup charges for the current session. The proposal for constituting a committee to look into the grievances of non-teaching staff was also approved by the BoG.
The issues relating to the allotment of additional four acres of land at Gothpatana in favor of IIIT, Bhubaneswar were resolved in the meeting. The land would be utilized for the construction of an auditorium, hotel for students, accommodation for staff and playing facility. Chief Secretary Sri Tripathy directed to have accommodation facility for all teaching faculty inside the campus itself. Registrar Prof Das appraised, “the institution has grown self-reliant in terms of its establishment, operation and maintenance costs”. The State Government has given a grant of around Rs. 16 cr during last three years for the development of modern infrastructure facilities.
The Directors of the Board of Governors namely Director IIIT Hyderabad Prof PJ Narayanan, Director General STPI Dr. Omkar Rai, Prof R.C Balbantray, IIIT Bhubaneswar, Prof Debabrata Das IIIT Bangalore, Secretary IT Sri Manoj Mishra participated in deliberations.
