M.Tech in Chemical Engineering:Industrial Biotechnology

The Department of Chemical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Karnataka is one of the oldest in this leading Engineering Institute. It was started in the year 1965 with the assistance of UNESCO, MHRD Government of India and the Government of Karnataka and ranked one of the top Chemical Engineering Departments in India by National Board of Accreditation. The Department owes a lot to the vision of its founder Head of Department Prof. MG Subba Rau.

The Department has a sanctioned student intake of 35 for UG. The students are admitted on the basis of their performance in AIEEE examination conducted by CBSE. There are 3 Post-Graduate courses currently in Industrial Pollution Control, Chemical Plant Design and Industrial Biotechnology. Currently there are 140 students enrolled for UG courses and 150 for PG courses.

The Department boasts of well-qualified and experienced faculty. Prof. M. B. Saidutta, a 1981 batch alumnus of NITK, is leading the Department as the Head since 1st September,2009. Prof. DVR Murthy ( Dean P&D), Prof. Srinikethan (Dean AA) and Prof.Gopal Mugeraya (Chief Warden) are senior faculty at the department and have been at the Department for more than 25 years. Dr. Vidya Shetty, Dr. Rajamohan, Ms. Gangamma, Mr. Prasanna, Dr. I. Regupati, Mr. Jitendrapal and Dr. Jagadeeshbabu are the other faculty in the department.

The Department has well equipped state-of-art laboratories to compliment the theoretical coursework. Other than the conventional Momentum transfer, Mass Transfer, Heat Transfer and Control Labs, there are various advanced labs. The Advanced Instrumentation Lab, Industrial Pollution Control Lab, Biotechnology lab, Fermentation Technology and Testing and consultancy labs are some of them. The Industrial Biotechnology Center developed and nurtured under the DST's TIFAC-CORE project with the grant of Rs. 2.1 crores, is a premier workplace for Industrial Biotechnology. some of the advanced equipments were procured and mantained under TEQUIP and DST-FIST programmes.

The testing and consulting service provided by the Department faculty for the near by Industries and other Govt. organizations has brought Industry - Institute collaboration to a higher platform. More than Rs. 20 lakhs/year revenue is generated through the testing and consultancy services.

Students from the department are recruited by multinational IT companies as well as Core companies. Engineers India Ltd, Indian Oil Company, HLS Asia Ltd, Bharat Petroleum, Essar Group, Technimont ICB, Thermax are some of the leading recruiters from the Department. Of late, a large number of students have started applying to USA, Canada and European Union for higher education. A whooping 35% of the B.Tech and M.Tech students have been offered MS and PhD opportunities at various reputed universities in USA, Canada , EU and Australia.