College of Engineering, Pune

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College of Engineering, Pune


Motto:	Strength Truth Endurance
Established:	1854
Type:	Public Co-ed
Chairman:	Fakir Chand Kohli
Dean:	S R Sathe S R Kajale P P Rege B N Chaudhari B B Ahuja
Director:	Anil Sahasrabudhe
Faculty:	132
Staff:	400
Students:	3,800
Undergraduates:	2,800
Postgraduates:	700
Location:	Pune, Maharashtra, India
Campus:	Urban, 36 acres
Website:	www.coep.org.in

College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) is an engineering college in Pune, India. Established in 1854, it is the third oldest engineering college in Asia. It is located in Pune (formerly Poona), Maharashtra. The students and alumni of COEP are colloquially referred to as COEPians.

In 2004, the institute was granted complete autonomy by the state government.^{[citation needed]} The institute now is an autonomous engineering school with permanent affiliation to the University of Pune.

The college's study model was referred to in the early 1950s as the 'Poona Model'. The institute contends that its autonomy now grants it greater flexibility in dynamically changing its syllabus to suit the changing needs of the industry.

COEP is located at the confluence of two rivers, the Mula and the Mutha.

1 History
2 Specializations and departments
3 Degrees awarded
4 Admissions
5 Notable alumni
6 Activities
7 Controversies
- 7.1 Land acquisition
- 7.2 Renaming
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

Main Building

The College of Engineering, Pune, established in the year 1854, is one of the oldest engineering colleges in Asia.^{[citation needed]} The college was one of the first few colleges established by the British to serve the Indian subcontinent. Initially, it was started as the 'Poona Engineering Class and Mechanical School' to train subordinate officers for carrying out public works like buildings, dams, canals, railways and bridges. Later on, the school became the 'Poona Civil Engineering College', and subsequently in the year 1911, the name was changed to the 'College of Engineering, Poona'. The institution was initially affiliated to the University of Bombay (now Mumbai) for a degree of Licentiate in Civil Engineering known as LCE. The certificate course was converted into a degree course and the first class of the Bachelor of Engineering degree graduated in the year 1912. In 1968, the three year degree was extended to 4 years.

[edit] Specializations and departments

Department of Information Technology

The years when various engineering specializations was introduced are as follows:

1866: Civil Engineering
1914: Mechanical Engineering
1932: Electrical Engineering
1948: Metallurgical Engineering
1956: Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering
1965: Instrumentation & Control Engineering
1992: Computer Engineering
1995: Production (sandwich) Engineering
2001: Information Technology Engineering

The Department of Civil Engineering of this college is the oldest department in the college. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has many alumni who are entrepreneurs and industry leaders around the city and over the country. The college is also well-known for its Metallurgy Department.

[edit] Degrees awarded

The Bachelor of Technology (earlier the Bachelor of Engineering or the BE) degree is offered in all the aforementioned departments. The sandwich pattern course was introduced in Mechanical, Electrical, Metallurgy (1974) and Production (1995). In this model, students spend their 5th and 8th semesters working in the industry and gain credit for such work, under the supervision of a faculty member and an industrial manager.

The Master of Technology (MTech) and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees are also offered in select fields.

[edit] Admissions

COEP is among the most selective engineering colleges in India. Admissions to COEP are competitive and are based on merit. The cut-off percentages are within the top percentile of high-school graduates. Affirmative action programs exist, including programs for students from north-eastern India and Indian citizens from Kashmir. There are also programs for children of non-resident Indians (NRIs).

[edit] Notable alumni

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya - was an eminent Indian engineer and statesman. He was a recipient of the Indian republic's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was also knighted by the British for his public service. Every year, 15th September is celebrated as Engineers' Day in India in his memory.
Leela Poonawala, former Chairperson of Alfa Laval India and Padmashree awardee.
C. Kumar N. Patel - Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, inventor of the carbon-dioxide laser, winner of the United States National Medal of Science in 1996.
Thomas Kailath - Hitachi America professor of engineering at Stanford University, winner of the IEEE Shannon Award in 2000 for profound contributions to the field of information theory. Inductee to the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame (2005)

[edit] Activities

COEP is situated in central Pune. Pune is regarded as the cultural center of the state of Maharashtra.

The college houses a popular Boat Club (referred to by students as the BC) which plays host to the annual Regatta. The Boat Club Quiz Club (BCQC) is one of the premier quizzing bodies in Pune [1]. The Robot Study Circle in COEP is working with an aim of producing prospective winners for the national level robotics competitions like Robocon, Techfest and Shaastra. It owns its own Biped, hexaped robots, a robosapien, and a few microcontroller eduboards. The Department of Electronics and Telecommunication has an amateur radio Club with the call-sign VU2COE.

The college has close ties with the many manufacturering industries in and around Pune including Bajaj, Tata Motors and Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited, where students participate in academic projects. The presence of the several research laboratories including the Meteorological Survey of India, National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), National Centre for Radio Astronomy (NCRA), Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) and Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) provide students access to R&D facilities. In addition the city is home to the growing software and hardware industry (mainly in Hinjewadi Infotech Park), thus enabling more students to pursue final-year projects in these industries. al COEP has a national level technical festival named"Mindspark"started from academic year 2007-08.It also organizes a national leval sports event named "ZEST".

[edit] Sesquicentenary celebrations

In 2004 COEP celebrated the 150 years of its existence. The celebrations were marked by a visit by the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam. A postal stamp to mark the 150th anniversary of the college was released.

[edit] Entrepreneurship cell

In collaboration with notable COEP alumni and the industry, the students of COEP have undertaken a new initiative in setting up an entrepreneurship cell.

[edit] Placements

Over the years, many of the top engineering firms in the country have been noted to give preference to COEP for recruitment. In recent years, companies such as Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, IBM, Microsoft, Accenture, Yahoo, Sasken,Google, Symantec, TCS, Cognizant, L&T and D E Shaw India Software, Pvt. Ltd. have been some of the companies that actively recruited graduates.

A fairly high percentage of graduates chose to study further. An estimated 10% chose to pursue higher studies in India while 20% chose to study abroad.^{[citation needed]} This does not include the large number of students that chose to study further after gaining some work experience. USA is the top destination for COEP alumni.

[edit] India Today rankings

COEP was ranked as 15th among the top 20 engineering colleges in the recent survey conducted by India Today (year 2006)^{[citation needed]}. In terms of reputation, COEP is ranked 2nd after IIT Bombay in Western India.^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Land acquisition

In December 2005 the Pune Municipal Corporation asked the college for some of its land for road widening. This led to considerable outrage amongst students, and the issue was under heated debate. It was pointed out that the college was protected as a 'heritage complex' by the state government. ^[1]

[edit] Renaming

In 2000, COEP claimed independence from the state government and was declared an autonomous institute in 2004. Considerable confusion ensued over a proposed name change from COEP to Pune Institute of Engineering and Technology (PIET) which was strongly opposed by alumni and students. The newly autonomous entity's name was rolled back to COEP in November 2005. ^[2]