National Institute of Technology

Jul 07, 2023

NITC undergoes major curriculum revamp

More interdisciplinary opportunities on cards for students with activity-oriented learning

National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC), is gearing up to introduce a revamped curriculum for the new academic year starting from 2023 for all B.Tech, B.Arch, M. Tech, M.Sc, M.Plan and MBA programmes in line with the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020. The academic council proposes new courses and a revamped curriculum with an aim to meet all the modern industry demands.

The revamped syllabi for various programmes have become a reality after a year-long review and revision by the Institute’s curriculum revision committees. The process has been completed with the support of industries, recruiters, faculty, alumni and students.

The curriculum revamp is expected to offer more interdisciplinary opportunities to students, said Prof. Prasad Krishna, Director, NIT Calicut. It will equally ensure active and practical-oriented learning and bring industrial and social changes to the classrooms, he said.

B.Tech & B.Arch

NITC has also introduced significant changes in its BTech & B.Arch curriculum to give thrust to interdisciplinary courses, laboratory and experiment-oriented learning and academic projects in collaboration with industries, R&D labs and other reputed academic institutions in India and abroad.

“NIT Calicut is going to be the first Institute in the country among all IITs and NITs to scrap the common first-year engineering programme for all branches of studies followed for decades,” said Dr. Sameer S.M. Dean (Academic). This will help them familiarise themselves with the new industry landscape arising out of Industry 4.0 and other major developments in the current decade from their first year of study,” he said.

Minor degree programmes

The Minor programmes will help students complete four courses offered by various departments/centres. On completion of these courses, the students will be conferred with a minor degree apart from the degree in their major stream.

NIT Calicut will offer minor degrees in cutting-edge technological areas such as Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Alternative Energy Technology, Cyber Physical Systems, Robotics and Automation, Smart Mobility and Electric Vehicle Engineering, Geoinformatics, Building Systems Engineering, Entrepreneurship & Business Analytics, Computational Biology, Photonics & Optical Engineering and Molecular Modeling and Simulation.

Open Electives

Students can opt for open electives offered by other departments and the thematic centres of the institute. This includes language and communication training and other technical courses. Academic, co-curricular and extracurricular activities will get thrust with the revision.

PG Programmes

The Institute has revised the curricula of 26 M.Tech programs and 3 MSc programs apart from M.Plan and MBA programs. Two new M.Tech programmes will also begin this academic namely,

(i) M.Tech in AI

A new Post Graduate programme in Computer Science and Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics is being introduced from this academic year identifying the significance of AI and data analytics in the changing IT scenario. It will be offered as a self-sponsored programme, for students with diverse backgrounds such as engineering and sciences in any specialization.

(ii) M.Tech in Electric Vehicle

Aimed to attract working professionals, this MTech programme will be offered online by the Electrical Engineering Department. Candidates can complete the course with an industry sponsorship or self-sponsorship.

PhD

The NITC has also revamped its doctoral programmes. The Senate of the Institute has decided to offer PhD programmes with and without fellowship to students through multiple schemes. A unique, first-in-the-country, external direct PhD scheme is introduced to provide opportunities to scientists and engineers in R&D labs and industries without post-graduation, to pursue their PhD, along with their regular job.

This is designed to foster greater collaborative research between our faculty members and experts in industries and research laboratories, Dr. Sameer S. M., Dean (Academic) said. The institute is planning to introduce all the new changes in the forthcoming academic year, he added.

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