Army Institute of Technology, Pune
AIT, Pune logo | |
Motto | Onward To Glory |
---|---|
Type | Graduate |
Established | 1994 |
Principal | Dr B P Patil |
Director | Brig. S K Lahiri |
Undergraduates | 1200 |
Location | Dighi Hills, Pune, Maharashtra, India |
Campus | Suburban |
Acronym | AITP |
Colors | Blue and Maroon |
Affiliations | University of Pune |
Website | www.aitpune.com |
Army Institute of Technology (AIT) is an undergraduate engineering college located in the Dighi Hills, Alandi Road area in Pune, Maharashtra, India and affiliated to the University of Pune. Only wards of army personnel are allowed admission. The admission is done through JEE MAINS exam. AIT functions under the aegis of the Army Welfare Education Society (AWES)[1] and has the seniormost officer of the Indian Army, the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army (COAS), as the President of its Board of Governors.
History
The college was set up when Gen BC Joshi, PVSM AVSM, ADC (1935–1994), the then Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, saw the need for an engineering college for the children of all ranks of the Army. His view was that children of army personnel were disadvantaged as far as education was concerned as a direct consequence of soldiers serving under difficult conditions in forward areas where educational facilities are not always available. Additionally, the regular rotation of army personnel, potentially across the country, affects continuity of education.
AIT was formally inaugurated by Gen S. Roy Chaudhary PVSM, ADC on 24th Feb, 1995. The first batch of students graduated in 1998.
Academics
AIT offers the following four engineering courses: Computer Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Information Technology and Mechanical Engineering. All four courses are approved and accredited by both the All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). All the four courses which are offered at AIT, i.e. Computer Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Information and Technology Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, are accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).
Each course lasts for eight semesters and these are spread out over four years, referred to as FE (First Year Engineering), SE (Second Year Engineering), TE (Third Year Engineering) and BE (Bachelor of Engineering). The annual First Year of Engineering intake for each class is sixty students, thus leading to a total of two hundred and forty freshmen entering AIT each year, apart from this there is also a provision for migration from other colleges subject to certain rules. In 2010-11 number of seats in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering was increased from 60 to 120. Computer Engineering is considered best branch in Army Institute of technology in terms of placements.
Graduates receive a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree from the University of Pune.
Campus
The largest building is the Academic Block, which houses the lecture halls, most laboratories, offices for the administration and an auditorium.
Sports are an especially popular pastime at AIT and the campus boasts a basketball court, a cricket field, a tennis court, a volleyball court, a football (soccer) field, a badminton court, fitness studio, a croquet lawn and two Squash_(sport) courts.
The AIT library is open to all students and staff and is one of the most frequented locations on campus. The library has a very technical bent and, as of 2009, had 5154 titles and 16927 volumes, and subscribed to 43 national periodicals and 14 international journals.
The campus is well serviced through public transportation links to the nearby suburb Vishrantwadi and also to the most popular locations in Pune: the University, Deccan, Main & East Streets and the railway station. The village of Dighi is a short walk away, as are the hills which lend their name to the locality.
Clubs and Student Activities
- Student Council - It consists of Secretaries under different departments (appointed by the college management) and Placement Representatives (PRs) from Placement cell.
- NSS Club - It organizes blood donation camps, cleanliness drives, treks, visits to orphanages and old people's homes.
- The Heritage and Spiritual Club - It facilitates celebrations of festivals such as Janmastami, Navaratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Shivratri etc..
- Maths Club - Mathematics is a unique subject that is used in day-to-day activities and continues to remain an integral part of our lives. The Mathematics club was created to sensitize students about this subject and the latest developments taking place in the field of Modern Mathematics.
- Music Club - Students with a musical bent are encouraged to join the Music Club.
- Magazine Board - The annual student magazine of AIT, "Srijna", is published by the Maganize Board. The Board also organizes two treasure hunts every year and circulates an online newsletter called "eMAGe", once every semester. It has further subsections like photography club, Hindi board, photoshop section etc. Mag-B selects around 20 FEs every year through a 3-step selection procedure.
- OSAC - Open Source Activities Centre is another student club that's focusing on promotion of Linux and other Open Source Software at college level. OSAC formed in 2010 currently stands at a strength of hefty 170 members. A group of students from all academic years had been working on AIT's new website, which was recently inaugurated on the occasion of the founding day of AIT i.e. on the 24th of March 2011.
- AHA - It refers to the AIT Hackers Association (2009).
- VOICE - Abbreviated form of "Vedic Oasis for Inspiration, Culture and Education", is usually referred as sub-section of Spiritual club only. Most of the members are common in both the clubs with few exceptions.
- News Board - Informally opened in 2010, students started to share the vernacular news about the college through blog postings.
- Sports Club - This club plays a key role in organizing PACE (a sports fest as described in next section).
- Robotics Club - The club was opened by SEs in year 2008. The main aim of this club is to develop skills among student and also to participate in Robocon. The club in its complete year provides different workshops to students such as "Use the pins wisely", a line tracer workshop, "Controller", an interfacing workshop and also a National Level Technical Paper Presentation Competition.
- Debate Club - Opened in 2012, this club serves as a platform for students to conduct debates on campus.
- Quiz Club -Formed to inspire and to serve as a platform for those students who are interested in quizzing. The quizzing culture in ait is reaffirmed by them in their ability to win quizzes throughout Pune. It is also notably one of those clubs which have an active alumni participation like OSAC
Fests
- Aakriti - The annual AIT cultural fest is called Aakriti, and is both eagerly awaited and hotly contested. It is currently an intra-college event, only once having been hosted, in 1999, as an intercollegiate. Aakriti is further subdivided into three sections viz. Culturals, Sports and Tech-Aakriti.
- Tech-Aakriti - Organised by engineering and Tech Board, it is celebrated separately from the main-stream Aakriti but the final scorings for the Aakriti trophy is done collectively for all the three pillars of this grand college fest. It was first started in 2009.
- Solutions - It is the inter-college Tech-fest of AIT. One of the biggest in pune it is also known to be the one in which almost all the disciplines of engineering are venerated through inter college competitions. There also is fun events like laser tag etc. to cool off and chill out.
- Pace is an inter college sports festival. It is held annually along with the Solutions. It is the oldest still conducted inter college sports festival in Pune. It also has events ranging from chess to squash and team events like football, basketball etc.(NDA and CME are also invited so the level of competition is pretty high)
- Gen. B.C. Joshi Memorial Quiz is an annual quiz that started in 1998 and had an uninterrupted run of 8 years. Restarted in 2010 it is now held every year a day before Pace. One of the most prestigious open quiz events in Pune, it is also known to be the one in which all quizzers of different age groups battle it out. It was originally a Quiz Fest comprising the main (BCJ Open) Quiz, an India quiz and a solo quiz based on the mastermind format called 'Owl In The Bowl'. The main quiz started as an intercollegiate and grew to an open quiz in its 3rd edition, which also marked the firstt ime that teams from outside Pune (Delhi/Mumbai) came in to take part. http://quatrainman.blogspot.sg/2003/02/back-to-bcj-with-difference-this-time.html
- Software freedom day :On this day the OSAC organizes intra-college coding competitions, technical quiz and other events like tech treasure hunt
- Battle of the Bands:Conducted to recognize and inspire the budding bands around pune, these bands battle it out with already recognised big names of Indian music to be crowned the best band of year.
Entrepreneurship Cell
AITians and AIT Alumni run quite an active entrepreneurship cell in the college campus. More than 30 entrepreneur Alumni manage the cell and stay in touch with interested students groups. Entrepreneurship is promoted through final year projects in terms of mentorship as well as financial aid. Some of the companies founded by AITians who are actively engaged with student groups are:
- Ideavate (http://www.ideavate.com)
- Tavisca (http://www.tavisca.com)
- Dimentrix (http://www.dimentrix.com)
- Agreeya Mobility (http://www.agreeyamobility.net/)
- Avika (http://www.avika.in)
- WingsOfPassion (http://wingsofpassion.com/)
- Fortune Cookie(http://www.fortunecookie.co.in/)
- ByteRidge (http://www.byteridge.com )
- EZMCOM (http://www.ezmcom.com)
- Sensible Software (http://www.bootstraptoday.com)
- Propalms (http://www.propalmsnetwork.com)
- Airegis (http://www.airegis.com)
- Molla Technologies (http://www.mollatech.com) - new startup
Alumni
The first batch of engineers graduated in 1998, and they, like their successors, keep in touch with AIT and each other through the Alumni Association. The aim of the Alumni Association is to allow each alumnus - a fresh graduate or one from the first batches - to leverage professional contacts, renew or build social ones and to constructively contribute to the community and the Alma Mater. An annual Alumni Meet is hosted on campus, where alumni get to interact with students and faculty. As alumni are dispersed across the world, an online mailing list helps alumni keep in regular touch with each other.
Placements
Post college job placement in AIT has generally been good. The exact figures are available with the placement office at the college.
Year | Percentage Placed | Average Salary (lpa) | Highest Salary (lpa) | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
2007 | 96 | unknown | unknown | unsourced |
2009 | 87 | 4.0 | 8 | [2] |
2010 | 89 | 4.2 | 10 | [2] |
2012 | 91 | 4.87 | 16 | Microsoft |
2013 | 98 | 4.5 | 12 | Microsoft |
2014 | 95 | 4.5 | 96 |
Governance
AIT has a one-tier governance structure. At the highest level is the Board of Governors with the COAS as President, and the VCOAS and all Army Commanders (except the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South Western Command) as Vice Presidents. The Managing Director of AWES is designated as the Member Secretary, with the following officers being Members: DCOAS (IS & T), DCOAS (P & S), Adjutant General (AG), Quartermaster General (QMG), Master General Ordnance (MGO), Military secretary (MS), Engineer-in-Chief, three Heads of Arms/Services in rotation, Director General (Discipline, Ceremonials & Welfare) and the Judge Advocate General (JAG). this is followed by a twelve-member Governing Body, which includes nominees from AICTE, the University of Pune and the Government of Maharashtra, and a ten-member Local Managing Committee, which includes representatives from each of the teaching faculties.
References
- ↑ AWES
- 1 2 Indian Express Article, Ishfaq Naseem, Pune, June 27, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/army-instt-of-technology-feels-postrecession-heat/639029/0
External links
- Army Institute of Technology, Pune Homepage
- Army Institute of Technology, VOICE Pune Homepage
- Army Institute of Technology Alumni Association Homepage
- AIT Pune News
Coordinates: 18°37′5.76″N 73°52′36.34″E / 18.6182667°N 73.8767611°E