The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and
Manufacturing (IIITD&M), Jabalpur was established in 2005 by the Government
of India. Their primary goal is imparting skills to engineering students who
can use Information Technology in the fields of Design and Manufacturing. But the
students of IIITD&M disagree with this fact.   

Though Jabalpur is an industrial area; students find it
difficult to secure hardware to finish their projects. “We have the potential
but we are unable to grow. We can’t convert our projects into working products
because we struggle to find the appropriate parts for our designs. For example,
we are not getting parts to create an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for city
patrolling,” said a B. Tech final year student at IIITD&M.

Another student who wishes to remain anonymous told
PaGaLGuY, “We have the simulations on computers but we lack industry
collaboration. Equipment is available in the college, but due to unavailability
of proper hardware in Jabalpur, we face many problems.” The institute is
located 13 km from Jabalpur, and there is no public transport available between
the city and the institute. So the institute runs two buses in evening for the
IIITD&M community, if they need to visit the city for any reason.

The students also said, “Jabalpur is a small city and we
don’t get our requirements easily. Sometimes we have to order the hardware
online, which takes around ten days to deliver, and is costly. For one of our laser
tracking projects, we had to order some instruments from Amazon.”

Though IIITD&M was set up with academic research in mind,
there has been no significant research output as yet. Tulika Nelson, Placement Officer
at the institute, said, “We might not add anything to the economy today but we
are planning to in the next two-three years. There are many research projects
in the pipeline.”

When PaGaLGuY asked her about industry collaborations and
the problems faced by students, she replied, “We have five Ordnance factories
around our campus, and some students do go to them for internships. We also
have research collaborations with universities located in France, Germany, Japan
etc.”

Students said that the city doesn’t offer much in terms of
opportunities or requirements. There are no IT companies in Jabalpur. Students
feel that their peers studying in Jaipur, Kanpur, or Delhi etc. have more
options to explore and learn. They also face difficulties when they have to buy
simple hardware like wires, nuts or bolts. But on the other hand, they love the
quiet and serene atmosphere of the city.