Academic Overview

 

Academic Overview

Technological advances brought significant changes to organizations and industries across the globe, creating an ever-increasing demand for professionals with analytical and managerial skills combined with sound technical knowledge. Foreseeing this need, DoMS of IIT Kanpur designed its M.Tech Programme to gain and hone necessary managerial skills for engineers.

A high score in the GATE examination is the first step towards securing an admission in the program. The high scorers then appear in the Department's own tests on comprehension and quantitative skills followed by a personal interview are the only way to get admitted in the curriculum. Passing through a selection process that guarantee the best of the available talents, the students are challenged with an equally tough academic program that focus on both learning and implementation.

The M.Tech program is the flagship program of DoMS. It is one of the oldest to introduce industrial engineering in India. The program provides a perfect blend of industrial engineering and management science to its students. The well-defined structure of course work and a yearlong thesis work provides in-depth knowledge of concepts to students. The intervening summer internships is used for practical project work in industries.

The program focuses on developing expertise in management engineering. It covers diverse topics from both the management and engineering paradigms. Quantitative modeling methods, improvement of productivity, quality and profitability in the manufacturing sector, supply chain management and application of optimization techniques in finance, marketing and IT are some of the areas to which students are exposed.

DoMS emphasizes on the "methods" of understanding any systems. Rather than 'spoon-feeding', students are taught basic concepts and their analytical skills are then sharpened through a series of rigorous exercises. This approach helps to build strong reasoning and analytical abilities and best prepares them to take on real-world challenges. DoMS recognizes that mere course-work will not normally make one an effective manager. It is the rigor to which the DoMS faculty subjects its students, which imparts in them the potential to be a top notch manager.

In addition the department is equipped with the latest tools and systems used in the industries for the students to obtain hands-on experience. Having some of the most complicated software like product life cycle management, simulation, statistical analysis, financial modelling, process design and control, etc. in the well-equipped laboratories allow the students to learn the vital skills allowing them to succeed in future; both in industry and academia.

Head's Message

From HOD's Desk

Greeting from the Department of Management Sciences!! The world is going through a tremendous positive transformation, and in education its effects are clearly discernible. We in the Department of Management Sciences want to be part of this positive change utilizing our core strengths in Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, Operations Management, Data Analytics and Management Science. Our tryst with Management Sciences started way back in 1974, when the Department of Management Sciences (DoMS) programme was initiated to teach methods to plan, design, implement and manage production and services. Starting 1988, the Department of Management Sciences began the Ph.D. and the M.Tech program and since 2001 it incorporated the MBA programme in its curriculum also. Being an integral part of an institution of the stature of IIT Kanpur naturally helps the department and its programmes imbibe all the values and ethos that have made the institute an epitome of excellence.

The rigorous education and training which the Ph.d, M.Tech and MBA students get, helps them to tackle the complexity of the engineering and business environment as they are able to unshackle themselves from the confines of mere technical competencies and assume the role of a complete techno manager. The Ph.d, M.Tech and MBA courses in the Department of Management Sciences are uniquely designed to train students with a holistic outlook. With a carefully designed syllabus, we keep up to the true IIT Kanpur tradition of sensitizing ourselves with the latest trends in the industry. The emphasis of the training in the Department of Management Sciences is on building technical as well as people skills, which is indispensable for each of our students to do well in their life. The class being a heterogeneous mix of academically motivated graduate engineering/masters in sciences students from diverse, yet related fields naturally enriches the learning environment, turning it into a fountainhead of vibrant ideas.

The response from both academic institutes as well as industry has been very enthusiastic and encouraging. This bears testimony to the fact that our Ph.d alumni have made us proud by assuming faculty positions in reputed institutes like IIT Delhi, IIM Calcutta, IIT Kharagpur, IIM Kashipur, IIM Sambalpur, IIIT Gwalior, XLRI, MDI Gurgaon, etc. The placement of the M.Tech as well as MBA students has been equally encouraging as they have joined UPSC services and companies like Barclays, Tata Motors, Nomura, Amazon, CRISIL, Mu-Sigma, McKinsey, Reuters, HSBC, etc.

All these achievements of the department would not have been possible without the enthusiastic and dedicated work of our past and present faculty members. DoMS faculty members are exceptionally dedicated set of teachers and at the same time top notch researchers in their field of study publishing on regular intervals in journals like ORL, EJOR, Networks, JBF, QF, ISR, COR, etc. They have also done the department extremely proud by holding exalted academic positions like Director NITIE, Director IIIT Bangalore, VC UPTU, Director IIM Lucknow, Deans at different levels in IIT Kanpur, etc. Many of the faculty members of the department have also won and have been conferred many prominent awards/fellowships like Lanchester Prize, Fellow INAE, IUSSTF Fellowship, INAE Outstanding Teacher Award, ERUSMUS Fellowship, DAAD Fellowship. DoMS has also been in the fore front of industry interaction and has worked and is still involved with projects related to Indian Railways, IOCL, Indian Armed Forces, Syndicate Bank, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, different MSME, etc.

We are supremely confident that in years to come DoMS with its rigorous and regularly updated syllabus, top notch research, innovative teaching techniques and active participation with industry will enforce the reputation of itself as well as that of IIT Kanpur as an enviable seat of higher learning.

 


Dr. B. V. Phani,
Head, Department of Management Sciences (DoMS)