Diamond Jubilee Conference
February 15-16, 2019
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
(B. Nag Auditorium, Victor Menezes Convention Center, IIT Bombay)
Diamond Jubilee Celebration- An Introduction
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) was the second IIT to be established in the country in the year 1958. IITB along with the other four original IITs at Kharagpur, Kanpur, Madras (now Chennai) and Delhi were declared Institutes of National Importance by an Act of the Parliament passed in 1961, and were given the status of a university with the power to award its own degrees and diplomas.
IITB admitted its first batch of 100 students in 1958. It started operating from VJTI before finding temporary accommodation at SASMIRA in Worli. It moved to its present picturesque location at Powai in 1959 with five engineering departments, two science departments and a department of languages. IIT Bombay was established with the cooperation and participation of the UNESCO, utilising the contribution of the government of the then USSR. The institute received substantial assistance in the form of equipment and expert services from the USSR through the UNESCO from 1956 to 1973.
Presently, IITB is located in a campus measuring nearly 200 hectares in Powai. The lake Powai is to the south and west of the campus while the lake Vihar touches the campus towards the north.
The institute presently has 15 departments, 19 centres, 4 inter-disciplinary programmes and one school. It celebrates the foundation day each year on 10th March. The entire year between 10th March 2018 to 10th March 2019 is being celebrated as the diamond jubilee of the Institute.
This conference is part of the diamond jubilee celebrations and is being organized by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, which is one of the five original engineering departments of the institute. The department is one of the largest in the institutes and admits each year around 150 students for the undergraduate program, 100 students for the masters program and 50 students for the PhD program.
Theme
The theme of the conference is “Mechanical Engineering Education: Relevance in Current Times and Future Challenges”. The talks and panel discussions of the conference are oriented around the question of whether we are serving the needs of the industry and research appropriately. Towards this end we have four keynote and five invited talks. These are being delivered by eminent personalities in their field. They will each cover different aspects of the theme from the point of view of academia, industry, research laboratories and policy making. The conference also has three panel discussions around the theme. The focus of the first panel discussion is on whether we are following the right methods and policies in Educating Mechanical Engineers. The focus of the second panel is on whether Industrial expectations are being fulfilled by today’s engineers. The third panel puts together individuals with PhDs from IITB who are in academia, industry and national laboratories to understand their viewpoint regarding education and preparedness of PhD students in handling such occupations.
Who can attend
All the talks involve eminent educationists (Directors of IITs, Senior professors) and Industry Leaders talking on the subject of Education and Industry Readiness of Mechanical Engineers. We expect Principals, Heads of Departments and senior faculty members involved in education and policy making to attend.
Venue
B. Nag Auditorium, Victor Menezes Convention Center, IIT Bombay