DIRECTOR'S REPORT First Convocation 19th M ay, 1999. Hon ' ble Govern or of Assam and Chairman of the Board of Governors of liT Guwahati, Gen. S.K. Sin ha, Hon' ble Chi ef Minister of Assam, Shri Prafu ll a Kumar Mahanta, Members of the Board of Governors, Members of the Senate, grad uating students, ladies and gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure to extend a very warm welcome to all of you on the occasion of the very first convocation of the Ind ian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. It is our privil ege on this hi storic occasio n to have amidst us the Hon' ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Mahanta, who, as the then President of the All Assam Students' Un ion in 1985, was one of the architects of the Assam Accord and was instrumental in paving the way for settin g up of a sixth liT in Assam as a part of that Accord. We therefore extend a very special welc ome to you, Sir, and look forward to hearing yo ur Convocation address. It is my pleasant duty now to present to you a rep0\1 of the acti vities of thi s Institute fro m the time of its establ ishment till now. I would like to begin the report with the genesis of th is Institute. GENESIS The Assam Accord signed in August 1985 by the then Prime Mi nister, Sri Raji v Gandh i, and the student leaders of the A ll Assam Students Unio n, stipulated among other clauses, that an IlT be set up in the State of Assam. [mmediately thereafter, the Ed ucati ona l Consultants Ind ia Limited (EdCIL) was entru sted with the task o f preparing a detail ed Project Report in August, 198 7. [n thi s context, an Advisory Committee of eminent persons was consti tuted to help EdCIL in preparing the project report. [n addition, 23 workin g groups compris in g of experts in identified fields were constituted to draw up detail s of the in di vidual departments and areas. Prof. R. C. Malhotra, the then DcpLity Director, liT Delhi, who was the conve ner of the commiltee to prepare the deta il ed Project Report, was appointed in December 198 7. as a part-time Project Director, to calTY OLit the groundwork nccessary for setting up an liT. In December 1988, a detail ed Project Rep ort was submitted to the Government of India. To initiate the establishment of li T Guwahati , the Min istry of I-Iuman Reso urce Development and the Government of Assa m undertook th e task of providing su itabl e and sufficient land for locating th e In stitute and a 'Site Se lection Com mittee' was formed. The Governmcnt of India had approved a site hav ing an area of app roximately 700 acres at Misa in Nagaon di strict as the site for locating the proposed Ill'. Ho wever, because of various socio-political reasons, it was not poss ible to acq uire the land for the main campus and thus the search fo r an appropriate site for locatin g the liT was renewed. Us ing the guidelines laid down by the Site Selecti on Comm ittee, the Government of Assam was able to identi fy a site measuring around 285 hectares at Amingaon, North Guwahati, which broad ly Ill et man y of the specific requ irements in terms of both engineering qualities and holistic considerations and coul d therefore be considered fo r locatin g the proposed Ill'. After examin ing the observa ti ons and recommendations of the Site Se lection Commi ttee, the Uni on Mi nistry of Human Resou rce Development communicated the approval of the Govern ment of India to the site at North Guwahat i. As a fo ll ow- up to thi s decision, the Mini stry of I-Ium an Reso Li rce Deve lopment requested the Government of Assam to initiate necessary action for land acq ui sition. As the preli mi nary step towards establ ishing th e li T pending amendment of the ][T Act of 1961, the Indian Institute of Technology, Nagaon-Assam Society was fo rmed in February 1989 when the site was initially selected at Nagaon. Subsequently, .in 1991 , the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati-Assam Society was for med when the site was finali sed at North Guwahati , and the revised Project Report was submitted in 1992. The fou ndation stone of lIT Guwahati was laid on 4th July, 1992, by the then Prim e Minister, Sri P.Y. Narasimharao. In May, 1994, th e li T Act was amended by both houses of the Parliament to include liT 2 C,uwahati as the sixth II r. By a notification of MHRD, th e Cen tral GOl'erllment dec lmed I st Se ptember. 199-1 . as the day on whi ch th e Instilllte of Tec hno logy (A mend men t) Act, 1994 , came into loree, and liT GUlVa hati was I'orm ally establ ished on that day. This entire process took eight long yea rs. Even after land acq ui sition by the Gov t. of Assam, encroachm ent of !IT land further delayed the project. In February, 1994, the Govt. of India appointed a full ti me Project Director, who was to take over as the founder Director when li T Guwahat i was estab li shed thro ugh amendment of the liT Act. The land was handed over to li T Guwa hati by the distri ct authorities on 26 Apri l, 1995. Before undertaking works for the main campus at North Guwahati , an ' All Ind ia Design Idea Competition' for the Master Pl an of liT Guwahm i was conducted. The final 22 ent ri es fo r the competition wcre disp layed at li T Delhi from whic h an eminent j ury se lected the first and seco nd prize wi nne rs in March, 1995. An exhibition of all the compcti tion clllries wa s held for th e pu bli c at Gu wa hati in Jul y, 1995. The winning en try of the Master Plan was fi na ll y displayed at th e prom ises of the In stitute and was appreciated by the then Chairman of th c Board of Goverllors of the In stilllte, the Ho n' bl e Govern or of Assam, Sri L. Mi shra, Hon' blc Minister of HRD , Sri Madhav rao Sci nd ia and the Hon' ble Chi ef Minister of Assam, Sri Hiteswar Saikia. ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES Admi ss ion of students into undergrad uate programme in Computer Science & Enginecrin g, Electronics & Com mun ication Engineerin g and Mechanical Engi neering started fro m the academi c sess ion of 1995-96 wit h the fi rst batch of 64 students. Pend in g constru ct ion of bu ildi ngs at the site of the Insti tut e, the Insti tute started fun ctioning from hired space in th e building of the In sti tution of Eng in ee rs (Assam) Centre in th e hea rt of Guwahati city. From the academ ic scssion of 1998-99, studen ts have also been ad mitted to un dergrad uate programmes in B.Dcs. in Design and B.Tec h. in Civ il Engineering. Ot her deparimelll S included Chemi stry. Mathemat ics, Phys ics and Humani ties & Socia l Sc ie nces. 3 M.Tcch courses II'cre int ro du ced in Jul y. 1998, in Computcr Scien ce & Engin eer ing, El ec troni cs and Communi ca ti on I': ngin eerin g and Mechani cal Engi neering. The Ph .D. programme was started in July, 1996, in Computer Sc ience & Engineering, Elec tronics and Communicat ion Enginee ri ng, Mechani cal Engineering, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. li T Guwahati at present has five engineering, threc science and one humanities disciplines as follows: I. Computer Science & Engineering, 2. Electronics and Communicati on Engineering. 3. Mechani cal Engineering, 4. Civil Engi neering, 5. Industrial Design, 6. Ph ysics, 7. Chemistry, 8. Mathematics, 9. Humanities and Social Sciences. The total number of students enro ll ed at present at th e undergraduate and postgraduate levels are as follows: Undergraduate Programme : 1995 batch: 64 (CSE - 26, ECE - 22, IE - 16) 1996 batch: 76 (CSE - 3 1, ECE - 24, ME - 21) 1997 batch: 76 (CSE - 32, ECE - 22, ME - 22) 1998 batch: 104 (CSE - 3 1, ECE - 26, ME - 23, CE- 13,Des.-12) Total No. of U.G. students : 320 The number of students in M.Tech. and Ph.D. programmes arc as foll ows: M.Tceh. : 28 (CSE - 10, ECE - I I. ME - 7) Ph .D. :20(CSE - I, ECE - I, ME - 3, Phy. - 4, Chem. - 8. Maths. - 3) Total No. of students (U.G & P.G.) : 368 The number of success fu l candidates who arc to receive the B.Tcch. degree today are as fo ll ows: 4 Computer Science & Engineering 25 Elec tro ni cs & Communications Engi neering 22 Mechani cal Engineering 16 Total 63 The fac ult y and staff strengths of the In stitute at present are respecti vely 63 and 128. NEW PROGRAMME Mention must be made here of the B.Des. programme in Design which is the first such programme in the country at the undergraduate level. The programme a im s at preparing the students for the modern challenges in both product design and communication design by combining the principles of design , aesthetics and ergonomics.