My Life at Vellore Institute Of Technology

India has a vast number of engineering colleges to choose from. As a matter of fact choosing the correct university can become quite a daunting experience. This blog aims to help others in this process, by giving my experiences and perspective on Vellore Institute Of Technology, Vellore.

Why I chose Mechanical Engineering

I had joined Bachelors of Technology in Mechanical Engineering program at VIT in 2017. My main goal was to become a robotics engineer. Robotics being multidisciplinary I could have enrolled in any of the branches of engineering (Comp Sc., ECE, EEE or Mechanical). I took mechanical engineering because I found that building the mechanical features of a robot is very exciting (My exposure to various robotics competitions during my schooling also helped me to make this choice). I also felt that the other branches could be learnt from online resources.

How I spent my 4 years

I clearly remember my first day on campus. I had stood in the extremely long line to enroll myself into the hostel. Got my room keys, took the elevator (yes few hostels in VIT are huge, have like around 12 floors, so you need an elevator) to find my room, while carrying all my bags with me. I was accompanied by a helper who carried my mattress as well as another student from Kashmir. My room number was N-428, so I stopped on the 4th floor and went to find my room. To my surprise the other student had the same room number as me. It then struck me that he was my roommate and we were going to spend the next whole year in the same room together. We had an initial argument on who gets to choose the bigger closet and the bed, which was settled with a simple coin toss!! By the way I was in a 3 bed room and the other occupant had come earlier and conveniently chosen the best cupboard and bed in the room. Well the 3 of us (Yameen- who is from Kashmir, Guransh- the other roommate who was from Delhi) turned out to have a blast and became the best of friends.

first year roommates

The room was actually supposed to be a 2 bed room. Due to the massive population in VIT, they had added another bed an cupboard, which kind of cramped the whole room. But, well we learnt to adjust with it !!

VIT offers Fully Flexible Credit System (FFCS), where you get to chose your course and timings. So for each of the courses you will have a different set of classmates. This makes it really hard to make friends in classes. Luckily though in the first semester, the university assigns the same classes to a group of students, making it easier to find friends. I made a few everlasting friendships in my first semester.

My first semester friends (please excuse the mess in the room)

During my first year, I attended all my classes in the morning, played volleyball in the evening and did university work at night. I’m not an extremely studious guy, rather I like to experiment with things and work on stuff practically. VIT has two fests in year, a cultural fest called Rivera, and a science fest called Gravitas. In my first semester I wanted to take part in the RoboWars event (which was part of GRAVITAS), so I formed a team to do so. Well, the robot didn’t work in the end but it was a good learning experience.

Working on the RoboWars robot

The other reason as to why I joined VIT was due to its vast number of clubs and chapters. Chapters usually organize various events and workshops in the university, while clubs take part in some kind of competition or the other. These clubs take recruitments during the second semester. I attended the recruitment drive for almost all the robotics clubs and chapters. Finally, I joined a team called RoverX. This was one of the best decisions that I had taken in university.

I spent most of my time in my second year in RoverX. We used to work during the night time (from around 9PM to 2,3,4AM). Usual hostel curfew time for boys is 9PM, so you had to get a special pass from VIT to attend late night club activities which RoverX luckily had permission for. Most importantly this is where the FFCS system in VIT came handy. I chose most of the courses to be in the evening, so that I could sleep for enough time. Another advantage in VIT, is that if you get a CGPA of above 9, then you do not have any attendance restrictions (which is 75%). Since I maintained a CGPA of above 9, I did not have any pressure to attend classes. It was also in RoverX where I made a lot of amazing friends. Most people who join a club will have very similar interests, so its very easy to become friends with them.

I learnt a lot more in RoverX working on the rover than in my classes. My technical knowledge grew substantially, I was able to Design in CAD, run software simulations, come up with viable design ideas and decide upon suitable manufacturing processes. Further, I constantly worked in a team, so I learnt about managing people, stress and emotions. I gained a lot of exposure by participating in the University Rover Challenge held in Utah, USA. I met a lot of other teams and interacted with them.

Team RoverX at Utah

During my third year in college, I decided to quit team RoverX and convert my hexapod robot project into a research paper. I met Dr. G.Kalairassan (who was the head of the robotics lab) and under his guidance worked on research paper. Along with my research, I worked in a startup called Punar. Like many other universities VIT has a Technology Business Incubator (TBI), which promotes the startup culture in the campus. These startups often conduct recruitment drives, and I was able to join Punar through one such drive. You can even build your own startup if you have a good idea. The TBI provides you with grants of upto 1million (INR) initially along with an office in the campus itself to get your startup going.

The research culture in VIT may be a miss or hit depending on the department and topic you want to work on. For example, in the mechanical department itself, material science is really active in producing research papers, whereas robotics is not that active. It really depends on the professor and their specialization. There are certain professors that aim to publish at least 30–40 papers a year, and by approaching them you can easily publish a paper or two by the time you graduate.

In the beginning of fourth year, the pandemic struck and I went back home. Haven't been to campus since. All the classes and exams got shifted to an online mode. For my final semester I decided to work on a quadruped robot and developed a real world physics simulation of it on Pybullet (as I was not able to source all the parts on time, some of them had to come from US).

My quadruped robot simulation

General Stuff about VIT

1. The rules in VIT are strict. There is a biometric attendance in the hostel everyday night. You have to give your biometric otherwise they call your parents and inform them about your absence.
2. Incase you need to take leave, you have to get your parents to send an email to your proctor requesting leave for the certain period of time.
3. Almost everything including assignment submissions, checking grades, class attendance, hostel leave, fees payment etc. is all done through an online portal called Vtop. There is also an android app which lets you do the same.
4. All clubs and chapters are student driven. Professors do not take part in these activities.
5. Most clubs and chapters work during the night hours. To leave the hostel premises at this time you need special permission, which your club or chapter may or may not provide.
6. The boy to girl ratio is around 1:1 for courses such as computer science, electrical and electronics. But in mechanical, the ratio is more like 50:1.
7. None of the hostels have attached bathrooms. There is a common bathroom which gets cleaned everyday.
8. Not all hostel rooms have Air Conditioning (AC). Vellore gets extremely hot in the summer. So I suggest you try getting an AC room.
9. Every year we need to switch our hostel rooms. VIT provides you with a university student rank which is based on your academic performance. Depending on this rank you will have a counselling during which you can chose your hostel. So to get an AC room you either have to study well or become friends with someone who studies well.
10. You need around 180 credits to graduate, out of which 130 credits are covered by core subjects (this includes university core courses as well as program specific core courses). The rest of the credits come under the category of electives. You can chose subjects that interest you and accordingly take them.
11. The FFCS system has its flaws. You have to chose your courses online on a specific date and time. Seniors have priority over juniors, so their time slot for registering courses is before the time slot for juniors. Because of this, courses which have high demand may be hard to get. You must be prepared accordingly with backup courses during course registration.
12. VIT has its own hospital infrastructure which is pretty decent. In case of a major accident they immediately shift you to CMC which is one of the best hospitals in the world.
13. There is a network of AC cabs in VIT. They charge you 10 rupees to travel from one point to another. These cabs get pretty crowded during the peak timings (around 8 in the morning and immediately after lunch).
14. VIT is extremely crowded. There are a lot of people. Totally around 30 to 40k students on the campus.
15. Around 50% of the students in VIT are from north India, so lot of Hindi speaking happens. I made a lot of north Indian friends and learnt a substantial amount of Hindi myself.
16. There is no direct flight to Vellore. The nearest airport is in Chennai. The closest railway station is Katpadi Junction which is close to campus.
17. Placement in VIT is really good. Almost everyone gets a job, though it may not be a core company. Many of my friends who studied mechanical are currently doing a job in software in TCS. Core jobs for mechanical include working in L&T, Bosch, Flipkart Logistics, Renault, Hyundai and many other automobile companies.
18. In case you are applying abroad for masters, you will not get permission to attend campus placements.
19. Hostel mess food is decent, its not amazing but you will get used to it. There are 3 kinds of mess available, North Indian, South Indian and Special Mess (each has both veg and non veg options). I was in the special mess. The only thing special about it is that they give juice and eggs in the morning, as well as some sweet for lunch. Friday’s were special as they give biryani.
20. Swiggy and Zomato are available at all times and they deliver at the campus gate.

Some Special Rules for girls

This was compiled by my friend Anagha (she helped me out with the above points also) so shoutout to her.

1. During the first semester, girls are not allowed to leave the campus unless it’s an emergency. Apparently this applies to boys as well (I’m not sure though).

2. The procedure for taking leave from the campus is done through the Vtop portal and has to be approved by the hostel warden.

3. The in time for girls is generally earlier than the boys. Initially it could be frustrating but I realized later on that it made sense as there’s nothing much you can do around Vellore after 7PM.

4. There aren’t a lot of restrictions to clothes that you can wear in campus. As long as your dress or jeans isn’t above knee it should be fine.

Final Verdict

VIT can be an amazing place if you do things right. It provides you with a lot of opportunities, it is up to you to take them and make the best use of them. You can enhance your campus experience by participating in clubs, chapters and student teams that take part in various competitions. Finding and making friends with the correct peer group will certainly elevate your experience and propel you in the direction to fulfill your dreams and goals.

What I am Doing Now?

My plan after completing my bachelors was to do a masters in Robotics. I gave my GRE and TOEFL around September of 2020 and applied for masters in leading robotics institutes in the USA. I have received an admit from University of Michigan which ranks 4th in robotics. I hope to have a great time there!! If you have any further doubts regarding VIT or anything in general about college life, don't hesitate to contact me.