BITS, Goa

Submitted by Neil Dhruva:-

Birla Institute of Technology and Science

Birla Institute of Technology and Science is an Institution declared as Deemed to be University under Sec. 3 of the UGC Act. It is currently the No. 1 ranked private institute in India, 7^th overall following the IITs. It is located in Pilani, Rajasthan, with three more campuses, one each in Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai (mainly for overseas students).

Admission:

BITS offers admission to students based on their performance in an all-India Entrance Examination called BITS Admission Test (BITSAT). The exam tests the candidate's knowledge, reasoning and analytical abilities in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, English and Logical reasoning, and is based broadly on the higher secondary curriculum in India (NCERT curriculum). To be eligible for admissions, prospective students are also required to obtain a minimum aggregate of 80% marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (subject to a minimum of 60% in each of these three subjects) in their 10+2 board exams.

BITSAT differs from the conventional written examination as it is an online exam held at more than 20 places all over India. As it is difficult for all the students (nearly 2 lakhs) to appear on a single day, this exam is conducted over a period of nearly 40 days. A candidate can choose the date of exam and the time-slot. There are around 50 sets of papers and necessary precautions are taken to maintain uniformity in the level of difficulty of all these sets.

Another very important aspect of the BITS admission model, unlike most of the other colleges in India, is that admission is purely on the basis of merit and not through any kind of reservation. Further details regarding BITSAT, admission modality etc. are provided at BITS Admissions (for students pursuing undergraduate studies).

Curriculum:

The Institute has a three-tier academic structure viz. Integrated First Degree, Higher Degree and Doctoral programmes. Each tier offers many degrees and within a degree a number of courses are offered.

Integrated First Degree (undergraduate studies):

BITS offers Integrated First Degree programmes in Bachelor of Engineering (B.E. (Hons.)), Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm (Hons.)), Master of Science (M.Sc (Hons.)), Master of Science (M.Sc (Technology)), and Master of Arts (M.A (Hons.)). Various programmes are offered with the degrees and these are classified into 3 groups A, B & C.

• Group A: Chemical, Civil, Electrical & Electronics, Mechanical, Pharmacy, Computer Science, Electronics and Instrumentation, Electronics and Communication, Manufacturing.
• Group B: Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics, Physics.
• Group C: Information Systems, General Studies, Engineering Technology, Finance.

The unique feature in the BITS education system is the option for dual degree which I am pursuing at the Goa campus. Students who opt for a degree in Group B, are offered a dual degree from Group A at the end of the first year according to their performance in the first year. In my case, I missed out on B.E. (Hons.) Computer Science at the Goa campus by a couple of marks on my BITSAT score. Thus, instead of settling for a B.E. (Hons.) degree I could get at my score, I have opted for MSc. Economics and according to my performance in the first year, I’ll be offered a B.E. (Hons.) course next year onwards, which means I get one more shot at pursuing Computer Science. I thus have a 5-year integrated course instead of 4, that’s the only difference between me and a CS student. For the first year, every student studies the same courses, so I don’t miss out on anything at all. For further details check out “More Details” at: Curriculum.

Campuses and Campus Life:

The campus at Pilani was the first to be established, followed by Goa and recently, Hyderabad. Pilani still holds priority on students’ list for admission, but Goa and Hyderabad are fast catching up.

There is no difference amongst the campuses as far as the curriculum, teaching methods and opportunities are concerned. Even the text books used for each course are the same. The only difference lies in the cut-offs, Pilani being at the top. Well, that would indeed mean the brightest of them all study at Pilani, but the campuses are not far from coming at par with each other.

I study at the Goa campus, and my experience so far has been great. Faculty in the first year hasn’t been what I expected, but for the core courses, we have some of the best teachers in the country. Each of the campuses has three events that take place during the course of the year covering cultural, sports and technical fields. At Goa, these are Waves, Spree and Quark respectively. Students from various technical institutes from all over India including the IITs and NITs participate in these events.

Along with these, we have intra-college festivals and activities taking place throughout the year. We also have departments and associations for each course like ASCII for CS, EEE Assoc. for EEE students and so on. Along with these, various clubs are run by student elected representatives and usually coordinated by a faculty member for each. These include Music Society, Dance Club, Drama Society, Literary & Debating Club, English Press Club, Rock Club, Mime Club, BITS & Bytes Computer Club etc. Students can participate in any of these clubs and their events. The representatives manage entire activities and budget of the organization beforehand and plan out events for the entire semester in advance.

There are also a number of research centres developed for students pursuing higher degree programmes. Various student chapters have also been established like Nirmaan’s Goa Chapter. Nirmaan is a non-profit organisation dedicated "To achieving a poverty free, knowledge driven and thus an economically empowered society".

Residence: It is compulsory for all students to reside in the hostels at each of the campuses throughout their time at the campus. These are pretty well maintained. For further details, refer to: BITS-Goa.

Practice School:

A very unique feature of the BITS model of education is Practice School. The Practice School (PS) system of education is essentially an effort to establish institutionalized linkages between the industrial world and the academic world. PS education establishes classrooms in the industrial world (designated as 'Practice School Stations') across the country, and even abroad. Students are drawn from all the disciplines of engineering, science and humanities. They involve themselves in problem-solving activities of direct interest and relevance to Practice Stations. This gives the students a hands-on experience of working for various companies associated with BITS (which includes giants like DreamWorks, Accenture etc.) with the knowledge gained in their college years.

The Practice School programme for the Integrated First Degree has two components, namely Practice School-I of two months duration offered during the summer following the second year of the degree and Practice School-II of five and a half months duration offered during either of the semesters of the final year of the degree. The Practice School programme for Higher Degree has a single component, namely Practice School for Higher Degree which is also of five and a half months duration and is offered in the final semester of the Higher Degree programme. Further details are provided here: Practice Schools.

Alumni Association:

The BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) over the years has increasingly contributed to its alma mater and is very active in India and abroad. The BITSAA International's primary purpose is to engage in charitable and educational activities by raising funds for setting up endowments, creating scholarships, rewarding teaching and research and generally promoting the development of resources at Birla Institute of Technology & Science at Pilani. It also aims to strengthen the ties, friendship and communications amongst former students, current students, faculty and friends of the Institute. Various initiatives have been taken up by BITS Alumni recently:

Initiative-1: BITSConnect--The Gigabit backbone was a $1.5 Million project jointly led by BITS Alumni and BITS Pilani resulting in a state-of-the-art campus wide network. This initiative provided broadband access, telephones and video conferencing abilities in every room, staff quarters & guest house, as well as wireless access in Sky lawns & the library. It also connects all the students to each other and the institutes’ computers. Instructions, lecture slides etc. are shared by the teachers with students though the intranet. Also, students share up to an average of 50TB of information (incl. sitcoms, movies, e-books etc.) round the clock along this network.

Initiative-2: The Oysters Lab(OLAB) Center for VLSI and Embedded design. In the second initiative, BITS Alumni are working with BITS Pilani to create a state-of-the-art VLSI lab. This is to provide the university with advanced computing infrastructure for Very Large Scale Integration(VLSI) and embedded design.

BITS, as I mentioned earlier, is one of the most prestigious and premier institutes of India. Students studying here belong to the cream of the country and it is an awesome feeling to be a part of this institute. You can also refer to the following website created by two students of BITS-Pilani; the forum consists of all the topics that you may require assistance with or have questions about, answered by BITS students themselves: BITS 360.