Madras Institute of Technology

Thanks to the foresight of a group of luminaries, in the year 1949, the Madras Institute of Technology was born. At a time when all the engineering colleges were only offering traditional subjects like Civil, Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, the founder decided to go in for four new disciplines of Engineering in Aeronautical, Automobile, Electronics and Instrumentation. This was a pioneering step, which was amply justified by the subsequent striking growth in these fields made by the country. Instrumentation as a branch was not even heard of in this country at that point of time and it was only much later that other Institutions included Instrumentation as a branch in their curriculum. A second departure was made from convention in that the courses were designed as three year courses and entry was open to science graduates.

The first convocation of the Institute was addressed by the First Prime Minister of India, pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the year 1952. The late Mr. N Srinivasan a specialist in the field of Aeronautical Engineering and a former Deputy Chief Engineer of the HAL, Bangalore, took over the reins of the Director from Mr. M K Ranganathan in the year 1954 who by then, by his selfless hard work had set the way for the Institute in the path of glory. Mr. Srinivasan further developed the Faculty of Aeronautical Engineering and he was responsible for the establishment of the MIT Athenaeum, a student organisation for extra curricular activities. Professor K Srinivasan Acting Director of the IISc. took over as the third director in 1960 and continued to be the director till 1971. During his tenure he was responsible for starting PG courses in Aeronautics and Electronics. The implementation of the recommendations of the Reviewing Committee of the GOI in 1963 and obtaining financial agreements took place during his tenure. In 1971 Prof. T.Krishnan, a specialist in the field of Radio Astronomy took over as the fourth Director. In February 1975 the Silver Jubliee celebrations of the Institute were Inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prof. S.P.Hore was the director then having taken over from Prof. Krishna. The Union Finance Minister Mr.C.Subramanian inaugurated the Alumni guest house which was handed over by the President of the MITAA to the Institute. Prof. Hore was largely responsible for the successful completion of the silver Jubilee activites by forming a well knit team of the Alumni, staff and students and consistently guiding them.