The Indian Institute of Technology here has taken the lead among the eight new IITs in quality of research.

Equipped with strong research facilities, IIT-H has been rated nine on the h-index along with IIT Ropar, while the other six IITs in Patna, Indore, Mandi, Jodhpur, Gandhinagar and Bhubaneshwar were rated in the band of two and five. This was revealed in a recent journal citation assessment commissioned by the new IITs.

The h-index, named after Argentine-American physicist Jorge E. Hirsch, measures the impact of a scientific research publication of an institution or an individual researcher based on the number of citations per publication.

The assessment revealed that research from IIT-H had been cited 535 times compared to 362 for IIT Ropar. The figures for most other new IITs are in just two digits.

Expressing happiness over the development, IIT Hyderabad Director U.B Desai credited the faculty for the honour.

Next target

The effort now will be to improve the h-index to 40 and then to 50 from the existing nine, he said, while admitting that it would take a while for the fledgling institute to reach the position.

Prof. Desai said the institute was currently working on 75 projects. The institute, with 150 full-time faculty members, also has the most number of students (1,355) pursuing various courses.

Among these, around 300 are Ph.D students, indicating the institute’s strong focus on research.

New campus

Prof. Desai said the institute, currently functioning from Yeddumailaram near the ordnance factory at Medak, will move to its permanent campus at Kandi near Sangareddy in the next academic year. Student hostels will be constructed by March next and the main academic building by May.

“I have set up committees to ensure the campus development programme is on track,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Ravikanth Reddy / Hyderabad – October 28th, 2013