ABOUT ROORKEE
Roorkee town (Longitude : E770 53' 52" and latitude : N290 52' 00". Average elevation: 268 meters above the mean sea level) is situated 30 Kms south of lower Himalayan range and is in the district Haridwar of Uttarakhand State. It is considered to be the gateway to pilgrimage centres of many renowned places like Haridwar, Rishikesh and hill stations such as Mussoorie. Roorkee is well connected by roads and trains falls on Dehradun-Saharnpur rail link. Roorkee is located at 180 Kms northeast of New Delhi, the capital of India. There are frequent and regular bus services, deluxe/ordinary, throughout the day untill midnight, from Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT), New Delhi. Taxi service is also available from Indira Gandhi International Airport, Ajmeri Gate and ISBT. Road transport services between Delhi and Dehradun and between Delhi and Haridwar run through Roorkee. It is also connected by rail from New Delhi. A fully air-conditioned superfast train Shatabdi Express and another superfast train Janshatabdi run between New Delhi and Dehradun with a halt at Roorkee. The minimum and maximum temperature during February varies between 50C to 220C. Delegates are advised to bring warm clothing.
ABOUT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee is the successor of the University of Roorkee and is the oldest technical institution of the Indian sub-continent. It was established as the Roorkee College in 1847 and rechristened as the Thomson College of Civil Engineering in 1854. Recognizing its yeoman contribution for the development of the country for over 100 years. This temple of learning was elevated to the status of a University, the first technical university in India in 1949. The University of Roorkee was converted to IIT Roorkee by the Government of India on September 21, 2001, thereby further elevating it to an institute of national importance. Over the years, it has built up and maintained an excellent academic reputation. The outstanding achievements of its alumni especially in the field of water related subjects are a testimony to this. The IIT Roorkee has academic departments in the area of Engineering, Sciences, Architecture and Planning, Management studies and Humanities and Social Sciences besides many centres of higher education and research.
ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
The Electrical Engineering Department was part of the Thomson College of Engineering from the year 1897, one of the earliest such specialization in the world when the discipline itself was in its infancy. The first batch in Electrical Engineering passed out of the college in the year 1900. The department was closed down in the year 1923, following the recommendation of a special committee that the college may be converted to purely Civil Engineering Institution. This decision was not to be reversed until on the eve of being converted into a University. The Fortescu committee advised the resumption of instructions in Electrical Engineering and the present department of Electrical Engineering came into being in 1946, and the first graduates of the new department offered courses with options in both Electrical & Telecommunication Engineering Subsequently, in 1964, the department was bifurcated to form the two departments of Electrical Engineering and Electronics & Communication Engineering.
The department had also started post graduate programme in 1954, one of the earliest programme in the country, offering nine month's diploma in Electrical Machine Design. Another 3 month's dissertation work converted the diploma to ME Degree. In 1963-64, two ME Course on advanced Electrical Machines & Power System Engg. were added on the recommendation of Thacker Committee and the earlier one was dropped. Later two more ME Course on System Engg. & Operations Research and Measurement & Instrumentation were added. The renamed and reorganised courses now are:
- Instrumentation & Signal Processing
- Electric Drives & Power Electronics
- Power System Engineering
- Systems & Control