Affiliated with the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, BNM Institute of Technology, Bangalore (estb. 2001) has earned an excellent reputation for academic and extra-curricular education

Sited on a five-acre campus in south Bangalore (pop. 9 million), BNM Institute of Technology (BNMIT, estb. 2001) has established an enviable academic reputation with its students consistently bagging top ranks in university examinations. Affiliated with the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum which has 186 engineering colleges statewide under its umbrella, since 2006, 22 BNMIT students have secured the top 10 ranks in VTU exams. In the exam conducted in June 2011, 12 students of the institute were top-ranked.

Promoted in 2001 under the banner of BNM Educational Institutions (BNMEI), founded by Bhageerathi Bai Narayana Rao Maanay Charities, a trust constituted by N. Raghunath Rao Maanay in 1972 which also administers three schools and two colleges with an aggregate enrolment of 5,000 students, BNM Institute of Technology, Bangalore offers six undergraduate and five postgraduate programmes in engineering and management to 2,200 students instructed by 190 faculty. Recently, the institute introduced M.Tech programmes in electrical, electronics and communications and computer science engineering, as well as postgraduate programmes in business administration, and has also established research centres for training and mentoring doctoral students.

“It’s a matter of great satisfaction to us that in the short span of 11 years, we have been able to build an excellent academic reputation, and that our students are topping VTU exams. This has become possible because from inception, we focused on recruiting highly-qualified faculty who offer personalised teaching — our teacher-student ratio is 1:13 — and all our departments are headed by professors with Ph Ds. We have 30 professors with doctorates and 30 more have registered for Ph Ds. Moreover, no expense or effort has been spared to build an excellent academic infrastructure, sports facilities and an array of extra-curricular activities. Our institutional credo is continuous improvement and constant innovation and upgradation of our study programmes. Recently we signed an MoU with the University of Alabama, USA, under which ten of our MBA students will visit the latter under an annual exchange programme. Improvement of campus facilities is also a top priority and construction of a 900-seat auditorium is nearing completion,” says T.J. Ramamurthy, director of the institute. An alumnus of the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Ramamurthy worked with R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, for almost 30 years (1973-2001) before signing up with BNM Institute of Technology, Bangalore as its first principal.

According to Ramamurthy who has successfully engineered BNMIT’s infrastructure and academic expansion over the past decade, the institute’s distinguishing feature is the provision of soft skills training to its students. All final year students of BNMIT, irrespective of specialisation, have to compulsorily participate in a six-week programme conducted by Loratis, a soft skills training company. “The objective is to produce well-rounded engineering graduates who possess not only excellent domain and subject knowledge but also good communication and inter-personal skills — an imperative to succeed in the global jobs marketplace,” he says, adding that the institute has also signed MoUs with the RV-VLSI Design Centre and Infosys’ Campus Connect initiative, under which engineering students receive supplementary education.

This emphasis on thoroughly preparing students for the workplace explains the excellent campus placement record of this 11-year-old engineering college. In the academic year 2010-11, 378 students received job offers at annual salaries ranging between Rs.3-7.5 lakh from blue-chip companies such as Accenture, HCL, IBM, Infotech, Mind Tree, Nokia, Oracle, Sasken, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro.

BNMIT’s academic and student development initiatives are supported by massive investment in infrastructure. The campus boasts 40 classrooms; a library and information centre with 1,400 volumes, 1,300 CD-ROMS, and subscriptions to over 110 national and 40 international journals; and 43 laboratories with 650 computers.

Separate on-campus hostel facilities are provided for 235 men and women students. Sports facilities include tennis, badminton, basketball, and squash courts, and a well-equipped gym. On-campus clubs such as the nature club organise biking and trekking expeditions while students are encouraged to join academic fraternities such as the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) student chapter, Association of Computer Science and Information Science (ACSIS), BNMIT Electronics and Telecommunication Association (BETA) and the Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (AEEE).

While keeping abreast of new technologies and pedagogies and expanding the institute’s academic menu are priority areas, of late the management’s energies are directed towards developing BNMIT’s research eco-system to foster innovation and bridge the knowledge gap between industry and academia. “We intend to introduce BE civil engineering and M.Tech mechanical engineering programmes shortly. The institute has also planned a series of international conferences in electrical communications and computer science engineering to stimulate research and development. We hope these conferences will motivate faculty and students to enroll in postgraduate programmes and take to R&D activities. Our goal is to fully equip our graduates with the required skills to adapt to workplace challenges and become industry-ready when they graduate,” says Ramamurthy.

Rutaksha Rawat (Bangalore)