It was back in the year 1953, when Dr. T. M. A. Pai, a courageous person at heart and a revolutionary by action founded the university town of Manipal, in the coastal corner of Karnataka. Little did he know that his excellence and dedication towards educational upliftment would result in the banner of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) to fly high across centers in Mangalore, Bangalore, Malacca and Dubai, today. A physician, an educationist, a banker and a social philanthropist, Dr. Pai established the Kasturba Medical College in the very same year and Manipal Institute of Technology in 1957, which was followed by a string of other educational institutions. Operating as the biggest institution under MAHE, Manipal Institute of Technology gains tremendously, due to the fact that MAHE operates as a multidisciplinary University comprising units in healthcare, technology, management, humanities and basic sciences. This also provides an excellent ambience for a culture of interdisciplinary research and learning, and the stats prove that students across nations and states choose MIT as their destination for academic journey and this makes Manipal a potpourri of cultural and social diversity.
Continuing the Legacy of Technical Excellence
“MIT is very welcoming and beautiful, and settling in was very smooth”, shares – Ms. Piyushi Goyal, a Final Year B.Tech (Computer Science) Student. Telling us how her journey from her hometown of Kolkata to Manipal Institute of Technology was effortless, all thanks to the impressive hard work put in by both – the management and the onboard faculty members, Ms. Piyushi explained in depth what led her to take the leap of faith and entrust MIT in her path towards becoming a qualified engineer. Adding to her above statement, she stated – “From the environment, professors to the quality of education imparted, and the way actual engineering concepts get applied into real-world applications and learning, is the main driving force MIT has and will have on future engineering aspirants”.
Redefining academic service
Having started with just the Civil Engineering Specialization, now Manipal Institute of Technology offers 18 UG Programs and 31 PG Programs with PhD opportunities in almost all specializations. The institute also gives students the option to carry out full-time or part-time research, and undertakes sponsored research programs supported by funding agencies such as DST, CSIR, AICTE, and the Ministry of Environmental Sciences. “With our focus always being on the importance of research and innovation across every field of engineering, teachers with only PhD Degrees are preferred at MIT”, states – Dr. Somashekara Bhat, Joint Director at MIT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
Helping us and our readers understand how MIT stands-out when compared to other engineering hubs across Karnataka and India, the Joint Director – Dr. Somashekara Bhat and Dr. Anil Rana, the Director took us on a verbal/virtual tour of the institute, addressing all the questions posed to them. When asked about how elaborate and detailed the infrastructure is at MIT, Dr. Anil Rana stated – “The state of art infrastructure and hands-on experience of latest technologies we have, makes MIT one of the most preferred destinations for those who would like to pursue Engineering course”. Continuing on his above point, he added – “An ecosystem of creativity and innovation exists across every corner of MIT, and thus through the innovation center and incubation labs, ideas and concept testing is promoted on a large scale”. Through the conversation we also learnt that MIT has a bio-incubator and a business incubator which facilitates easy entrepreneurship activities, and as a result MIT is home to over 40+ recognized start-ups. The leadership team also feels that they are really fortunate enough that they receive tremendous support from top-industries and establishments, and this is the main reason why Manipal Institute of Technology is capable of holding Capstone Projects for UG students in their 8th Semester and is able to host facilities like the Blackfrog on the campus.
A hotspot of Holistic Learning & Growth
As it is evident by now that an Engineering Graduate of today is expected to have a skillset to find solutions to problems of the society, along with domain specific knowledge, other basic skills like Communication, Leadership, Teamwork and so on are really important. All these skills mandates engineering education to be experiential, practical, relevant, and up to date. Keeping this in mind, as an experiment, in 2007, MIT came up with the idea of Major Student Projects, wherein, the institute provides infrastructure to build a technical project to compete in an international competition. Currently, there are 20 Major Student Projects on the Manipal Institute of Technology campus.
The curriculum too is out of the box and is curated specifically towards ensuring easy learning curves for students, irrespective of their learning/grasping abilities. It gets updated on a regular basis, while also allowing students to have plenty of time for co-curricular activities or for developing projects and research. Many professors also act as advisors for students assigning them tasks and helping them with publications.
Faculty members aren’t left out in this race of all-rounded growth, where they are equally encouraged to develop and update their skills needed to be at pace with the industry by attending FDPs, Online courses, Seminars and many more. Recorded lectures of the classes are made available to students after class hours, and irrespective of the scenario outside, teaching and learning happens at MIT in an effortless and an efficient manner, via various LMS portals, which provide the material for enhancing the teaching learning processes.
Welcoming cultural diversity in every endeavor carried out at Manipal Institute of Technology, the institute pushes its students to pursue foreign internships. Moreover, with healthcare institutions nearby, there are a lot of opportunities for the students to pursue interdisciplinary work. Also, apart from academic orientation, the students are also exposed to cultural, sports, and technical clubs that cater to the hobbies and interests of every student. There are more than 70 Technical and cultural clubs, where each club organizes a series of events that include technical, social, and community outreach programs as well as Government of India-led programs such as Azadi ka Amruth Mahotsav, Swatch Bharat and FIT India.
Towards a better tomorrow
Not only does MIT have impressive connections and collaborations with top names from the industry, Manipal Institute of Technology has also signed MoUs with companies like Schneider Electric, IBM, HPE, Cerner, Sabic, GE to name a few. Several MoUs are in the pipeline and will be signed in the days to come. Furthermore, having always been very proactive in placing the students into their prefered profiles, the institute has a well-organized placement team headed by the associate director, three assistant directors, and faculty and student coordinators from each department. 300+ recruiting teams, including 50+ Fortune 500 companies, visit MIT Manipal for UG and PG campus placements and internships recruitment every year.
Additionally, a concept called “Practice School” exists at Manipal Institute of Technology, providing quality opportunities for the students to spend their dedicated time in the industry during their last semester of B. Tech. Programme. Students spend 4 – 6 months in their eighth semester in an industry to gain valuable ground exposure by being part of teams handling live and challenging projects. It enables them to work in the area of mutual interest, improve self-confidence and develop core competence.
The students are also encouraged to do summer internships during the summer or winter breaks of the second and third year, which help them plan the Practice School project in an organization during the final semester. In addition to this, industries offer in-semester projects to the students.
Having worked with organizations, communities, and industries across the country over the past 6-decades, Manipal Institute of Technology is known to push the limits of what technology can accomplish, never being reluctant to go that extra mile if they can improve and fix some aspect of the world around them. “Our emphasis is on an environment that is built on knowledge and higher-order thinking skills. With inputs from motivated and quality faculty, the academic performance of our students continues to set the benchmark for engineering education – yesterday, today and tomorrow” concludes the Leadership Team of MIT.
Dr. Anil Rana – Director
Dr. Rana has served as a Commander in the engineering branch of the Indian Navy in various roles and has over 30 years of experience in the Industry and Academics. He has a PhD in Reliability Engineering from IIT Mumbai and M Tech from IIT (Delhi). Post his naval service he served as Associate Dean (Research) and Professor (Mechanical Engineering) in Fiji National University in Fiji Islands for five years followed by Dean(Academics) and Professor in Symbiosis Skills and Open University, Pune. He was the Dean, Faculty of Manufacturing Skills and Dean(Academics)in BSDU, Jaipur before taking over as Vice Chancellor of Oriental University Indore in February 2021. His research interests lie in the field of Reliability engineering, maintenance engineering management, stochastic petri nets, machine learning, fuzzy and neuro-fuzzy applications in the field of maintenance engineering etc. He has a long list of publications in International and National Journals that includes various book chapters in Springer publications.
Dr. Somashekara Bhat – Joint Director
After having completed his BTech in Electronics & Communication Engineering (1990) from NMAMIT Nitte; MTech in Industrial Electronics (1993) from NITK Suratkal (formerly known as KREC Surathkal); and Ph.D. (2008) from IIT Madras, Dr. Somashekara Bhat joined Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal in 1995 as a Lecturer and since then he is serving the institute in various academic and administrative capacities. Dr. Bhat has guided research scholars and numerous UG/PG students in their project work. Six scholars have received Ph.D. under his guideship and presently he is guiding three more scholars. With the financial aid from National Programme on Micro and Smart Materials and Systems, he was instrumental in setting up National MEMS Design Center in the ECE department. He has more than 25 Journal publications and 40 plus conference publications. 3 Indian patents are filed with him as a co-inventor. He is serving as a reviewer for the Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS. He has delivered Keynote Addresses, Invited Talks, and Guest Lectures at various National and International Conferences. He has acted as a resource person in many workshops and FDPs conducted within and outside MAHE.
