Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – Dubai Campus

The Birla Education Trust was founded in 1929; the intermediate college became a degree college and later offered postgraduate courses. The masters programme in electronics began in 1955.[9]

Reacting to early criticism about the project, contemporary advisor Thomas Drew said:

In my judgment to attempt to develop an American institution in India would be like trying to graft apples on a pine tree. We have not been asked to make such an attempt. We were asked to help devise in India an Indian technological school to produce graduates with the know-how to produce knowledge pertinent for India.... In many respects they consider us immature, rude, hypocritical barbarians who in certain respects happened to hit it lucky. To be viable in India an institution must be framed with Indian values in mind.[10]

BITS Pilani became a deemed university established under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 by notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of 18 June 1964.[11]

In 1964, the Birla Colleges of Humanities, Commerce, Engineering, Pharmacy and Science were merged to form the Birla Institute of Technology & Science. The board provided direction in developing a curriculum, selecting equipment, upgrading the library and recruiting (and training) an Indian faculty. To quicken the pace of reform he convinced C. R. Mitra to be the new director of the institute. Mitra advocated a "practice school" internship program as a requirement for faculty and students. The Practice School Program is still a requirement for students in BITS.

According to Robert Kargon and Stuart Leslie:

BITS offered an opportunity to build a leading technological university in India responsive to India's goals, to produce practising engineers who will be in a position to graduate and to build industries in India, under Indian conditions. With its emphasis on the Practice School and ties to Indian industry, it helped educate Indian industrialists along with Indian engineers who would remain in India, in contrast to many other engineering colleges in India, most of whose graduates would leave the country after obtaining their basic engineering education. The Ford Foundation Evaluators...proudly noted that the Indian government, despite having given no direct financial support, was looking to BITS to provide a model for future development in education in engineering and science in India.[12]

Ghanshyam Das Birla, was born on 10 April 1894 at Pilani village, in the Indian state then known as Rajputana, as a member of the Maheshwari Marwari community.[13] Later, Birla inherited the family business and moved to further diversify them into other areas. He became the founding president of Harijan Sevak Sangh founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi in 1932 .[14] Birla was a close associate and a steady supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, whom he met for the first time in 1916. Gandhi stayed at Birla's home in New Delhi during the last four months of his life.

Envisioning infrastructural development in his hometown, Birla founded the Birla Engineering College (rechristened as Birla Institute of Technology and Science in 1964) in Pilani and the Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences in Bhiwani among other educational institutions in 1943. Both colleges have evolved over the years to develop into one of India's best engineering schools. Dr. K.K. Birla, who took over as the Chairman in 1983, realized the need for providing top class higher education facility to greater number of promising students in science and technology.

In 1999, enrollment expanded from 2,500 to 4,000[15] and campuses were founded in Dubai (2000) and Goa (2004). In 2006, BITS Pilani acquired 200 acres (81 ha) of land from the Andhra Pradesh government through the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority for a new campus. The land is located in Jawaharnagar, Shameerpet Mandal in the Rangareddy district.[16] The BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus opened in 2008; the school also has a virtual university[17] and an extension center in Bangalore.[18]

Consequent upon the sad demise of Dr. K.K. Birla in 2008, Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla was elected as the Chancellor and Smt. Shobhana Bhartia was appointed as the Pro-Chancellor.

BITS, Dubai was the second branch of the university, set up in 2000 in Al Ghurair University Campus. It was then relocated to Dubai Knowledge Village, and again, to its permanent campus with student housing at Dubai International Academic City in September 2007.

The campus is approved by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and University Grants Commission (UGC), India and is permitted by Knowledge & the Human Development Authority (KHDA), Government of Dubai.[19]

The campus is a twenty-minute car ride away from the heart of Dubai and takes an hour or two via public transportation- RTA Dubai Metro and Bus.

BITS Pilani, Dubai has nine buildings spanning over 14 acres:

1. The Main Block Building of four floors has lecture rooms, professors chambers, two conference halls, a sports complex, an auditorium and technical labs.
2. Mech Block of two floors has a Workshop area on the ground floor and various labs on the next two floors.
3. The Library block consists of a library spanning over two floors, an activity room and a cafeteria.
4. The Girls' Hostel consists of two buildings, one which is used to accommodate students, while the other is equipped with a common mess, prayer hall, laundromat and gym facility.
5. The Boys' Hostel consists of four buildings, equipped with the same facilities as the Girls' Hostel.

The campus also consists of a full length football field, indoor badminton court, race track, lawn tennis court, cricket nets, basketball court, volleyball court and indoor games section.

Labs at campus include - Advanced Molecular Biology Lab, Analog Electronics Lab, Biology Lab Chemical Engineering Lab I & II, Chemistry Lab Communication Lab, Computer Aided Design Lab, Computer Programming Lab, Concrete Lab, Creative Lab, Digital Design Lab, Electrical Machines Lab, Engineering Graphics Lab, Environmental Lab, Fluid Machinery lab, Genetic Engineering Lab, Heat Transfer Lab, Industrial Microbiology & Bioprocess Engineering Lab, Instrumental Methods of Analysis Lab, Instrumentation Lab, Mechatronics & Robotics Lab, MEMS Lab, Materials Testing Lab, Microbiology Lab, Microprocessor Programming & Interfacing Lab, Petroleum Lab, Physics Lab, Power Electronics Lab, Prime Movers and Fluid Machinery Lab, Process Control Lab, Production Techniques I & II Labs, Signal and Simulation Lab, Software Systems Lab, Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Lab, Survey Lab, Transport Phenomena Lab, Transportation Engineering Lab, Workshop Prime Movers & Fluid Mechanics Lab. [20]

The campus in Dubai International Academic City is situated next to Dubai Silicon Oasis, a 7.2 km², government-owned incentivization free trade zone in Dubai. Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) spans 7.2 km². It is wholly owned by the Government of Dubai, providing both a living and integrated working community. Silicon Oasis is a Free Zone Authority and provides free trade zoneincentives and benefits to companies operating within the tech park.[21][22] The Authority has made a large capital investment in its infrastructure to cater to the need of high tech industries in the free zone, such as advanced telecommunications, a fibre optic network, a tier 3 data centre with 120 high capacity racks, and a high-tech utility infrastructure with 8 power stations with a capacity of 1600 MW.

Many of the companies and industries recruit students from BITS Pilani, Dubai to their various employment programs, collaborations and internships.

SAP, Fujitsu, AMD, Euromonitor International, Western Digital, Synopsys, Corning, GenX Systems, Schneider Electric, Brand Impact Marketing and Valustrat are some of the companies operating in Dubai Silicon Oasis. Companies that are able to operate at DSO include those in the following sectors:

1. IT, telecom, electrical, electronic, engineering and related activities e.g. mobile and internet technologies, software, data centre and arabized/localised technologies.
2. Consultants, law firms, finance institutions (such as Truth Economic Consultancy), etc.
3. Bio-tech, automobile, aerospace, oil and gas, alternative energy and mobile startups such as Washplus, a laundry pickup and delivery app.

All major business activities can be accommodated within DSO including:

• Company headquarters offices, sales & marketing, support offices training, etc.
• Import/export, distribution, testing and checking, labelling, packaging.
• Assembly
• Manufacturing

University Campus

Reception in Main Building

The main building of BITS Pilani Dubai is where all classes are held. It has 3 floors, an auditorium, sports stadium, conference hall, academic labs such as Power Electronics Lab, Physics lab, Petroleum lab and various other experimental labs. All the admission and administration departments are located here.

Conference hall in Main Building

Main building of BITS Pilani, Dubai as seen through a park in campus in a 2018 photo

Classroom

Triangular Park

Palm Trees

Library Block in a 2019 photo

Library block is behind the University main building. The ground floor has all the course related and academic books, notes, manuals, help books, work stations and personal space for reading. The 1st floor has discussion rooms, internet browsing room, reading space and various types of novels. The second floor is under renovation. Library block also has washrooms, water and baggage facility.

Ground floor

First floor

Mechanical block has Mechanical Workshop with world-class facilities on the ground floor, Civil Engineering lab and other Mechanical labs. The second floor has Creative lab, Mechatronics lab, Robotics lab and other independent newly formed labs such as Heat Transfer lab.

Mechanical Block in a 2019 photo

Creative Lab

BITS Pilani Dubai offers residential facility in campus itself. It has separate boys' and girls' hostels. Boys' hostel consists of 4 blocks (A,B,C,D resp.) and girls' consists of 2 blocks (G and H resp.). These blocks have common room for meetings, Gym facility, T.V. room, Mess facility, laundry facility.

A view of B,C,D block from football field

G & H Block

BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus offers 4-year Integrated First Degree programs at the undergraduate level in the following seven fields:[23]

• B.E. Computer Science
• B.E. Chemical
• B.E. Electrical & Electronics
• B.E. Electronics & Communication
• B.E. Electronics and Instrumentation
• B.E. Mechanical
• B.E. Biotechnology
• B.E. Civil

The university also offers a chance to pursue a Dual bachelor's degree in the course of 5 years.

Higher degree evening programs offered are:

• M.E. Design Engineering
• M.E. Microelectronics
• M.E. Software Systems
• M.E. Biotechnology
• M.B.A.Engineering and Technology Management
• M.B.A. IT

• Full-Time
• Part-Time[24]

Ph D Programme[25]

BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus has also entered into a research collaboration with the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), Dubai, UAE[26]

Practice School (PS) is a programme unique to BITS Pilani university, through which students are placed in the industry for hands-on learning experience. PS-1, a two-month internship programme for the summer after second year, is a compulsory for all students. PS-2 is an extended internship programme, usually of five and a half months duration that students may go for in their final year. The students are graded by the off-campus BITS faculty and the PS mentor. The allocation is based on the academic record of the student and is managed centrally. Every PS station roughly accommodates 6-7 students.[27]

Practice School is aimed at familiarizing students with the work environment and technical standards in the industry. Students can also opt for a thesis instead of Practice School II where they will have to work under a professor either on campus or off campus on some research area related to his discipline. In case of an off campus thesis, an on campus guide will co-ordinate with the off campus guide for a smooth process.

BITS Pilani is offered to students based on their performance in the all-India Entrance Examination, called BITS Admission Test (BITSAT). BITS Pilani also has the policy of accepting State and National Board toppers. There is no reservation of seats on the basis of caste or category. BITSAT.[28] is a computer based test and is held at BITS authorised test centres. The examination chiefly covers topics, based on the NCERT higher secondary curriculum, in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, and reasoning and analytical skills in Logic and English. Any student having a minimum aggregate of 75% in Physics, Maths and Chemistry, and a minimum of 60% marks in each of the BITSAT subjects individually is eligible to apply to the campus.

For International students, Dubai Campus also accepts SAT Subject Tests. Since mode of instruction is English, students who have passed the qualifying examination in Non-English medium must satisfy the minimum requirement of TOEFL or IELTS.[29]

BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus has been rated 4/5 stars in a 2019 report by KHDA [30]

Edarabia, Middle East's #1 Education Guide ranks this institution among Top 5 Engineering Schools of 2020 with an overall rating of 4.2/5.[31][32]

AOEE - Association of Electronic Engineers. [35]

ACM - The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is an international organisation and the world's largest scientific and educational society in computational and information technology.

BPDC Editorial Board - The university editorial board, responsible for the biannual publication and other literary works. Board is also responsible for compiling various writings for administration department. [36]

The Guild - Video Gaming Club at BPDC. [37]

IFOR - The IFOR Team of BITS Pilani Dubai Campus is a student based organisation in which students from different departments come together to design and build autonomous and aerial robotic systems.

Microsoft Tech Club - The Tech club in association with Microsoft. [38]

The Public Speaking and Literary Club - Responsible for organizing literary activities in University.

BITSMUN - Model United Nations of BITS Pilani.

Sports Club - Responsible for organizing:

BITS Sports Festival (BSF) - UAE's largest inter-university sports event, over the last 16 years. Universities from all over UAE compete against each other with the spirit of victory.[39]

Recharge - Inter-hostel sports competition supported by various fan clubs. All the events are sponsored by big brands like Coca Cola for BSF 2020 and all the events proudly brag their own merchandise.

Reflexions - Capturing every moment, defining every occasion, presenting every event and preserving every part of your college life is the Photography Club of BITS Pilani: REFLEXIONS.

Art Club - Responsible for organizing ARTEX, art exhibition for faculty and students.

Flummoxed - Quizzing club of BPDC.

Groove - Dance club of BPDC.

Allure - Relive every moment of your life fashionably with Fashion club of BPDC.

Make A Difference - The Social and Environment club of BPDC. This club actively conducts several campaigns and activities that contribute to the service of the society and help create awareness against social issues.

IEEE - Professional association for electrical engineers (and associated disciplines).

IEEE BITS Pilani, Dubai student branch has been recognised as the largest student branch of IEEE in the Gulf; by the IEEE Association of New York, USA and received UAE section's student membership growth of the year award. [40]

Linux User Group

Paribhasha[41] - Theatre and entertainment club

Toastmasters - Nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication and public speaking skills

ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers)- American professional association seeking to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems design and construction

IORTA[42]- Deals with making of autonomous robots and drones for the use of civilians and government.

Creative Team: Jashan - Organizes BITS Jashan, Dubai's largest college festival.[43]