NIST University formerly, National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) is a private technical research[1] university located in Pallur Hills, Brahmapur, Odisha.[2]
NIST was started in 1996 by a group of academics and technocrats. It is promoted by SM Charitable Educational Trust under the vision and guidance of its founder Chairman Dr. Sukant Kumar Mohapatra[3]. The 70 acres campus is located in the Pallur Hills about 12 km from Brahmapur and three hours drive from Bhubaneswar.
Prior to its establishment Dr. Mohapatra has held meeting with the delegation led by then Chief Minister Janaki Ballabh Patnaik in New York to establish NIST in Odisha. Application for AICTE approval was based on full financial support and credibility of Dr. Mohapatra. Many non-resident Indians (NRI) (primarily academicians from the US) also supported it. Dr. Mohapatra had shipped a large number of computers, terminals, books, and journals during the early years of the institute.
The university offers B.Sc, B.Com, M.Sc, MBA, MCA, B.Tech, M.Tech & Ph.D programs in various disciplines.
NIST is the first NRI educational venture in the state of Odisha and first engineering college under Berhampur University affiliation. Later, it was affiliated to Biju Patnaik University of Technology after its inception. In 2024, NIST acquired a unitary technical university status by Odisha government.[5] The institute is approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
In order to make NIST a research oriented Institution, Mohapatra has organized various international conferences and seminars and enabled the visits of many NRI scientists and professors to the institute along with many other supports (e.g., formulation of course of studies, registering NIST under US .edu domain, company campus visit, student admission in US etc.) over the years.
In its 24 years, it has produced four Boys Cast faculty scholars who have been funded by the Government of India to pursue postgraduate research in the United States and Germany. NIST has produced three Fulbright scholars. Three of its faculty members have won the Samant Chandrasekhar Young Scientist Award given by the Government of Odisha. Two AICTE funded emeritus professors worked at NIST. The faculty of the institute have been awarded three URSI Young Scientist Awards. More than twentyfive post-doctorate scholarships have been awarded to institute faculty. The faculty members of the institute are alumni of IIN, IISc, ISI, Jadavpur University and Calcutta University. More than 35 faculty of the institute are from the CET alone which is a testimony to its ability to attract and retain top notch faculty. The faculties of the institute have published more than 250 journal papers in refereed journals and are authors of about 24 books. The institute also has its own publishing house called NIST Press. The institute has received a number of grants, projects, special funding, travel funding, SDPs, FIST grant, scholarships, from the DST, CSIR, AICTE and from various IT companies.
NIST is considered as a benchmark research institution in eastern India. The institute has recently signed MoU's for research collaboration in the field of nanosciences, communications, semiconductor technology with the National Taiwan University and University of Electro Communications, Japan. NIST has signed MoU with industries like Sandhur and SunMoksha for collaborative work in the area of nanotechnology and renewal energy. NIST, in association with IIT Kharagpur, is also part of the MHRD Virtual Laboratory project. Recently NIST collaborated with institutions like Academia Sinica, Brunel University, Myongji University, Stanford University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of California and IIT Kanpur[6]
The 70 acres Greenfield campus has five main buildings.
With many fountains, eucalyptus plantations, a rock garden and a cactus garden.
19°11′57″N 84°44′41″E / 19.199167°N 84.744722°E / 19.199167; 84.744722