College of Engineering, Trivandrum


The College of Engineering Trivandrum, commonly known as CET, is the first engineering college in Kerala, situated in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. It was founded in 1939 during the reign of the Travancore King, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma.

History

On 3 July 1939, the college formally came into existence. The institution owes its foundation to the vision of the Maharajah of Travancore, Sree Chitra Tirunal Balarama Varma. It initiated in the former office and bungalow of the Chief Engineer. Maj. T. H. Mathewman was appointed as the first principal of the college with Vastuvidya Kushala Sri, Balakrishna Rao and Prof. D. L. Deshpande on the faculty. The college had an intake of 21 students each for the Degree courses in Civil, Mechanical and Electrical branches of Engineering, under the then Travancore University. With the establishment of the Directorate of Technical Education in the late 1950s, the college administration came under the direct control of the government. In 1960, the college was shifted to its present 45 hectare campus at Kulathoor. The undergraduate and postgraduate courses are accredited by AICTE. The college has a library, a central computing facility and a planetarium.

General information

The college began on 3 July 1939 as a part of the erstwhile University of Travancore, Kerala, India.
The college campus is situated in Kulathoor near Sreekariyam, 13 km from Thiruvananthapuram Central. Extending over 125 acres of land, it has one of the most spacious campuses in the country. The Masterplan of the campus, and the magnificent main building and other structures in the campus were designed by Prof. Joseph. Chandra Alexander, who was the first Chief Architect and Chief Town planner of the Govt. of Kerala. He was also instrumental in starting the first Architectural education centre of the state in this college.

The main building resembles a spanner from the air, around which are spread the departmental buildings, library block, laboratories, workshops, hostels, a planetarium, staff quarters, canteens and stadiums. The campus is one of the greenest in the country, and has won accolades from environmentalists and nature enthusiasts alike.
It is one of the few technical institutions in South India, which admits students mostly on a merit basis through an All Kerala Engineering Entrance Examination. Admission to this institution requires good ranks in this examination. Besides the regular B.Tech., B.Arch., M.Tech., M.Plan. and MCA programmes, the college also conducts Part Time B.Tech. and M.Tech. classes for meritorious diploma holders. There is Lateral Entry Scheme to admit meritorious diploma holders to the
Second Year/Third Semester of the B.Tech. courses to acquire a degree in
engineering based on a state-level entrance examination.
There is a proposal to convert CET to a Centre of Excellence, upgrading it to a 'Kerala Institute of Technology'. Then a Technical University can grow around it.
The college has a student community which runs technical and cultural inter-collegiate festivals. There are several unusual aspects at CET, including a lingo of its own and customs such as 'Demo Week', where final year students dress up according to themes.

Academic

The college offers undergraduate B.E., B.Tech. and B.Arch. programs. Some B.Tech. programmes of which are offered as evening programmes as well. It also offers part-time and full-time postgraduate programmes in engineering and architecture, as well as Master of Business Administration and Master of Computer Applications.

Admissions

The institute admits students based on the following entrance exams.
;Undergraduate programmes
;Postgraduate programmes
College of Engineering, Trivandrum was ranked 85 among engineering colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2020.
Architecture department of College of Engineering, Trivandrum was ranked 11 among architecture colleges by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2020.

Facilities

ISTE Student Chapter

The ISTE Student Chapter is the largest technical society in the college with more than 80% of the student body as its members. It provides a platform for students to showcase their talents. Ever since its formation, ISTE Students Chapter has helped its members scale heights of technical excellence through the numerous events it has conducted. The ISTE Student Chapter has successfully organised intra-collegiate tech fests such as Prarambh, Exodus, Semfiesta and Persona along with several talks, workshops, quizzes and business events every year. There have been two National Level techfests 'Aavishkar' in 2006 and 2009. ISTE CET is the best ISTE student chapter in India.

IEEE Student Branch

activities in CET were initiated on 15 June 1983 as student branch under the Kerala section. It was revived in the year 2008. As of January 2012, CET IEEE Student Branch has around 100 student members. The Student Branch has a library. One affinity group called IEEE Women in Engineering is running under this Student Branch and two societies namely Computer society and Communication Society. The student branch won many prizes as well as represented the college in many international avenues, including the best website award in the Asia Pacific region in 2010, represented Kerala in the Asia Pacific Student Congress at New Zealand, won prizes in the student poster and paper contest at the Global Humanitarian Technology conference at Seattle etc. The team of student branch officers consists of chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary.

SAE Student Chapter

CET also has a student chapter of SAE- the Society of Automotive Engineers, the century-old society Thomas Alva Edison, Henry Ford and numerous other greats were members of. Students from CET have participated in SAE INDIA National competitions like the Baja and Efficycle. SAE INDIA CET regularly holds educative sessions on automotive technology- from bicycles and skateboards to trains and rockets. The student chapter also trains students in CAD.

IET Student Branch

The IET is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community, with more than 160,000 members in 127 countries and offices in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The Institution of Engineering and Technology Students chapter in College of Engineering was initiated in 2009. The IET CET http://ietcet.org has a library and an embedded systems research lab at the college. It has over 125 members in the college. The IET Chapter in the college won the Best Chapter Award under the Chennai Local Network in 2009. The chapter's activities include conducting workshops, seminars and technical competitions. Innovation Challenge is an annual event hosted by the chapter to ignite the innovation passion among the engineering Students of Kerala.

Innovation Centre CET

The Innovation Centre is a lab facility operated for the students by the students of CET. It was established in May 2012 and has become the den of geeks and Greeks in the college. Unlike most other technical organisations in the college, Innovation centre is government funded. The Innovation Centre is open 24 x 7, with supervision. The facility also organises talks and training sessions in technical activities and also acts as a think tank where students meet to discuss their ideas on technical advances. In addition to it activities within the college, Innovation Centre CET hosts EUREKA, a statewide project competition annually. It is also a guidance center where students get advice and help for their projects and tech related activities. Working in unison with the IPR cell and the Technology Business Incubation facility, the Innovation Centre also helps students in patenting and marketing the technologies they develop.

Entrepreneurship Development Cell

The Entrepreneurship Development Cell is a fully functioning student body registered under the Technology Business Incubator of the College of Engineering Trivandrum. The club provides a platform for students with ideas to convert them into business reality. The stated aim of EDC is to foster a student start-up culture in the institution. Club activities include seminars by firms such as Blackberry, classes on the basics of the Stock Market, sponsorship activities, talks with prominent start up ventures and trips to events all over India like Hackathons and Entrepreneurship Conferences. The Entrepreneurship Development Cell, started in late 2011, already has 3 start-ups registered under it.

NSS CET

The National Service Scheme primarily stands for channelising the student youth for building the nation. The youth in all ages has been in the vanguard of progress and social change. On 18 October 2006 NSS CET was inaugurated.
NSS is now the most active organisation in the college. NSS cet is now capable of conducting even more than 25 programmes a year in midst of a busy academic schedule. Also from a bunch of students at the time of formation, the number of NSS volunteers is now more than a hundred. Also NSS cet is now an established one with a website and a special room for its activities.http://www.nsscet.org Last year NSS even came up with an Alumni section, a rare thing for an organisation in college. As part of the new requirement of A.P.J. Kalam Technological University, a new unit of NSS was started

RoboCET

RoboCET is the robotics club of CET formed by a group of robotic enthusiasts among the students of the college. RoboCET was established in April 2008. The activities of this club include conducting classes, workshops and exhibitions on robotics. RoboCET has organised various robotics competitions inside and outside the college.

FOSS Cell CET

FOSS Cell CET consists of students and faculty from College of Engineering, Trivandrum who strongly believe and support the concept of Free and Open Source Software by sharing their knowledge on opensource programming languages, frameworks, customisation, all under the platform of GNU/Linux.

CET SHUTTERBUGS

The official Photography Club of College of Engineering Trivandrum, to promote creativity through photography, to share and critique the photographs of peers, to educate and improve technical skills, and to spread the love of photography throughout the CET community.

CETALKS

CETALKS is the original in- house talk show of College of Engineering, Trivandrum. It was a talk series program that was founded in January 2015 during the 75th anniversary celebrations of the college. Eminent personalities from various fields of expertise address the college audience under this program. CETALKS is a regular dose of inspiration to students and faculty alike. Societies such as SAE INDIA CET, IEEE SB CET, Innovation Centre and STEAM tables have organised professional discourses under this banner.
Cetalks is also the name of the college's official radio. New shows are aired occasionally at 9 pm on weekends.

STEAM tables

STEAM tables is an in- college research oriented discussion platform that is devoted to promote technical discussions and to identify niche problems in different arenas that could be solved by engineering. The objective is to improve the quality of research and student projects from the college.

CET Quiz Club

CET Quiz Club is one of the oldest and most active club in CET. CET QC conducts weekly informal sessions and other regular quizzing events in college. The club also organizes the inter college and open quiz competitions during Dhwani and Dhrishti, among others. One of the most awaited annual quizzing event, Eroteme, is conducted by the QC and attended by quizzers in and out of the state. Quiz Master Major Chandrakant Nair has hosted all 4 editions of Eroteme.

Notable Alumni