Government Engineering College, Trivandrum

Government Engineering College Barton Hill
Motto	सत्यं वद। घर्मं चर। (Satyam Vadha Dharmam Chara)
Motto in English	Speak the truth, Lead a righteous life
Established	1999
Type	Government Engineering Institution
Principal	Dr.B.Anil
Location	Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Language	English, Malayalam
Affiliations	University of Kerala
Website	www.gecbh.ac.in

The Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram, (short names: GEC, GECB) (Entrance Commissioner's Code: TRV), was founded by the Government of Kerala, India, in August 1999. The institution is located in Barton Hill, which is two kilometres from the city centre in Trivandrum. The institute has five major departments: Mechanical Engineering, Information Technology, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Civil Engineering and Electronics and Communication.

Courses and curricula

GECB,Trivandrum offers five B.Tech. courses in the streams of Mechanical Engineering (ME), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), Information Technology (IT), Civil Engineering (CE) and Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), each with an intake of 60 regular students and six lateral entry students per year.

GECB,Trivandrum also offers three M.Tech. courses in Mechanical Engineering (ME) with specialization in Machine Design, Information Technology (IT)with specialization in Network Engineering and Electronics and Communication (ECE) with specialization in Signal Processing with annual intake of 18 students per stream.

The college is affiliated to the University of Kerala and follows its Curricula and Syllabi.^[1]

Mechanical Engineering

The new Mechanical Engineering block has been completed and houses machinery lab, the ADAM course classes and the main drawing hall. The department has a workshop that caters to the need of the entire college.Mechanical Engineering Laboratory: Main facilities of this lab include CNC machines (both lathe and milling machines), Toolmaker’s microscope, profile projectors, sine bar and other measuring instruments. PLC programmer and Hydraulic power pack are the new additions in this lab. Programmable Robotic Arm will soon join the list. Mechanical Engineering Lab of seventh semester is conducted in this lab. Thermal Engineering Laboratory: This lab has heat transfer, refrigeration and air conditioning experimental setups. Heat transfer experiments include free convection, forced convection, composite wall, and heat exchanger apparatus. Performance study setup on blowers and multistage compressors are also available. Thermal engineering lab of seventh semester is conducted in this lab. Strength of Materials Laboratory: This facility include universal testing machine, spring testing machine, hardness-testing machine and impact test machine. Torsion meter, torsion pendulum and moment of inertia setups are also included. Civil Engineering lab of third semester is conducted in this lab.^[2]

Apart from the mechanical workshop, the college has a Metrology Lab and Heat and Mass Transfer Lab and a high tech CAD Lab . To assist in intra disciplinary studies the institution has a full-fledged Electrical Lab too.A new Engines lab and Hydraulics lab has also been set up^[3]

Information Technology

The IT Department has laboratory facilities for internet technology which gives students opportunity to work on emerging technologies like cluster computing, artificial intelligence, and multimedia processing.^[4] The Department of Information Technology has six lab rooms and a central server room. The department has the necessary software and hardware infrastructure for the conduct of all the 8 laboratory/practical subjects in the curriculum. All the student projects are done in-house. Each laboratory room has networked printers over Ethernet LAN. Although the emphasis is on the use of Linux and open source software, other popular proprietary software platforms are also supported. In addition, the department provides the necessary technical support for the smooth functioning of the campus-wide network in the college. A 1 Gbit/s internet connection is provided to the entire campus via proxy server. The department is one of the nodal centers for the facilitation of the Centralized Allotment Process (cap) for admission to professional courses.

a) Server Room: This room has 5 server machines with scsi/sata drives, raid-5 capability, cd towers, routers, hubs and cable modem, housed within a central rack. Different servers are set apart for managing various activities. The OS platforms provided are Enterprise Linux, Windows Server and Solaris. A Software-testing Laboratory with hp Functional Testing software has also been set up under the MODROBS project of AICTE.

(b) Internet Laboratory: This lab runs on thin-client machines running under Enterprise Linux as well as desktops running under Windows. 36 terminals are provided for Internet connectivity and running various software labs in the curriculum.

(c) Network Laboratory: This lab has 8 cisco routers, switches, highs peed modems and 36 dual-boot desktop machines. A wireless LAN laboratory with wireless access points/routers, wireless site survey kit and other equipment set up under the MODROBS project of AICTE.^[5]

The Construction of a Centralized Internet facility and Multimedia Lab for 150 students is being conducted under the Department.

Electrical and Electronics Engineering

The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Government Engineering College, Bartonhill was established in the academic year 2007, offering a four year B.Tech. course in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. All the students are allotted from among the top ranked students of Kerala Engineering Entrance Examination The department is planning to start a new M-Tech course in Advanced Power System and Control in the academic year 2012-13 .The first batch of students have already graduated in the year 2011 and more than 75 percent of the students were placed in various reputed national and international companies through campus placement drive of the CGPU (Career Guidance and Placement Cell) of the college. Lots of students from the department got selection for PG programmes in Indian Institute of Technologies and top ranked foreign universities.

The department takes special efforts in imparting value added technical education to the students. Continuous efforts are also being made to arrange lecturers in advanced areas of Electrical & Electronics Engineering by eminent professors from IIT’s and IISc

The various laboratories in the department include Electrical Machines Lab, Electronic Circuits Lab, Measurements & Instrumentation Lab, Digital Circuits Lab, Microprocessor Lab and Electrical Workshop.

Civil Engineering

Civil Engineering department has facilities like civil workshop, surveying equipments etc. Civil dept. fest is Prayana.

Electronics and Communication Engineering

Students are encouraged to join technical and non-technical forums, which gives them exposure to engineering concepts and technology.^[6]

The department has linkages with industry, and scientific research organisations. Faculty and students engage themselves in technical conferences and have presented papers in journals and at conferences.^[7]

The facilities include Electronics Workshop, Electronic Circuits Lab, Digital Electronics Lab, Microprocessor Lab and an Advanced Communication Lab.^[8]

Admissions and fees

Hundred percent of the admissions are based exclusively on merit and arranged through the Centralized Admission Procedure (CAP) of the Government of Kerala. All the students need to pay the fees only at the Government rate. Top rank holders of the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) conducted by Government of Kerala opt for this college. In 2005, the admissions to the college started at rank number 254 in the Common Entrance Examination.

Faculty

The faculty members are drawn from the pool of Professors, Assistant Professors and Lecturers under the Department of Technical Education. It is the same pool which provides the faculty to all the nine Government Engineering Colleges in the state. The 50-strong faculty team of the college consists of 7 PhD holders and 28 PG degree holders. The faculty-to-student ratio in GEC Barton Hill is 1:15, which is better than the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) stipulations.

Campus

The campus, situated centrally in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, is less than a kilometre from Palayam, and is located beside the Government Law College, Trivandrum.The college architecture is reminiscent of the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore.

Building construction

Presently the college is housed in the old 7 storey buildings. The construction of the new eight-storey main block is moving at a fast pace and already construction of the Mechanical Lab Complex is complete.The work on the new Mechatronics Laboratary Complex being jointly set up by Mercedes-Benz and GEC,Trivandrum is underway.

Library

The central library of the college houses more than 8000 books and periodicals including international journals and magazines. The process of fully computerizing the library, undertaken as a joint venture by the library and the IT department of the college using only free software has been completed. The campus has a subscription to on-line journals from American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and IEEE.

Being centrally placed, the students of the college can also conveniently make use of other libraries in the city such as the University Library, the Public Library and the British Council Library, all of which are a walking distance within a radius of 2 km from the campus.

Connectivity

Three 100 MBPS broadband connect the campus to the web.10 Gbit/s optical fibre network connects the entire campus.The college hosts a terminal of the EDUSAT educational communications satellite.

Student activities

The democratically elected college union spearheads academic, cultural and sports activities of the students in the campus. Aagneya the inter collegiate Techno-cultural festival of the college, started in 2008 is a crowd puller with increasing participation each year. The college arts festival stands out in respect of the number of participants it succeeds to attract and the yearly college magazine showcases the creative abilities of the students. Apart from the college union, all the departments have a students association which organizes academic events pertaining to their branch.

There is a student chapter of the IEEE in the college, which organizes technical seminars and related activities. The college has a team of students working to promote the use of free software among academia. They, along with the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE), have released a custom GNU/Linux distribution named FreeElectron, which provides (along with an operating system) software tools required in the ECE curriculum.

Thie college is a member of the Technology Incubation Centre of the Government of Kerala, which conducts Entrepreneurship Development Programmes and assists the students in starting their own enterprises.

The college has clubs and forums for promoting student interaction which includes a quiz club and a unit of the National Service Scheme(NSS). The quiz team has represented the college in and outside the state.

The Physical Education Department students can use the facilities of the Department of Physical Education, University of Kerala and their stadium which isa kilometer from the campus. Arrangements have been made to practice athletics, football, volleyball and weight training equipments there. Students can also practice basketball and handball have at the Central stadium and ball badminton, shuttle badminton and table tennis at Jimmy George stadium, which is about 2 kilometers away from the campus. Meanwhile, the construction of 2 badminton courts is progressing on the campus.

The basketball, football and cricket teams of the college have taken part in numerous competitions across the state and in inter-collegiate events organised by the university and won prizes.

Aagneya

Aagneya is an annual 3-day festival held by the students of the Government Engineering College, Trivandrum. It began in 2008, when the batch began a festival that would allow people of talents from all over the country to meet and partake in competition. Aagneya consists of cultural activities involving dance, music, art, literary and quizzing activities, as well as performances from professional artists. Now Aagneya is one of the most famous and happening college fests in South India.^[9] Aagneya means 'Child of the Fire God' in Sanskrit.

Full Throttle

Full Throttle (FT) is the organisation by Mechanical Engineering students (Royal Mexx). Under the title , a series of events are held, such as Auto-shows, Stunt shows, social services, tech fests, workshops etc. Full Throttle Slogan is 'Are You Game?' as a challenge. A famous programme of FT is Inspire, which aims the welfare, happiness and rising of young talented minds, programmes including workshops and classes at orphanages and schools. FT 2K15 included #50 Days Of Road Safety programme, which ended with Aagneya Fest.

Alumni

The college has a strong alumni association having large membership from people of all strata.There are many notable personalities such as Haritha.V.Kumar IAS Topper 1st rank holder of 2012 Exam.

Parent Teacher Association

The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the college is concerned with the functioning and development of the college. Apart from providing amenities to the students including the canteen and internet connectivity, the PTA funds and organizes training programs to develop the soft skills of the students. The PTA gives scholarships to financially deprived students and awards to proficient students. A recent contribution of the PTA to the college is a new building with two classrooms.

Intake

Branch	Duration of program	Seats (First year intake)	Seats (Lateral entry)
Mechanical Engineering	4 years	66	6
Civil Engineering	4 years	66	6
Electronics and Communication Engineering	4 years	66	6
Electrical and Electronics Engineering	4 years	66	6
Information Technology	4 years	66	6

See also

Aagneya The Techo-Cultural festival of GEC, Trivandrum ; List of colleges in Kerala

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Government Engineering College, Trivandrum.

• GECB Website, GECB Official website
• IEEE SB Website, GECB Official website of IEEE Student Branch

Coordinates: 8°30′19″N 76°56′28″E / 8.505257°N 76.941054°E / 8.505257; 76.941054