Delhi Technological University
Delhi Technological University, formerly known as the Delhi College of Engineering is a state university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1941 as Delhi Polytechnic. The institute has been under the Government of Delhi since 1963 and was affiliated with the University of Delhi from 1952 to 2009. In 2009, the college was given university status, thus changing its name to Delhi Technological University.
History
Delhi Polytechnic
The seeds of Delhi Polytechnic were sowed by the Wood and Abbott Committee of 1938. It was established as Delhi Polytechnic in 1941. The technical school was created to cater to the demands of Indian industries. At that time, Delhi Polytechnic offered courses in Arts, Architecture, Commerce, Engineering, Applied Science and Textiles. Walter William Wood, the father of technical education in India, became the founder Principal of Delhi Polytechnic. It was Delhi's first engineering college and amongst the few engineering institutions in India set up prior to independence.The National Diploma awarded by Delhi Polytechnic was considered an equivalent to the B.E. Degree by the then UPSC. B.E. degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Textile Engineering were awarded to the students under Faculty of Technology, the University of Delhi since 1952. A B.E. degree in Civil Engineering was introduced in 1955. In addition to merit of the qualifying examination, tests and/or interviews were held for the selection of candidates for admission.
Delhi College of Engineering
Up till 1962, the college was under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, Government of India. Since 1963, Delhi Polytechnic was taken over by the then Delhi Administration and Chief Commissioner Delhi was the ex-officio chairman of the college. It later became a college of the Union Territory of Delhi. In 1963, Department of Arts became the College of Arts and Department of Commerce & Business Administration was converted to several institutes of Commerce & Secretarial Practices. Fragmentation of Delhi Polytechnic ultimately left behind an engineering institute alone. In 1962, the college was affiliated with University of Delhi. In 1965, the Delhi Polytechnic was renamed as Delhi College of Engineering and became the first engineering college of Delhi, Now it is called Delhi technological university.B.E. degree course in Production & Industrial Engineering was started in 1988 while B.E. degree course in Computer Engineering was started in 1989. B.E. degree level courses were started in Polymer Science & Chemical Technology and Environment Engineering in 1998. Information technology played a vital role during this era and the beginning of new millennium witnessed the introduction of B.E. in Information Technology in 2002. B.E. in Bio-Technology was introduced from the academic session 2004-2005.
The Department of Architecture of the Delhi College of Engineering became the School of Planning and Architecture, now a Deemed University and Institution of National importance. The Department of Arts and Sculpture became College of Arts and the Departments of Chemical Technology and Textile Technology were shifted out en-block to mark the beginning of the IIT Delhi at its new campus at Hauz Khas. The Department of Commerce was later abolished and the Faculty of Management Studies of the University of Delhi was established by Prof. A. Das Gupta, of DCE. Delhi Administration established Delhi Institute of Technology in 1985 and the new college was established under the patronage of Delhi College of Engineering. DCE shared its campus with NSIT at Kashmiri Gate campus, although later, NSIT was shifted to Dwarka as a follow-up of the Wood and Abott Committee of 1938. Delhi College of Engineering is thus the mother institution of a number of national institutes including Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, College of Art, Delhi and Faculty of Management Studies.
DCE-DTU Reconstitution and related protests in 2009-10
In July 2009, Delhi College of Engineering was upgraded to a state university and renamed Delhi Technological University, through the Delhi Technological University Bill, 2009. P. B. Sharma was nominated as the university's first Vice-Chancellor. The move was met with student protests over the erosion of the DCE brand which culminated to a face-off in March 2010, with the students boycotting the mid-semester exams, and demanding reconsideration of the change and replacement of the VC. However, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit informed the students that the change will not be reconsidered, and by the end of March the protest dwindled down, with the students taking their exams. In April 2010 Times City reported that the government will be willing to change the name to "DCE Technological University", however, as of 2018 the university name remains unchanged till date.Campuses
Delhi Technological University operated from the Kashmiri Gate campus in the heart of Old Delhi until 1989, when construction began at the New Campus at Bawana Road in May. Moving of operations from Kashmiri Gate to the new 164 acres at Bawana Road began in 1995, and the new campus formally started classes for all four years of study starting 1999.The new DTU campus is well connected by road. Facilities include a library, a computer center, a sports complex, eight boys' hostels, six girls' hostels, and a married couples' hostel. The campus has residential facilities for faculty and staff. The campus has an auditorium and two open-air theatres out of which one is called the OAT and the other is called the Mini OAT.
In 2010, the DTU came up with a plan to make the campus environment friendly which included, barring entry of vehicles in the campus, generation of one-third of the energy from alternative sources and on designing new buildings as per "green architecture concept".
DTU has opened up a campus in Vivek Vihar, East Delhi named "University School of Management and Entrepreneurship " in 2017. The new campus offers management courses for graduation and post graduation. Currently, the USME, east campus of DTU offers courses in MBA, MBA business analytics, BBA, and BA in Economics.
USME offers 60 seats for MBA students and 30 seats for MBA business analytics program.
Admission to MBA is decided by CAT score and further by rigorous group discussion and personal interviews. Moreover, there are 120 seats for BBA and BA Economics each. The admission to the courses is merit-based.
Admissions
The admission towards a full-time Bachelor of Technology degree in DTU is through the Joint Admission Counselling Delhi process, on the basis of All India Rank secured in the Joint Entrance Examination – Main examination.Admission of foreign students in DTU is through the Direct Admission of Students Abroad scheme. Admission to the BTech programme at DTU is based on marks secured by the candidates in the State Diploma Examination. Admissions to the evening studies programme is based on a Common Entrance Examination.
Admission towards a postgraduate degree at DTU is based on performance in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering qualifying exam. If two or more candidates have the same GATE score, then percentage in qualifying undergraduate courses shall decide the merit. No separate test or interview is conducted by the university. However, for the NRIs, Foreign Nationals and Persons of Indian Origin the admission is made on the basis of merit/score in Graduate Record Examination. The medium of instruction for all the courses at the university is English.
Admissions to the Bachelor of Design program at DTU are taken on the basis of UCEED score.
Admissions in MBA program at DTU are based on Common Admission Test exam, followed by a group discussion and an interview.
Academics
DTU offers courses towards Bachelor of Technology, Bachelor of Technology, Bachelor of Arts Economics, Bachelor of Design, Master of Technology, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy,Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Business Administration.Research
Students at DTU participate in projects such as design and development of a Formula SAE car, Unmanned Ground Vehicle, SAE Mini Baja, ASME HPV, Hybrid Car, solar car, unmanned aerial vehicles, innovative embedded devices appreciated worldwide and setting up a plant for manufacturing Biodiesel.Pioneered by the Defianz Racing team participating in the Formula Student competition, many student teams collaborate with universities from other countries and actively participate in international and national competitions. The college also came up with the development of a Personalised Mover - Mitra,. Delhi College of Engineering is one of the TIFAC COREs in Fiber Optics and Optical Communication. Also, Students of Delhi College of Engineering have made it top-15 Worldwide slots in the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2007 and 2008
The technical team UAS-DTU has been exceptionally successful, designing and building a prototype UAV, the Aarush X-1 with funding and mentorship from Lockheed Martin, USA. It also stood third in the AUVSI Student Unmanned Air System Competition,2012. The team has developed several prototype UAVs and expands its UAV count each year.
The solar car team, DTU Solaris was the first solar electric vehicle team in the country to have developed a two-seater passenger solar electric vehicle Arka " in 2012. Its previous design - Avenir won the Most Economical Car Award in WSC 2011.
The campus at DTU has been proposed as one of the sites for the Delhi Government's plan of creating Delhi a Research and IT hub. A Knowledge Park at DTU has been set up as part of better infrastructure for Delhi.
DTU had been selected by Intel Technology Pvt. Ltd. to join Planet Lab Consortium that has the world's top universities and industrial research labs like Princeton University, University of Washington and NEC Labs as its members.
DTU organises various events/conferences/seminars throughout the year so that students from other Engineering institutes/organisations can also get benefited. Societies like ASME, SAE, IEEE, IET, MACS etc. frequently organise such events.
The largest waste-to-energy plant in any educational institution in North India is operational in DTU. The University is now building a sewage treatment plant on its 164-acre campus in Rohini, Delhi.
Team DTU Super mileage took part in Shell Eco-marathon, part of the inaugural Make the Future India festival in Chennai, held at the Madras Motor Race Track. In the Urban Concept internal combustion engine category, they clocked 154kpl in their vehicle.A total of 20 teams participated in the event, under two categories: Prototype and Urban Concept.
UAS-DTU won the first spot for ‘Flying Formation Challenge’ at the Drone Olympics at biennial Aero India Show 2019. UAS-DTU also received prize money of Rs. 5 lakh including a developmental kit from Lockheed Martin and would further be trained for the AlphaPilot, an open innovation challenge in the US. They also exhibited a stall under the R&D Department of the Indian Air Force.
Scholarships and awards
Scholarships at DTU are available for students beginning their first year at the college, which are awarded on the basis of their performance in subjects. Another award is given to two final year students on the basis of merit, sponsoring their tuition for the purpose of pursuing MBA at the Raj Soin College of Business, Wright State University.Rankings
Among engineering colleges, Delhi Technological University was ranked 2nd by Times Engineering Rankings 2019, 17th by Outlook India in 2019. It was ranked 9th among colleges by India Today in 2020. The National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked it 36th in the engineering ranking of 2020.Student life and culture
DTU organises its own cultural and academic festivals. While the cultural festivals are a break from studies and comprise events such as music concerts and fashion shows, the academic festivals form a common platform for students and academicians across the country to meet and showcase research.The cultural festival of DTU, Engifest is held every year in February. Engifest plays host to a variety of events like star night, rock shows, plays, dances, drag shows and others. In the past Engifest has been celebrated by likes of Euphoria, Parikrama, Indian Ocean, and through performances by renowned artistes like Amit Trivedi, Sidhu Moosewala Raftaar, Sunidhi Chauhan, Divine, Nucleya, Mohit Chauhan, Vishal, Shekhar etc.
The fest season of the University Begins in January and End in March. Yuvaan, Literature & Film Festival is the first fest of the festive season in the third week of January. Followed by the TechFest Invictus & the Cultural Fest, EngiFest follows suit in the second week of February. March experiences the Sports Fest, Aahvaan.
DTU also has a variety of technical festivals celebrated in the same month by various departments. Innova is the annual technical festival of DCE organised by the Civil and Mechanical Department in association with ASME, SEM and SAE. The DelTech MUN is an academic simulation of the United Nations, where delegates debate on world issues and international policies. TROIKA is the festival organised by the IEEE student's branch. The IEEE student's branch also established www.ieeedtu.com, a student resource portal, for the benefit of the engineering student community. IOSD -International Organisation of Software Developers is currently the largest student-based organisation. IOSD DTU organises a hackathon, named SYNERGY, every year. The Department of Computer Engineering and the Computers Society of India have their annual technical fest Cogenesis. Renaissance is a technical fest organised by the IET student chapter of DCE. Tatva is an annual technical symposium organised by the Department of Polymer Science and Chemical Technology in association with SPE. KARYON is the annual tech-fest of DCE organised by Biotechnology department.
E-Summit is an event aimed to advocate entrepreneurship among students, with leadership lectures and panel discussions involving various stalwarts from the industry. It is conducted by the Entrepreneurship Development Cell of DTU, generally in February.
Resonance is a collage of assorted literary and managerial events and serves as a stage for showcasing the talents of the students in fields other than science and engineering. The arena is the annual Sports Meet of the Delhi College of Engineering, and Virasat is the name for a host of cultural events organised by SPIC MACAY. Pratibimb is the dramatics club of DTU.
Excelsior is a fest organised by Society of Robotics, DTU. It was founded in 2013.
DTU has a chapter of Stanford University's Asia Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society whose mission is to educate and network the future leaders in business, technology and the Asia-Pacific in order to foster a global entrepreneurship society.
DTU was also host to the 2015 ASME's International Human Powered Vehicle Challenge India.
DTU also annually host TEDx talks since 2015 called "TEDxDTU". Since its conception, it has had a line-up of speakers which include Richa Chadda, Akasa Singh, Ankur Warikoo, Alisha Abdullah and Monica Dogra.
2019-20 Online End Term Examination Protests
DTU saw online protests in June-July 2020 amid the decision of the administration to conduct AI proctored online end term examination amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The protests saw #cancelDTUexams trend on Twitter for over 2 weeks with articles in media outlets Education Times,Navbharat Times,Hindustan,India TV,Careers 360. Students also came out with online petitions to voice their concerns.Students have sighted that conducting exams of intermediate semesters is a clear violation of UGC guidelines. Other reasons sighted by students are lack of resources, incomplete syllabus after lock down,internships & skill development courses, mental stress, online exams not being conducted by top engineering institutes like IITs, for cancellation of exams. Students also claim that when the university already has the result of past semesters, internal assessment,mid term examination then why can't a provisional result be declared on that basis and those who aren't satisfied can appear later. The credibility of online examinations is debatable,students claimed.
As per an article in Navbharat Times,The Vice Chancellor of DTU Prof Yogesh Singh claimed that if students make up their mind for the exam they will provide them with all resources.This claim was further disputed by the students who said that the university wasn't actually providing them with any resources upon being approached & was rather asking them to come to the Campus and appear for the exams which isn't at all feasible seeing the rising no. of COVID-19 cases in the capital.
The Controller of Examination has claimed to the Education Times that Majority of Students want to appear in the online examination, a claim which further fueled the protests as students claimed that it was completely baseless.
The protests finally ended on 11th July'20 with the press release of the Deputy CM cancelling all exams in State Universities of Delhi.
On 14th July'20,more than 3 days after the press release of the Govt of NCT of Delhi, the DTU administration finally released the official notification confirming the cancellation.Even this delay in the official notice lead to student outrage on social media for the mentioned time period.