The first yearites have come to town and that can only mean dress codes, proctorial staff, seniors looking out for the new sizzlers and so on .This time around though, besides all the usual stuff, what is being watched with equal intrigue is how the introduction of various new streams and changes in syllabi will work out.
Dual degree courses have been introduced in Ceramics, Civil, Computer Science, Metallurgy, Mechanical and Material Science. Besides this five year integrated M-Tech courses in engineering physics, mathematics and scientific computing as well as industrial chemistry have commenced in line with the IIT model.
This has resulted in a staggering number of seats (499 students joined this year), resulting in more sizzlers to look out for as well as pushing the 2nd yearites into double rooms.
The first year syllabus has also undergone quite a drastic change with Technical Writing and the much dreaded Mechanics Lab making way for Professional Communication, Computer Lab and Environmental Science. Engineering & Machine drawing have been compressed into a single course lasting the duration of a semester.
What the end result will be with all these changes is a guess that chronicle does not wish to hazard into right now.
Chronicle managed to catch up with a few first-yearites (legitimately and legally) and asked them about their first impressions.
There was virtual unanimity regarding the splendor of the campus with a lot of them even daring to wander about to take in the sights and sounds (they even wanted the institute to arrange for transportation to take them around the campus).
Internet seems to have been the answer to the usually received complaints about facilities and infrastructure, as most of them said that what was on offer was pretty satisfactory.
Barring a minor complaint or two about the faculty in some departments most of them were at ease in the university and were impressed with the cooperative faculty, food provided in the mess and the efficiency of the anti-ragging squad.(seniors-heard that?)
The only problem or shortcoming that they seemed to be able to think about was the frequent power cuts, not surprising for this time of the season.
Anyway chronicle wishes that their life in the university passes off without any cuts, and takes this opportunity to welcome all first yearites to the institute.