IIT Dharwad: All You Need to Know

About IIT Dharwad:

Dharwad paved its way as the first district that will have a premier engineering institute in Karnataka. The Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad (IIT Dharwad) is an autonomous premier engineering and technology university situated in Dharwad, Karnataka. This new IIT started from the Gregorian calendar month, 2016 and is currently operating from a temporary field housed at Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) in Belur village on the outskirts of Dharwad town. Formally inaugurated by India’s Human Resources Development Minister Mr. Prakash Javedekar on twenty-eighth August 2016, it will be providing B.Tech courses in three core branches particularly Electrical, applied science and Mechanical from the academic year 2016-2017. The institute’s first batch will pass out in 2020.

As per the mentorship arrangement, IIT-Bombay is mentoring IIT-Dharwad for now. A five-member technical team headed by professor Shivaprasad from IITB visited the campus and arranged for a meeting with the District Minister Vinay Kulkarni, MLA Arvind Bellad, Deputy Commissioner Rajendra Cholan and others. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed with the State government seeking facilities at WALMI for the next five years.

History of IIT Dharwad

It was the late Union Human Resources Development Minister S R Bommai who had come up with the proposal to the Centre seeking Associate in Nursing IIT in Dharwad in the nineties. During the 2015-16 union budget, the Associate in Nursing IIT was sanctioned for province state and also the authorities came up with three locations for IIT in the province. The shortlisted cities were Dharwad, Mysore, and Raichur. Leaders from all political parties, a few enthusiastic voters, along with some ex-NRIs from Dharwad town made a lot of efforts to start this prestigious institute as there was fierce competition among cities to build the college on their land.

Location & Connectivity to the City

Located at the outskirts of the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad in the north of Karnataka, the picturesque Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad (IIT Dharwad) is located between the Western Ghats (Malenadu) and the deccan Planes (Bayalu Seeme).

Did you know that Dharwad derives its name from the Sanskrit word “DWARAWATA?” The twin cities are quite famous for their culture, literature and the Indian freedom movement. The historic fort of Kittur, where Rani Chennamma fought the British in 1824, is merely 20 kilometres from the IIT Dharwad campus. The town also homes renowned academic establishments like Province University, SDMCET, Karnatak Science, Arts, and Commerce College and University of Agricultural Sciences.

The nearest airport to IIT Dharwad is Hubli, which is located at a distance of 32 km from the campus. A slightly longer route is also available through the Belgaum airport, which is 72 km away. The WALMI Campus of IIT Dharwad is located at about 17 kilometres from the Dharwad city, so the best way to reach is by train as the Dharwad railway station is just 15 km from the IIT. The campus is right on the national highway NH4 and is easily accessible by road. Daily shuttle service to Dharwad city will soon be provided by the institute for the convenience of students.

Academics

The Institute offers three undergraduate (B. Tech.) programs in engineering and follows a semester system. An academic year (July-April) has two semesters with a duration of 16 weeks each. The first semester starts in the last week of July and ends by the last week of November. The second semester starts in the first week of January and ends by the last week of April. In each of the two semesters of the first year, a student is required to register for the relevant courses listed in the curriculum for that semester.

The Institute also follows a strict credit system. Credits are allotted to various courses depending upon the number of lectures, tutorials and laboratory hours per week. The student’s performance in a course is regularly evaluated throughout the semesters and can lead to an award of a Grade on a 10- point scale. The performance in a semester is calculated in terms of the weighted average of grade points secured in all the courses registered in that semester, which is known as Semester Performance Index (SPI). A Cumulative Performance Index (CPI) is the weighted average of the grade points obtained in all the courses registered by the student since the time of joining the Institute.

For students admitted through JEE (Advanced) 2016, IIT Dharwad offers the B.Tech. undergraduate program. The B.Tech. programs consist of eight semesters spread over four years. During the first semester, all branches will have a common curriculum. Here’s a look at the courses offered at the institute.

IIT Dharwad Campus

IIT-Dharwad will be functioning out of the field of Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) in Dharwad, which is next to Karnataka High Court, till the construction of the permanent campus of IIT Dharwad’s gets completed. The transit WALMI campus, which is located on a 132-acre land is using only 2 percent of its total campus area and the rest is still left unused. The temporary hostel available in the campus has a capacity of only 200 students and classrooms are in the 50,000 sqft. building and it needs renovation. It is expected that the renovation will be completed within two to three months.

This transit campus, which is fully-equipped with classrooms, laboratories and modern hostel buildings, will serve the needs of IIT Dharwad students for some time. The 560-acre new IIT Dharwad campus is expected to start in a few years and is located two kilometres away from the Pune-Bangaluru National Highway (NH4).

Facilities

The temporary campus has all the facilities like classrooms, a seminar room, library, a computer laboratory, faculty offices and cafeteria. All rooms are network connected and the institute is well linked to the mentoring institute, IIT Bombay.

The hostel rooms are spacious enough with attached toilets. With a separate dining hall and access to the internet and recreational facilities, the hostel at IIT Dharwad is at par with the best available in any other IIT. The hostel block is just 200 meters away from the academic building. A football field and access to indoor games is also available.

The campus gets help from local hospitals and a visiting doctor. So, the students, faculty and staff of IIT Dharwad have access to the general medical facilities available in the assigned local hospitals.

IIT Dharwad Fee Structure

 HOSTEL FEE

IIT Dharwad Cutoff 2016

General

 OBC

SC

ST

General-PwD

OBC-PwD

SC-PwD

ST-PwD

With the able guidance of IIT Bombay, we are sure that this institute will soon emerge as one of the best in the country. It’s going to be a long wait till the time the campus is fully developed, but hope it’s worth it!

So, this was all about IIT Dharwad, folks.

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