Madras Institute of Technology M.Tech Review By Davkaran Rav

I always thought that studying at Madras Institute of Technology is no less than a privilege. Many features about the college will make you go awe for the college. The list of illustrious alumni such as Abdul Kalam is enough to prove the mettle of the college. MIT Chennai has won various awards and is an A grade college by NAAC. Rankings and all don’t tell the exact picture as to know about the college the review is not enough, you should study there to know what it feels like studying there. One thing noticeable here was there were just a few North Indians while engineering colleges in Bangalore have them in abundance. The state or the Chennai city needs to develop that culture where students don’t feel alone or an outsider. I was from their neighboring state still I knew I was treated differently. If this part of the college is sorted then trust me you won’t find a college like this in the country. Students here have the opportunity to develop any skills that they want. The events, the fests, and all are done from ground zero level by the students. One just has to get involved and they can see a major change in their personality.

M.Tech is one of the toughest courses and I know I had to study like hell because the course was vast and the projects and assignments made sure that I have to be with my books at least for 6 hours after spending 8 hours in the college. The college is affiliated with Anna University but MIT has introduced its own internal marking system which takes various factors into consideration. Attendance obviously and then the attention that one pays in the class is all noted by the faculty.

IIT Chennai has played a major role in the development of MIT. Most of the faculty holds their degrees from there and some of them also have teaching experience at IIT. They are free to share the knowledge and one can learn as much as they want from them. They will channelize your potential in the right direction and to develop the skills which clubs should you join will also be advised by them. Not just academic development but personal development is what the faculty believed in. Three cheers for the wonderful faculty of MIT.

The time has changed as Chennai is no longer cement or tyres manufacturing hub. IT has taken over and all the listed IT companies be it Mphasis, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, or Hexaware they all have their offices in Chennai, and nearly 2 lakhs IT professionals work in Chennai. All the mentioned names were the biggest recruiters and took the students in volumes as the Indian IT space is growing. The average placement for all was around 10 lakhs and it is as good as any IITs or NITs. MIT is one of the favourites of the corporate and in the last 4-5 years, MIT has given Chennai’s IT sector more engineers than any other college.

The college has 6 boys’ hostels named Amravathy Hostel, Birla Hostel, and Bhavani Hostel. There are 3 more boys’ hostel buildings that are in the vicinity of the college. Birla Hostel is for final year students and Bhavani for the first year. Each floor of the Birla hostel had 6 rooms on double sharing and there were 4 bathrooms in all. Likewise, there are also 4 girls' hostels out of which one is the NRI girl’s hostel. Girl’s hostels are also divided as per year. There are over 1000 students who stay in the boy’s hostel and the mess was so huge that it can accommodate them all at a go. Madras Institute of Technology Hostel timings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was fixed and beyond that no food was served in the mess.

MIT Campus Chennai is spread in 28 acres and Annexure (Rani Thottam) is also the college’s property where many hostels and a sports ground is developed. Annexure is just a kilometer away from the college and is well maintained. On the main campus, there are blocks for all departments and the CS department block was named Charles Babage block. The library was old-fashioned and many blocks are also quite old. The conference hall has been modified and is now among the most advanced hall on the campus. The college has an entire building that is the server building as all the data of the college and the security system is controlled through that building. For the CS department, there were 2 labs, one was a programming lab and the other one was a multi-core lab. A high-performance computing lab was being built and hopefully, it should be ready now. The sports ground has an even covering of grass and we used to play cricket, hockey, and football on that ground.

Life at the campus was good though we were timely reminded that we are outsiders. The seniors in the college played a mentor role and the baton was passed to us when we entered the 2nd year. The fests were different from Bangalore but nice. The technical part was more sorted and students had more power here. Freehand on all the endeavors that we do and it was more freedom at MIT. I wish I had more time to enjoy the campus life because studies never allowed me to give that extra energy to other things I wished I could do.