NIST University formerly, National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) is a private technical research[1] university located in Pallur Hills, Brahmapur, Odisha.[2]
NIST was started in 1996 by a group of academics and technocrats. It is promoted by SM Charitable Educational Trust under the vision and guidance of its founder Chairman Dr. Sukant Kumar Mohapatra.[3] The 70 acres campus is located in the Pallur Hills about 12 km from Brahmapur and three hours drive from Bhubaneswar.
Prior to its establishment Dr. Mohapatra has held meeting with the delegation led by then Chief Minister Janaki Ballabh Patnaik in New York to establish NIST in Odisha. Application for AICTE approval was based on full financial support and credibility of Dr. Mohapatra. Many non-resident Indians (NRI) (primarily academics from the US) also supported it. Dr. Mohapatra had shipped a large number of computers, terminals, books, and journals during the early years of the institute.
In order to make NIST a research oriented Institution, Mohapatra has organized various international conferences and seminars and enabled the visits of many NRI scientists and professors to the institute along with many other supports (e.g., formulation of course of studies, registering NIST under US .edu domain, company campus visit, student admission in US etc.) over the years.
In its 24 years, it has produced four Boys Cast faculty scholars who have been funded by the Government of India to pursue postgraduate research in the United States and Germany. NIST has produced three Fulbright scholars. Three of its faculty members have won the Samant Chandrasekhar Young Scientist Award given by the Government of Odisha. Two AICTE funded emeritus professors worked at NIST. The faculty of the institute have been awarded three URSI Young Scientist Awards. More than twentyfive post-doctorate scholarships have been awarded to institute faculty. The faculty members of the institute are alumni of IIN, IISc, ISI, Jadavpur University and Calcutta University. More than 35 faculty of the institute are from the CET alone which is a testimony to its ability to attract and retain top notch faculty. The faculties of the institute have published more than 250 journal papers in refereed journals and are authors of about 24 books. The institute also has its own publishing house called NIST Press. The institute has received a number of grants, projects, special funding, travel funding, SDPs, FIST grant, scholarships, from the DST, CSIR, AICTE and from various IT companies.
NBA has accredited NIST in March, 2019 (CSE and ECE branches)
NAAC has accredited NIST with grade 'A' with a high score of 3.22
NIST has been ranked #4 in eastern India and #13 in India by DataQuest – In 2016.
85th All India Rank by OUTLOOK 2016.
BPUT (Affiliating University) students have ranked NIST as the No. 1 engineering institute among more than 100 engineering institutes of Odisha through public voting.
The 70 acres Greenfield campus has five main buildings.[10]
Lecture Hall Complex - It is a five-floored building of over 60,000 sq.ft. It houses classrooms and electronics, machines and computer science laboratories. It also houses the server room and the administrative section.
Octagon - It is an octagon-shaped multi-storeyed, multipurpose building.Octagon It houses a modern computer center, an internet room, a computerized central library, 2 faculty rooms, 5 classrooms, and a cafeteria that can seat over 150 people at a time.
Galleria - It is a four-storied hovel of over 100,000 sq. ft. with 12 lecture halls and a 250-seat auditorium. The prestigious high-performance computing lab and the IBM Centre for Excellence are housed in this building. The NIST Technology Consultancy Services (NTCS) occupies a place in the building.
Atrium - It is the latest addition to college building infrastructure. This building houses 25 classrooms, 11 laboratories including the chemistry, physics, engineering drawing, C-lab, language lab and 13 faculty rooms. The Student Activities Center is also located here. The NIST Business School with its own library is also nestled in this.
TIFAC Core - It houses the Centre of Excellence in 3G/4G Communication Technologies, selected by TIFAC and sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (India). TIFAC Core is home to labs such as VLSI, Antenna Fabrication, Device Fabrication, Embedded Systems, Nano-technology, Optical communication, and NI Lab View. Besides, the building has 2 seminar halls, 4 classrooms, a conference room, a JRF room, and a trainers room.