The glorious journey called B.P. Poddar Institute of Management & Technology, started in 1999. It was an educational initiative of B.P. Poddar foundation group, located on VIP road near Calcutta International Airport. The main goal of this initiative was to encourage the students of this city to learn technology. At the very start, this institute was affiliated to Kalyani University in 1999. But after that it managed to get the affiliation of west Bengal University of technology in 2000. Eventually it got to expand itself in another campus which is located at Saltlake. The courses offered by BPPIMT are electronics and communication engineering (ECE), electrical engineering (EE), computer science and engineering (CSE), information technology (IT), master of computer application (MCA), bachelor of computer application (BCA) and bachelor of business administration (BBA). Last two of the mentioned courses are taught in the Saltlake campus. This institute has been a very significant engineering college in this city since last 10 years.
Talking about the departments of subjects, the courses offered have been already mentioned. The electronics and communication engineering and the computer science and engineering or I can say the ECE and the CSE departments respectively have the highest capacity of students that is of 120. Then there are electrical engineering and the information technology departments having the capacity of 60 students each. The MCA takes in 300 post grad students each year. As for the Saltlake campus, both the BCA and the BBA department have a capacity of 120 students each. In comparison with other engineering colleges in Kolkata, BPPIMT might be comprises of only four bachelor level departments, but it never compromise with the quality of study culture. This goes for the Saltlake campus as well. The whole college premises have three building in total among which the departments are segregated. Block A of VIP road campus is mainly the administrative building. All the official works take place in there. The ECE and the EE departments are allotted to Block B. the other three departments that is the CSE, IT and the MCA are in Block C.
After all these “departmental” talks, comes the most important part of any educational body that is its faculty member. It is said that A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. The faculty members are really like that. They are extremely knowledgeable.40% of the faculty members are PhD scholars. The way they teach the students it seems like they are teaching their own children. They always stand right there whenever a student faces any kind of problem with studies. Actually not only studies, they counsel their student in any kind of difficulties. They feel proud when any of their students achieve something. They encourage the students to do something to serve the society. They are very cooperating as well. According to some students, they felt proud that they chose this college because the faculty members seemed like parents. And according to me, if the faculty members of any educational institute are of good quality, then the quality of study environment gets to improve automatically. BPPIMT is a very good example of that.
Speaking of a good environment of learning, a good classroom is a key factor. And BPPIMT is indeed blessed with this factor. The classrooms are like halls having the capacity of approximately 70 students each. Each classroom consists of 5 windows in average. Because of this, classrooms are very airy and full of light. Not only that, each classroom has 10 ceiling fans and tube lights of same number. I have doubts whether other colleges have classrooms like BPPIMT’s. There are total 27 classrooms in this institution. Most interestingly there are 7 more rooms for conducting extra classes; these are called the tutorial rooms. All the classrooms have white boards for the board work purpose. There are enough arrangements to set up a projector and conduct a “Smart Classroom”. Each final year classrooms have separate platform and microphone availability so that is becomes easier for project presentation. According to me, for every student, a classroom is a place where all the memories remain confined. And in case of BPPIMTians, the classrooms memories are as beautiful as the classrooms.
Learning technology or some technical subjects is not at all an easy task. For a good engineer, it is not enough to have only theoretical knowledge. They need to possess some practical knowledge as well. They need to know the ways they can implement their theoretical learnings in real life. Hence, it is obvious that a good engineering institute needs to have a number of good technical laboratories. And I must say, BPPIMT actually have those!
The important labs engaged in CSE and IT are Operating System Lab, Artificial Intelligence Lab, Object Oriented Programming Lab, Software Tools Lab., DBMS Lab, Project Lab, Introduction to Computing Lab, Computer Network Lab, Computer Architecture Lab, Computer Organization Lab, Software Engg. Lab, Internet Technology Lab., Design Lab., Programming Practices using C++, Data Structure & Algorithm Lab., Numerical Analysis Lab., Design & Analysis of Algorithm. This variety of labs helps the students to get a very wide idea of industrial working methods.
For ECE as well there are a large number of laboratories where the students are taught about circuits and electronic chips. Those are Basic Electronics Engg. Lab, Digital Electronics Lab, Analog Circuit Lab, Analog Communication /Communication Engg. Lab, Microwave& Antenna Lab, Microprocessor Lab, Digital Communication Lab, Industrial Design Lab, Advanced Communication Lab, Digital Signal Processing / VLSI, Lab. / Signal & System Lab, Solid State Electronics Lab, Project Lab, Basic Computation & C Lab.
Some of the EE labs are Basic Electrical Engg. Lab, Circuit & Network Lab, Electrical Measurement Lab, Electronic Measurement & Instrumentation Lab, Control System Engg.Lab, Power System Lab, Thermal Power Engg.Lab, Electrical Machine Lab, Power Electronics & Drives Lab, Electrical Machine Design Lab, Project Lab.
For the first year students, there are two engineering physics labs which are according to me very well equipped.
Then there is an engineering chemistry lab where the instruments can make that chemistry hating student fall for this subject.
There is also two mechanical workshop labs, one in the A block and the other one in the C block. These two labs are really very good and well maintained.
According to me, the most amazing lab that this institute has is the language lab. This is a very unique thing and really very well designed. In this lab the students get to improve their communication skills along with the listing skills and the presentation skill.
Doing the practical implementation of the text book does not always help an engineering student to explore the technology. To ensure that he or she needs to work on various projects. The faculty members are very helpful with the students when it comes to work in some projects. According to the university norms, each student has to work on at least one project in his or her entire course. This final year projects may be application based or research based. The projects which are given by each department are very relevant to the real world. Teachers and students work together to bring out the project successfully. Other than this “final year project”(this is what they call it), if there is any student interested in doing any additional projects for gaining more experiences, faculty members always help them. They always stand there with their valuable guidance and help. Sometimes they help that student to present his or her project paper to present in any national or international conference. Hence it can be said that BPPIMT does not only follow the university norms but it boosts up its students to achieve more.
Apart from helping in projects, the teaching staffs of BPPIMT are very sincere with the performance of their students in examination. Therefore they arrange class tests. As per the university norms an internal assessment has to be done in every semester. The marks allotted to this are 30. There are many colleges where only one class test is taken before the semester. But in BPPIMT, two separate tests are taken just to make that the students are well prepared. And it is a mandatory thing to be present in the test days for a student. Apart from class tests, surprise quiz and some sort of surprise tests are a very regular thing in a typical classroom of BPPIMT. All of these are just to see a nice CGPA obtained by the students.
Now the attendance part comes with again with a bit of strictness. Students are not allowed appear in the semester exam if there isn’t sufficient attendance. A database is maintained just to track down the absenteeism of each student of this institute. In interval of every two months students are notified with the status of their respective attendance percentage so that they get conscious and start attending the classes in a regular basis. If anyone is failed to do so, he or she needs to show relevant documents to prove the validity of his or her absenteeism. In some cases even parents are called to meet the officials to discuss upon this matter. This type of sincerity about the students makes this institute more acceptable for the guardians.
Now a day, the parameter of goodness of an engineering institute lies on how much the institute provides “Placement” to its students. And BPPIMT is amongst some of the top most placement provider engineering college of this city. Since last 5 years approximately over 75% students get placed from the campus recruitment. The training and placement cell of this institute really works hard to bring companies to the campus. Cognizant has been the mass recruiter since last 9 years. Other than that, there was Infosys who also did a mass recruitment drive for the 2015 pass out batch. ITC InfoTech comes to this campus every year as they got some genius employees from this college. Some other very renowned companies like ADP Inc., Capegimini, Ericson, Tech Mahindra etc. are coming to recruit from this campus from last few years. Now a day, there are a lot of startup companies who are coming to recruit the fresh hard working graduates from this institute. Not only bringing some companies, the placement cell devotes itself into the grooming their students. They arrange a lot of training programs so that the final year students get to prepare themselves for the D-day. They provide technical classes to brush up the important conceptual knowledge of the students which is very much required for a fresher. Other than this the placement cell arranges some soft skill improvement program to make the students ready.
BPPIMT is indeed a very cultural college. A lot of events and seminars take place throughout the year. Be it some departmental seminars or the techfest, the cultural fest or may be the language fest. Yes, Language fest! Seems a bit new right? It is new. It took place for the first time in 2014 named as the Panache. It was mandatory for all the students to take part in this fest. A lot of events were there like, debate, drama, creative writing, spell bee etc. and it was indeed a great success.
Then there is techfest, which is very common to an engineering college. But for BPPIMT, it is like huge. Tons of events like business idea presentation, new technology idea presentation, quiz, coding, games like FIFA and NFS are there in the techfest of this college named as TechStorm. The most attractive event of this fest is the robotics. There are many sub events like ro-combat, ro-splash, rovers etc. Even debates and creative writing is also a part of this TechStorm.
May be the techfest is a mandatory thing for an engineering college but should we ignore the huge cultural fest this college has? No, we won’t. It’s none other than the Elixir. The students wait for this fest. The seven days of this fest become the most happening days of their lives. Elixir’11 and Elixir’14 got extremely huge response. The inauguration took place in the axis mall followed by the music band competition, a fashionable fashion show and finally the DJ night by the DJ Kunal Bose. The finale was at swabhumi. Aditi SinghSharma and fossils were there entertain the crowd over there. The most important part of these fests is that all the events were held as inter-college events. Due to this factor, the ventures got to experience this big success.
Being an engineering college, BPPIMT arranges a lot of conferences and seminar on the technical topics. Some of these seminars are even organized in national level. Last year there was the biggest seminar cum conference named as Emerging Technologies in computer and communication (ETCC) held at Hotel Pride. It was organized by the Information Technology department. Other than this, the ECE department has organized the longest conference of 7 days named as SPIE. It was held in the college premises itself.
Talking about the fests, people may wonder where all this things actually take place! Well, BPPIMT has two big air conditioned auditoriums cum seminar halls having the capacity of 180 people. These two halls are equipped with good sound system and presentation system. Therefore, be it a fest or seminar or a placement talk, the seminar hall of BPPIMT is the ultimate choice. And adding to this, there is an auditorium which is now under construction and it is going to be the largest one.
The “college life” remains incomplete if there is not a good canteen in the college. In that case, BPPIMT has two canteens! One of those is basically for the staffs and the faculty members. But still, students are allowed to be there. The students’ canteen is in the C block. The best part of this canteen is its menu board. Okay, I actually wanted to mean that the food is very cheap in this canteen. Not only that, the food is qualitatively and quantitatively very good as well. One plate of puri-sabji worth rupees 12 is more than enough as lunch. The egg noodles and the chicken pakora of this canteen are really mouthwatering. Some residential students prefer to eat rice in lunch time. That is also available in the canteen. The best dish of the teachers’ canteen is tha pav-bhaji. Other than that the coffee they serve is very good as well.
For a student, it is impossible to study for the whole day. They do need some sort of recreation. And to serve their students, BPPIMT has provided common rooms. There are two separate common rooms in the C block, one for the boys and the other for the girls. There is some indoor games facility for the students like table tennis, carom, chess etc. in both the common rooms. There is another common room which is in the A block. This is exclusively for the first year students. Senior students are generally not allowed in this common room.
Indoor games are not enough for a student to flourish himself. He needs to go out and run and play. Every year BPPIMT arranges annual sports and tournaments for its students. The Football tournament is like a festival for the students. The finale result does not matter to them but what matters is the togetherness, the fun of playing against friends. Then there comes the cricket tournament which takes place simultaneously along with the annual sports in winter.
BPPIMTians don’t just play, they create as well. The college magazine Udvab gets published in a regular basis. Other than this there are wall magazines which are published in departmental level. The students get to express their new ideas and they basically execute their ideas. Teachers help them in this process. Making of this wall magazine helps the student to work on their leadership quality and the ability to work within a group.
A good college needs a good and rich library. The central library of BPPIMT is located in the C block. I don’t know if any other private college of this city has a library as big as this college. There are a lot books (honestly, I don’t know the exact number) in the library itself. There is library management system software developed by a BPPIMTian through which any student can browse the book list. Along with this library there is a huge reading room where, I don’t know may be at least 50 students can sit and study at a time. The collection of books in the reading room is impressing as well. It’s not the end, there is a digital library. It is indeed a new thing. Students can sit and go through the digital library as the collection of eBooks and international journals are pretty good.
BPPIMT has a very good hostel facility. There are a number of hostels separated for boys and girls. Those hostel rooms are airy and healthy. There are various facilities which are provided in the hostels like on call doctors, television and reading rooms for the residential students. Not only in the hostels, there is medical support facility in the campus as well. There is a sick room consisting of two beds where students can take rest if he or she feels sick. A first aid facility is also there for any emergency.
Here in BPPIMT, nothing gets hampered due to power cut. Because it has got the 24 hours generator support facility. Therefore there is no chance of losing of data for sudden load shedding.
When a student completes his or her school, he gets excited to be in a college for the first time. Other than the excitement he also has a fear of being a victim of ragging. BPPIMT provides the students with the protection from ragging. There is an Anti-Ragging Committee within the college which takes care of the students from being ragged. There is a part in the committee which is called the student squad. All the members of this squad are the senior students of the college. The rules of this committee are quite strict and if anybody is found to have violated the rules, serious steps are taken against him. Sometimes an FIR is also lodged in severe cases. The students are made to sign an agreement during admission. The agreement states that if a student is found to have been engaged with ragging or any type of illegal activities within the college premises, the authority will take serious steps against him without any compromise.
Apart from the anti-ragging committee, BPPIMT provides strict security service to its students and staffs. There are 12 security guards scattered within the whole campus with a responsibility to look after the safety of the students and the staffs within the college. They have compelled the students to carry their college identity card with them always. Recently BPPPIMT has installed 45 CCTV cameras in the campus just to monitor the students’ whereabouts. I don’t think that any other college in this city provides so much of security to the students than BPPIMT.
College life is very precious to a student. When he imagines himself to be a college student, he imagines fun with friends, cultural fests, a good environment of learning, good faculty, and ultimately getting placed in a good company with a nice pay scale. Well, in BPPIMT a student gets all of these very easily. Hence, in a nutshell, I can say that B.P.Poddar Institute of Management and Technology is the synonym of AWESOMENESS.
-By Rishita Bagchi, IT, 4th year, B.P. Poddar Institute of Management & Technology