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Insight Into IITs Emerging Specialisations and Their Seat Matrix
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  • Insight Into IITs Emerging Specialisations and Their Seat Matrix

Insight Into IITs Emerging Specialisations and Their Seat Matrix

Updated on 13 Mar 2024, 12:27 PM IST

From 2019 to 2023, 23 Indian Institute of Technology campuses saw a 27 per cent (3,711 seats) increase in seats. Traditional branches such as Mechanical and Civil Engineering increased more than 250 seats each. While courses on Artificial Intelligence- Data Science (370 seats) and Energy Engineering (106 seats) were started in many IITs.

Insight Into IITs Emerging Specialisations and Their Seat Matrix
IIT's In-Demand Specialization and Their Seat Matrix

Through an analysis of data collected from Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JOSAA), Careers360 has analysed the emergence of new branches and discontinuation of old ones (see table below). A look at these trends, can provide aspiring engineers an insight into which industries are in demand and which are the ones losing their relevance.

Emerging Specialisations at IITs

The introduction of new branches like Energy Engineering and Civil and Infrastructure Engineering reflects the offerings of IITs to emerging technological and social needs. These additions were made seeing the demand of an emerging technology, offering students diverse pathways for specialisation and career growth.

New Specialisations And Their Intake Capacity


Course

Institute Names

Intake Capacity

Energy Engineering

IIT Delhi

40

Energy Engineering

IIT Bombay

46

Energy Engineering

IIT Guwahati

20

Civil and Infrastructure Engineering

IIT Dharwad

15

Civil and Infrastructure Engineering

IIT Jodhpur

50

Completely new branches like Biomedical Engineering (IIT Hyderabad), Microelectronics & VLSI (IIT Mandi), Space Sciences and Engineering (IIT Indore), General Engineering (IIT Mandi), Mechatronics Engineering (IIT Bhilai) and some more different branches have opened in one of the IITs, with 20 to 30 seats allotted for each branch.

Started in 2022, Mechatronics Engineering offered by IIT Bhilai has 16 BTech students in its very first year. Biomedical Engineering in IIT Hyderabad, started in 2020-21, has at present 35 Undergraduate students.

Other branches that were available in old IITs added seats along with opening new departments such as Mathematics and Computing, Chemical Engineering, Engineering Physics, in third gen IITs and second gen IITs.

Courses That IITs Discontinued

On the other hand the closure of courses such as Polymer Science and Engineering and Mineral Engineering reflects the nature of academic offerings in response to changing industry demands and academic priorities.

New Branches

Closed Branches

Energy Engineering ( IIT Bombay, Delhi and Guwahati)

Polymer Science and Engineering (IIT Roorkee)

Civil and Infrastructure Engineering ( IIT Dharwad and Jodhpur)

Mineral Engineering (IIT (ISM) Dhanbad)

Major Increase In Seats: Branch-wise

In engineering education, there are significant shifts in seat allocations across the major engineering branches, with notable increases observed in many branches like Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and more. These trends reflect the emerging change in demands of industries and IITs offering courses to meet the needs of the engineering world.

Branch

Seats in 2019

Seats in 2023

Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering

45

415

Chemical Engineering

1,055

1,225

Mechanical Engineering

1,870

2,127

Computer Science and Engineering

1,652

1,928

Civil Engineering

1,411

1,617

Electrical Engineering

1,582

1,861

Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering

The most trending field witnessed a significant increase in seat matrix, with a total increase of 370 seats across various IITs. IIT Mandi and IIT Hyderabad showed an increase of 56 and 14 seats respectively in four years

Eight IITs started a new course on AI and Data Science after 2019 as the demand for the course was on a rise. IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Palakkad, IIT Ropar, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Patna, IIT Bhilai, IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee started the course which offered 300 seats together by 2023.

Seats For New Course: AI and Data Science

Institute Name

SEATS

IIT Jodhpur

50

IIT Patna

50

IIT Bhilai

40

IIT Palakkad

40

IIT Roorkee

40

IIT Gandhinagar

30

IIT Guwahati

30

IIT Ropar

20

Chemical Engineering

Despite a marginal decrease in seats at IIT Delhi (only six seats), the overall Chemical Engineering at 14 IITs saw 176 additional seats. IIT Dharwad, IIT Indore and IIT Jodhpur, introduced Chemical Engineering course with a total of 105 seats.

Despite the increasing relevance of chemical industrial sectors, IIT Bhilai, IIT Dhanbad, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Goa, IIT Mandi and IIT Palakkad do not offer chemical engineering courses yet.

Mechanical Engineering

All 23 IITs offer Mechanical Engineering, which witnessed a notable increase in seat allocations. Between 2019-2023, 20 IITs added a total of 301 seats. While the majority of IITs increased the number of seats for the course, a few, such as IIT Jodhpur and IIT Mandi, saw slight reductions in seat numbers by 17 and 27 seats respectively, and at IIT Goa there was no change.

Computer Science and Engineering

IIT Jodhpur and IIT Palakkad were the only two campuses that decreased the seat capacity for Computer Science and Engineering branch, by 20 and 12 seats respectively between 2019 and 2023. With no changes in seat capacity of IIT Goa, rest of the campuses of India’s premier engineering institute together showed an increase by 308 seats.

Civil Engineering

While 16 IITs together added 215 seats for Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi reduced seven seats, and IIT Palakkad and IIT Ropar reduced one seat each. First generation IITs like IIT Madras added 19, IIT Kanpur added 20 seats and IIT Bombay added 32 seats to their Civil Engineering department.

Electrical Engineering

Some IITs offer a solo Electrical Engineering course and a separate Electrical and Electronics engineering course, with various subject combinations. For instance, IIT Delhi offers solo Electrical Engineering programme as well as Electrical Engineering in Power and Automation

Currently, 21 IITs offer Electrical engineering. With 19 IITs together increasing a total of 302 new seats in 2023 as compared to 2019, this programme seems to have generated interest among students. IIT Jodhpur and IIT Palakkad reduced 13 and 10 seats respectively for the branch between 2019-2023.


By analysing the patterns of emerging branches, and staying updated of seat allocation changes, students can make informed decisions that align with their aspirations and career goals.

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