Revision as of 22:43, 14 January 2017

Doctoral research/ PhDs

It takes 2 to 14 years to complete PhD

The Times of India, Nov 10 2015

Yogita Rao

Institute's media body compiles data since 1990

Researchers take an average of six years to complete a PhD at IIT-Bombay , according to data compiled from 1990 onwards by students of the institute. The maximum time, taken by two candidates, has been around 14 years while the quickest has been two years.All four were from the chemical engineering department.Computer science engineers, on an average, take the longest time (6.7 years) to complete their PhDs, while civil engineers take the least (5.1 years).

The students' media body on campus, Insight, has compiled the data available with the institute and analysed the time taken by researchers to complete their PhDs.

While the general perception on campus is that researchers take about five years, a majority of them, around 32%, have taken six years on an average. More than 40 candidates have even taken 10 or more years. The two candidates from the chemical engineering department who have taken about 14 years to finish their PhDs are deemed to be rare cases.

Among the departments, PhD candidates from computer science and engineering, humanities, mathematics, bio-sciences and bioengineering, metallurgical engineering have taken over six years to complete their research.Civil engineering and earth sciences departments have taken lesser time compared to the others.

Devang Khakhar, director of the institute, said that different departments have a different range of time taken to complete PhDs. It also depends on the subject of research, he said.

“The part-time PhD candidates, who make up for a significant number, take longer than the others as the candidates are also doing jobs. The institute does not have a segregated list, but we will soon work on it and have a better analysis,“ said Khakhar.

Though the students have taken data available with the institute from 1990, not al PhDs before 1999 have upload ed their theses online. So the data before 1999 is incom plete. The analysis is based on the data available online, said a student of the institute.

“There's a lot of data in the institute from various sourc es, and we thought it would be interesting if we present i in a visually intuitive way There's tremendous scope for such analysis, and it'll throw interesting insights into vari ous things,“ said Mihir Kul karni, one of the chief editors of Insight.

Lifestyle

Hygiene, family ties, beliefs

The Times of India, Sep 01 2016

Hemali Chhapia

70% of IIT-B students skip daily bath, 40% wish to live on with pals

Six of 10 residents at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) showered once every two or three days, finding the “task“ taxing. A small 10% that took a bath just once a week and just about 30% took a bath everyday . This is one of the findings of the second edition of the senior survey at the institute, conducted by students, which received responses from 332 candidates of the passing-out class, including undergraduates, dual-degree students, MSc and MTech graduates. The hangover of hostel life is likely to linger long after graduation, for 40% of the residents plan to live with friends, 27% wish to go back home and 19% would like to live alone. On the other hand, 66% maintained close relations with their folks back home while 29.8% had a lower-than-average interaction with their parents.

While in Mumbai, they had ticked off quite a few items on their bucketlist.Some 52.4% had experienced the classic dream of every college student -a road trip to Goa with friends. Then, 70% travelled ticketless on a local train and 55.7%, on being inspired by the James Bond movie `Casino Royale', have played poker or blackjack.

On their marital plans, the survey found that 39.15% did not wish to dig their own grave until after five years; 31% were clueless while 21.4% wanted to marry between three and five years down the line. On religious beliefs, 39% respondents said they were believers, 21% said they identified themselves as atheists and 39% said they were agnostic.

Almost 70.5% of the respondents graduated as bachelors of technology . 33.75% received an additional minor or an honours degree or both alongside. In 2016, respondents had an average CPI of 7.87. 163 of them had a CPI greater than 8 while only 43 had CPI greater than 9. “A symmetric distribution across responses saw 35.7% wanting a decent CPI whereas 32.6% were unable to reach their potential,“ said Shreerang Javadekar, chief editor of Insight, the IIT-B newspaper which conducted the survey .

In terms of attendance, 39.75% said they would have attended most classes while 32.5% said they have would have preferred attending as few lectures as possible.Some 7.5% said they would have attended all classes nonetheless. Interestingly , 16.2% have never visited the institute's central library .

Placements

2016: 300% increase in academic institutes

Placements in Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 2016, till November; The Times of India, Nov 30, 2016

The Times of India, Nov 30, 2016

For a long time, blue chip companies, investment firms and startups ruled the first edition or Phase I of placements at the Indian Institutes of Technology . However, Phase I has seen academic institutes jump up the charts this recruitment season.

IIT-Bombay has seen a three-fold increase in the number of academic institutes visiting its campus this December. While seven institutes had signed up to recruit teaching talent in 2015-16, 20 have already registered in 2016-17 round, said placement head Tom Mathew. Most are Indian universities, many of them private and deemed institutions that draw teachers from top-rung campuses.

“Close to 10% of our total recruiters are academic institutes in 2016-17, which means a lot of options for our doctoral candidates,“ said a member of the placement committee.

At IIT-Kanpur, 15 acade mic institutes have registered to choose faculty members from among the masters and PhD students.

N P Padhy , professor-in charge of training and placement at IIT-Roorkee, said they were seeing a similar trend this year. “Generally , academic institutes visit the campus after December. Six institutes or universities have already been registered this year,“ he added.

Manu Santhanam of IITMadras said that a clear picture on the exact number would emerge only next semester, as academic institutes hire until May-June. “There is no fixed time limit for them, as they are mostly interested in research scholars,“ he said.

Prakash Gopalan, vicechancellor of Thapar University, said they had been recruiting PhDs from the IITs because the students there are inclined towards research.

Sandip Jha, chairman of Sandip University , said there were plans afloat to model their engineering school on the lines of the IITs. “For that we need the best possible faculty in the country . Hence, we have empanelled ourselves with all the IITs and the NITs,“ he added.

However, the IITs have not yet seen too many international campuses travelling to pick freshers. In 2009, among the many universities shopping for faculty members was Alfaisal University from Saudi Arabia, which landed uat several IITs and offered an annual compensation of approximately Rs 17 lakh, apart from housing and other facilities. Texas A&M University , seeking to recruit for its Qatar campus, came to IIT-Madras.

The remuneration offered by Indian institutes is less than half that given by their international counterparts. A faculty member at IIT-Bombay pointed out that “a very small number of MTechs“ take up teaching jobs. “ At the end of the placement season, it will be interesting to be see how many of these universities actually get serious students,“ he added.

2016, rankings

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF): ranked No. 2

The Times of India, April 14, 2016

The rankings under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) have been carried out in four categories: Engineering, management, pharmacy and university.

There were five key parameters on which an academic institutes were assessed, these include: Teaching, learning and resources; Research, consulting and collaborative performance; Graduation outcome; Outreach and inclusivity; and Perception.

Over 3,500 institutes participated in inaugural edition of these rankings, the process for which started in December 2015.

At No. 2 on the HRD ministry's list is IIT Bombay with a weighted score of 87.67. IIT Bombay too is among the oldest IITs in the country having established in the year 1958.