: The Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), which was established by an Act of Parliament, is set to operate from August 1, from its temporary campus located at the main administration block of Andhra University College of Engineering.
The institute will run two B. Tech programmes: Petroleum engineering and chemical engineering, with intake of 50 students for each course. And the admission will be based on rank in the IIT-JEE Advanced examination.
According to Advisor Academics and Director (in-charge) Prof. V.S.R.K. Prasad, IIPE is on a par with other central institutes such as IITs and NITs.
“But it will stand out in the long run, as it specialises only in petroleum energy and has the backing of nine petroleum majors,” he informed The Hindu .
The institute is backed financially, academically and with quality industry-academia interface by majors such as HPCL, IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL, OIDB, BPCL, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Unique advantage
The backing of the oil majors is a unique advantage to the nascent institute.
“We not only have the financial backing, but our students will have the advantage of quality industry-academia interface and they will stand to gain when it comes to internship and industry exposure,” said Prof. Prasad.
HPCL has taken up the responsibility for setting up the temporary campus, which includes plush renovation of the rooms on par with IIT standards.
AU has given us seven rooms in the campus and we will begin with three fully-equipped classrooms and three E-classrooms which will be connected to the IIT-Kharagpur for live classes. Though AU has come forward to lease out space for IIPE, it stands to gain in the long-run as the renovated part, including the upgradation of the laboratory in the Chemical Engineering Department will be left with AU, once IIPE moves to its own campus. The state government has allotted about 150 acres of land at Sabbavaram.
“The land has been identified, but we shall start construction after the state government constructs the boundary wall and hands it over to us,” said Prof. Prasad.
Subjects
Both the B. Tech courses are said to be different from the courses that are being offered at other petroleum universities such as University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Uttarakhand; Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh; Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat; and Indian school of Mines, Dhanbad. “Our focus is on oil exploration both upstream and downstream, offshore and onshore drilling, refinery, process industry, transportation, earth sciences and recovery process,” said Prof. Prasad.
IIPE will start its PG and research programme from 2017. And according to its Academic Advisor, the idea is to make this institute a premier research institute in the world.
“We are tying up with renowned exploration majors and our idea is to make this institute a top consultancy and research institute in the globe,” he said.
