National Institute of Science and Technology

The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) was established in 1996 by a group of academicians and technocrats educated in established institutes of India and abroad. It is promoted by SM Charitable Educational Trust under the vision and guidance of its founder chairman, Sukant K. Mahapatra & Susil Kumar Dora, PhD, Stevens Institute of Technology & SSVM Digapahandi, NJ, USA . The institute is approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and is affiliated with BPUT. The institute campus of 70 acres is located in the Pallur Hills about 12 km from Berhampur and three hours drive from Bhubaneswar.

It is the first NRI educational venture in the state of Odisha and first engineering college under Berhampur University. The primary objective of the founders was to make NIST as a center of academic excellence and research in the field of science and technology in their home state of Odisha.

The institute has grown under the leadership of Sukant K. Mohapatra – Founder & Chairman. 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 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 twenty-five 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, etc. 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, the NIST Press. The institute has received a number of grants, projects, special funding, travel funding, SDPs, FIST grant, scholarships, etc., from the DST, CSIR, AICTE, IT companies, etc.

• NBA has accredited NIST in March, 2019 (CSE and ECE branches)
• NAAC has accredited NIST with grade A with a high score of 3.22
• NIST has been ranked #4 in eastern India and #13 in India by DataQuest – In 2016.
• 85th All India Rank by OUTLOOK 2016.
• BPUT (Affiliating University) students have ranked NIST as the No. 1 engineering institute among more than 100 engineering institutes of Odisha through public voting.

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, Khargapur, is also part of the MHRD Virtual Laboratory project.