IIT-H to have more students, teachers

• New courses to be introduced in phased manner
• Japan aid mostly for infrastructure development
• Total shift to new campus by 2015

Five years ahead, IIT Hyderabad will be full of activity, not just on academic front but on improving the infrastructure facilities, thanks to the massive loan offered by Government of Japan during the recent trip by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 'The fledgling academic institution is all set to be on par with the seven older IITs in the country, if our plans go ahead without any hitch in the coming few years', several senior faculty members, told The Hans India on Thursday. Japan has been our principal financier and a team from Union government and civil engineering experts from older IITs will visit the institution's new campus at 576-acre area near Kandi village in Medak district in the next few weeks to assess the pace of work and submit a report to the Centre to speed up measures, they said. IIT-H has been running at a temporary campus located near Ordnance Factory, Eddumailaram in the district since its inception in 2008. The amount Japan offered i.e. Rs 870 crores is the highest to any single Indian institution by any foreign nation in recent memory. Plans are afoot to build not only new buildings for various departments; the institution will be turned into a prominent, world-class research hub. "Since no good research centre in engineering education is there in Hyderabad, IIT-H will be transformed to cater the needs of those who set their eyes on research activity. The research park will be the best one on whole of South India," a top faculty told The Hans India. The institution has already more than 150 research scholars continuing their activity in various disciplines.

Japan has been actively involved in a research project 'Information Network for Natural Disaster Mitigation and Recovery' � a joint collaborative project � for which the Japanese government has given financial assistance of Rs 20.00 crore. The on-going 60 sponsored projects worth Rs 100 cr and is expected to grow in the coming years, according to top managers. The student strength, at present just around 1100, is expected to grow up to 7500 by 2018. The faculty strength would also swell accordingly- to 750 from the present 100 members. The total shift to the new campus is likely by June 2015, according to an estimate. Some more courses will be added up in the coming few years. The institution's summer special course, the third one in this summer alone, has just started. It is aimed at inculcating scientific and mathematical bent of mind among the young, budding science aspirants. This will end on July 19. New courses will be introduced in phased manner and by 2018; the institution will have everything on par with older IITs. A certificate course on foundations of predictive analytics at CSE department is introduced.