Best tech school: IISc outshines IITs

Prashanth G N | TNN

Bangalore: Do good science and do it at the best place: IT city. IISc has been ranked the number one engineering/ technology institute among top 67 science institutes in the country. IIT Kanpur comes in at the second place, followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and Delhi at third, fourth and fifth position respectively.

The ranking, published in the Current Science, has been done by scholars Gangan Prathap and B M Gupta of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources and National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi.

The other institutes within top 10 include Jadavpur University ranked 6, IIT Madras 7, IIT Roorkee 8, Anna University 9 and IIT Guwahati ranked 10. The ranking has been done on the basis of publications and citations and research record available between 1999 and 2008 in the Scopus International multi-disciplinary, bibliographical database. The data shows IISc leading every other science institute in the country on publications and citations.

The scholars have said the top 67 engineering institutes have done better than the university sector as a whole in the 10-year period — 75,166 papers vs 59,685 papers.

Their research has also shown that by number and performance (quality and quantity combined), IISc and IITs taken as a group lead other groups — University and Deemed University, Select Engineering Colleges, NITs/RECs and IIITs. The IIITs are ranked last as a group for their low publications and citations.

The scholars have this to say about NITs. “Although National Institutes of Technology have been around for a long time and have been upgraded to deemed university and institutes of national importance their research performance is dismal.”

TOP 14
1 IISc, Bangalore

2 IIT-Kanpur

3 IIT-Bombay

4 IIT-Kharagpur

5 IIT-Delhi

6 Jadavpur Univ

7 IIT-Madras

8 IIT-Roorkee

9 Anna University

10 IIT-Guwahati

11 Cochin Univ of Science & Tech

12 BITS, Pilani

13 Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai

14 IT-BHU, Varanasi
Ranking on the basis of publications & citations between 1999 and 2008

Wind-powered vehicle breaks speed record

A British engineer has smashed the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles, becoming the fastest naturally powered human on the planet.

Richard Jenkins clocked 126.1mph in the Greenbird, harnessing winds of just 30mph in the futuristic vehicle.

The Greenbird, that resembles a stretched missile with a giant fin, set the top speed on the dry bed of Lake Ivanpah on the border of California and Nevada in the US.

The team beat the previous American-held record of 116mph, which was set by Bob Schumacher in the Iron Duck almost 10 years ago to the day at the same location. The fifth-generation Greenbird, which Jenkins designed and built on his 10-year quest to beat the record, uses a combination of technology found in aircraft and Formula 1 cars.

“It has been an incredibly difficult challenge,” he said. “Half the challenge is technical, having to create a more efficient vehicle than the previous record holder, then the rest is luck, being in the right place, at the right time, with the right people watching. AGENCIES

Richard Jenkins’s Greenbird is the fastest naturally-powered car