Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

জলপাইগুড়ি সরকারি প্রকৌশল মহাবিদ্যালয় जलपाईगुड़ी सरकारी अभियांत्रिकी महाविद्यालय
Former names	Jalpaiguri Engineering College
Type	Public, Autonomous
Established	1961
Chairman	Prof. Dr. Somnath Ghosh
Principal	Prof. Dr. Pradip Kumar Saha
Proctor	Vivekananda Biswas
Academic staff	100
Students	1600
Location	Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India
Campus	165 acres (0.7 km2)
Colours	Red and White
Nickname	Jolu (জলু)
Website	www.jgec.org

The Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, abbreviated as JGEC, is a premier Institute for Technical education. Established in 1961, it is the second oldest institution in the State of West Bengal. The College is situated at the outskirt of Jalpaiguri Town, the Divisional HQ of seven Districts of North Bengal.The College offers bachelor's degrees (B.Tech) in six branches and master's degrees (M.Tech) in two branches of Engineering.The students and alumni of JGEC are informally referred to as JGECians or Jolites. Among all government engineering colleges in the state of West Bengal, JGEC has the largest campus (165 acres). JGEC is known for its festivals: JECLAT (Social and Cultural Festival) and Sristi (North Bengal's largest Techno-Management Festival).

History

Established on 7 August 1961, the Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College is the third oldest of all purely technical institutions (centrally and state funded) besides the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (Formerly Bengal Engineering and Science University) in the state of West Bengal.

JGEC Central Building

In the Initial years JGEC was under the University of Calcutta. For the period between 1963 and 1999, the college was affiliated to the University of North Bengal ,which handed over the rich mantle of technical excellence to the West Bengal University Of Technology, Founded under the West Bengal University Of Technology Act, 2000.^[1]

In 2012, the institute was granted complete autonomy^[2][3] by the University Grants Commission, India, thus giving it the freedom to set its own curriculum and manage its own finances.^[4] With affiliation to the West Bengal University Of Technology, the institute is now an autonomous engineering college under The Government of West Bengal.

Administration

The college is under direct control of the Government of West Bengal,^[5][6] having a Governing Body i.e. Board of Governors, consisting of Vice-Chancellor of North Bengal University (Chairman), Principal of the College ( Member Secretary ), Additional chief Secretary/ Principal Secretary (Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal), Director of Technical Education ( Government of West Bengal), Vice-Chancellor of West Bengal University of Technology, Regional Officer, All India Council for Technical Education (Eastern region), Sabhadhipati of Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad, District Magistrate of Jalpaiguri District, Superintending Engineer (Electrical, P. W. D. Circle-6), Superintending Engineer (P. W. D. North Bengal Construction Circle-2), Senior Manager of IBM (India), Director (Project) of Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt. Ltd, Chief Executive Officer of Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority, Managing Director of North Bengal State Transport Corporation, Two elected Representative of Faculty of the College, One elected representative of the Non-teaching staff of the College, One Student Representative of the College.

organisational administrative structure of JGEC

The Members of Academic Advisory Body are all Professors, assistant Professors/ Readers and Lecturers in substantive appointment and the Principal of the College are members of the Faculty Council. In the Faculty Council, the Principal is Ex-Officio Chairman.

Governing Body Meeting is being held 4 times or more in an academic year on executive affairs.

Faculty and Students are involved in active academic affairs and improvement of Teaching and Learning through Departmental Faculty and Students wing for various institutional academic reforms with the vision for future improvement.

Geography

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College is located squarely in the middle of the "chicken's neck" covering a land of 165 acres, 42 kilometres East of the business town of Siliguri. Famous Darjeeling Town is only three hours drive from the college campus. Kalimpong, Lava, Lolegaon famous tourist spots are only again within three hours drive. To the North is 'Dooars' meaning door to Bhutan. Dooars is famous for numerous Tea Gardens producing world class CTC Tea, Gorumara National Forest and Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary. One can have full view of Mt. Kanchanjunga, the third highest peak in the Himalayas from the college campus. To the East, is the mighty river Teesta. The river Karala flows on the Western boundary of the campus. To the South is the lifeline of the North-East, the National Highway Number 31A.

Himalayan Range as seen from JGEC campus

The nearest airport is 'Bagdogra' only 65 km from the college campus. Bagdogra is well connected to both New Delhi and Kolkata with daily flights by 'Jet Airways','Air Deccan' and thrice a week by 'Indian Airlines'. Bagdogra is also connected to Guwahati with daily flghts by 'Jet Airways' and thrice a week by Indian Airlines. The nearest railway station is Jalpaiguri Road (JPE) which is just approximately 2 km away.^[7]

Academics

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in JGEC is granted through written entrance examinations. Admission to undergraduate programmes in JGEC is through the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE). Candidates who qualify for admission through WBJEE can apply for admission in four-year BTech (Bachelor of Technology) at JGEC. The admissions to postgraduate programmes i.e. MTech (Master of Technology) are made primarily through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). 20.63% of the seats are reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 6.35% for Scheduled Tribes (ST).And as of 2015, 3.17% separate reservation exists for the Peple with Disability (PwD/PH) and 4.61% for the students with Tuition Fee Waiver (TFW)^[8]

side view of JGEC central building

With over fifty years of continued academic excellence, the institution has grown rapidly in terms of eminence. The intellectual and analytical component of faculty for human resource development with social skills and responsibilities are of highest academic value of the institution.The institute has implemented a continuous process of thrust in Networking Linkage with esteemed Institutions and Industry as formal and informal network partner of our institution for institutional and faculty development.

Undergraduate education

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College offers four year under-graduate degree courses in the following six disciplines:^[9]

Jolu Toron-The gateway of JGEC

It is based on a four-year programme with eight semesters. The first year of the B.Tech curriculum has common courses from various departments. From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their respective departments. In the final year of their studies, most of the students are offered jobs in industries and other organisations through the Training and Placement section of the college. Some students opt out of this facility in favour of higher studies or by applying to recruiting organisations directly.

Postgraduate education

It also provides post-graduate courses in the following two disciplines:^[10]

Accreditation and Ranking

Although Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College does not formally participate in any ranking programs, it is considered by reputed Newspapers & media sources like The Telegraph to be third^[11] among the engineering colleges in the state of West Bengal in factors like infrastructure, placement record and faculty but due to a far away location from the state capital Kolkata it stands fourth^[12] in Opening and Closing ranks of WBJEE counselling. Highly rated courses include mechanical engineering, and electronics and communications engineering. All the courses of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering college are NBA and AICTE^[13] accredited. Moreover, in the year 2012 it was announced a full fledged Autonomous Institution^[14] under the Government of West Bengal. Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College was also selected among 127 Institutions ( including 18 Centrally Funded Institutions) for the TEQIP (Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme)^[15] phase-1 by Ministry of Human Resource Development , Government of India and World Bank, in March 2003 to promote Academic Excellence and to improve the quality of technical education system in the country.

Additional Educational Initiatives

The institution has been tied-up with Amrita Viswa-Vidyapeetham for INDO-US Inter-University Collaborative Initiative in higher education and research for a special Satellite Network to be established by ISRO through one Satellite Interactive Terminal (SIT) (via ISRO's educational satellite-EduSat) for linkages with lead universities in the USA, namely the University of California at Berkeley, State University of New York, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Yale University, University of California at Santa Cruz; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Cornell University, etc. with associated initiative of three leading technological companies in the world, namely Microsoft, Qualcomm and Cadence.^[16][17][18]

Student life and culture

Hostels/ Halls of Residence

JGEC provides on-campus residential facilities to its students, faculty members and many of its staff. The students live in hostels (referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the JGEC. The five hostels/halls on campus accommodate 75% of its students.Out of them four of them are for male students and one is for the female students. They are namely:

A night scene of the college Halls

Ragging in any form, physical or mental oppression is considered as a punishable offence in JGEC and the students implicated in such offence may be dealt with extreme punishment.^[19]

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College provides a high technology campus in which almost every rooms of the college building and even each and every hostel is connected via LAN. An optical fibre backbone network connects hostels and the college building together. There is also a campus-wide wireless network that can be accessed from every corner of the campus. Nine wireless access points bind the campus with an invisible bond. Students and faculties can access internet and other network services.^[20]

Festivals

JGEC has festivals like JECLAT and Sristi. JECLAT, the annual socio-cultural fest of JGEC. It is generally held in March . JECLAT includes cultural competitions like Chitrayan^[21] (photography & art exhibition and competition), Dance Fest ^[22](inter-college dance competition), Music Fest^[23] (inter-college music competition), Band Blast^[24] (band music contest), Elementary (puzzle, quiz, etc. contests) in addition to stage shows (known as Social night) in the final night of the week-long cultural fest has some of the most powerful performances of vocals and beats from renowned artists and Bollywood chartbusters and pop songs are hosted throughout the night. The magnitude of JECLAT is huge and attracts an admirable participation from many colleges.^[25]

JGEC organises a techno-management festival known as Sristi. It is the biggest techno-management festival of North Bengal,^[26] and is generally organised in January or February. Events include technical workshops, seminars, and competitions.

The annual robotics competition held by JGEC, is organised during Sristi which hosts various competitions like Guardian Mechas, Operation Gladio and Kamatian Race.

Student Clubs and organisations

JGEC offers students the opportunity to participate in over 14 active clubs and organizations which focus on social, multicultural, political, professional, educational, athletic, community service, and wellness issues. Participation in these organizations offers the opportunity to take part in activities that interest them, affect change in the campus and local community. The college clubs form an integral part of the JGEC student life.^[27] Some of them are:

Centre for Innovation (CFI)

CFI was founded in August, 2008.^[28][29] It is the only club in JGEC campus that is autonomous. All kinds of innovative activities are in progress in CFI. Namely, students design embedded robots as well as manual robots. Apart from building robots, students with a business acumen can engaging in B-Plan activities. Besides all these, a college radio "RadioJolite"^[30] has been launched, where broadcasting of various college events occur.

The CFI takes the initiative to organize Sristi, the Annual Techno-Management Fest of the college. CFI has its own experimental lab and the construction of its own building is in progress beside the college gymnasium.

Magazine Club

The Magazine Club^[31] of JGEC is one of the oldest clubs of the college which aims at promoting creative thinking amongst the students and to inculcate in them the habit of writing.Under the guidance of the Magazine Committee, the Annual College Magazine^[32] is published that contains numerous technological and literary articles and sent to alumni across the globe and to students and faculty of the college and faculties internationally located.

Coder's Club

Coders,^[33] mainly an open knowledge forum/club is a part of JGEC that targets at increasing the popularity of different computer languages amongst all students and make them prepared for different coding, debugging contests and many other competition related to programming. Coder's club regularly organizes Programming competitions within the campus.

Photography Club

Photography Club^[34] was one of the earliest clubs to be established, back in 1965. Since then, it has relentlessly pursued excellence in the field of film and digital photography. The club organizes training programmes in photography techniques and development every year. Activities are not limited just to the studio and darkroom. Since the college is situated in a very beautiful natural surrounding, regular photographic expeditions are organized.

Music Club^[35]

Music Club of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College was formed to nurture musical talent among students. Membership is restricted to the students only.The Annual Music Fest "CaLiPhOnY" is an eagerly awaited feature among the students.

Dance Club^[36]

The Dance Club at JGEC was founded with the aim of exercising the wonderful dance forms. The Dance Club undertakes regular rehearsals and practise sessions to nurture and enhance the talents present in the students of the college.

Communication cell

The Communication Cell^[37] at JGEC, formed in January 2011, is one of the newly formed student run components of the JGEC body that aims at enhancing interaction amongst all alumni and present students. It also aims to establish a healthy relationship with other technical and non-technical institutes all over the nation.

Free Night Education Center, Jyoti

"Jyoti" is a Free Night Education Centre for Children^[38] run by the students of Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College (JGEC), under the students-run society called the "Centre of Social Welfare". There are many poor villages surrounding the Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, where the need to earn money has left people uneducated and not receiving the proper sense of education. Even many children under the age of 10 who are working in the nearby canteens have either left studies due to the urge to work for money, an burden forced on them by their financial condition, or yet continue having improper education. This is the reason behind the creation of "Jyoti".

Alumni

JGEC has various Alumni Associations set up at different places. The headquarter of all those Alumni Associations is the Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College Alumni Association (JGECAA ),^[39] Jalpaiguri, having a registered office at JGEC campus involve themselves in campus based and national activities.

The Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College Alumni Association got registration from Registrar of Societies West Bengal Act XXVI of 1961 vides No:-S/L/70053 of 2010-11. The Alumni Association functions from College Administrative Building and a new building (with Technology Seminar auditorium) exclusively for the Alumni Association is under construction. Alumni Association conducts seminar and workshops at campus, arrange platform for sponsoring scholarships and sporting events around the whole year. Prominent educationalists and professionals visit campus during seminars organized by Alumni Association. Alumni Association work in close association with students of JGEC and the college authority.

The Ex-officio Chairman of the Alumni Association is the Principal of the College.^[40] The incumbent chairman is Prof. Dr. Jyotirmoy Jhampati (alumni) and the Secretary^[41] of the Association is Prof. Amaresh Dalal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Guwahati (alumni).

References

• http://www.jgec.org/

Further reading

• Tiwari, Pradip (2016). Friends of Jalpaiguri part-1. India. 

External links

• Official website: http://www.jgec.in/
• Official website: http://www.jgec.org/
• Official Alumni website: http://www.jgecalum.org/

Coordinates: 26°19′45.24″N 88°42′13.478″E / 26.3292333°N 88.70374389°E / 26.3292333; 88.70374389