The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT- Kanpur or IIT-K) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), it was declared an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act.
History IIT Kanpur was established by an Act of Parliament in 1960 by the Government of India. The institute was started in December 1959, initially in the campus of Harcourt Butler Technological Institute at Agricultural Gardens in Kanpur. In 1963, the institute moved to its present location, on the Grand Trunk Road near Kalyanpur locality in Kanpur district. The campus, which is planned and landscaped with the goal of environmental freedom, ease of movement and communication, was designed by Achyut Kanvinde.
During the first ten years of its existence, a consortium of nine US universities (namely MIT, University of California at Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University and Purdue University) helped set up IIT Kanpur's research laboratories and academic programmes under the Kanpur Indo-American Programme (KIAP). The first director of the institute was P. K. Kelkar (after whom the Central Library was renamed in 2002).
Under the guidance of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, IIT Kanpur was the first institute in India to offer Computer science education.E.C. Subbarao: An Eye for Excellence, Fifty Innovative Years of IIT Kanpur; Harper Collins Publishers, India, 2008. The earliest computer course was started at the institute in August 1963 on an IBM 1620 system. The initiative for computer education came from the Electrical engineering department, then under the chairmanship of Prof. H.K. Kesavan, who was concurrently the chairman of Electrical Engineering and head of the Computer Centre. Prof. Harry Huskey of the University of California, Berkeley, who preceded Kesavan, helped with the computer activity at IIT-Kanpur. In 1971, the institute began an independent academic program in Computer Science and Engineering, leading to MTech and PhD degrees.
In 1972 the KIAP program ended, in part because of political tensions between India and Pakistan (as the USA supported Pakistan). Government funding was also reduced as a reaction to the sentiment that the IIT's were contributing to the brain drain.
The institute's annual technical festival, Techkriti, was first started in 1995.
Campus
IIT Kanpur is located on the Grand Trunk Road, west of Kanpur City and measures close to . This land was donated by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 1960 and by March 1963 the institute had moved to its current location.
The institute has around 6478 students with 3938 undergraduate students and 2540 postgraduate students and about 500 research associates.
The academic area comprises the central library, departmental buildings, research centres, lecture hall complex, tutorial block and auditorium. The student hostels and other facilities like Student Activities Centre (SAC), Sports Complex lie outside the academic area. There are 15 Halls of Residence which are allotted to undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students. Additionally, married research scholars are allotted Single Bedroom Apartment (SBRA) facility on campus.
Noida Extension centre IIT Kanpur has its Extension Centre in Noida with a small convention centre there for supporting outreach activities. Its foundation was laid on 4 December 2012 on 5 five acres of land allocated by Uttar Pradesh state government in the sector-62 of Noida city, which is less than an hour's journey from New Delhi and the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The cost of construction is estimated to be about 25 crores. The new campus will have an auditorium, seminar halls for organising national and international conferences and an International Relations Office along with a 7-storey guest house. Several short-term management courses and refresher courses meant for distance learning will be available at the extension center.
Transportation service Being a major industrial town, Kanpur has good connectivity by rail and by road, but lags behind in terms of air connectivity. IIT Kanpur was suffering significantly in comparison to IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay due to this reason as far as visiting companies and other dignitaries are concerned. On 1 June 2013, a helicopter ferry service was started at IIT Kanpur run by Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited. In its initial run the service connects IIT Kanpur to Lucknow, but it is planned to later extend it to New Delhi. Currently there are two flights daily to and from Lucknow Airport with a duration of 25 minutes. Lucknow Airport operates both international and domestic flights to major cities. IIT Kanpur is the first academic institution in the country to provide such a service. The estimated charges are Rs. 6000 (US$100) per person. If anyone would like to avail the facility, he/she has to contact the Student Placement Office (SPO) at IIT Kanpur, since the helicopter service is subject to availability of chopper rights. The campus also has airstrips which allows flight workshops and joyrides for students. Currently Kanpur Airport has a domestic airport terminal at Chakeri, with flight connectivity to New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Bengaluru airports.
The IIT campus has links to the Kanpur Metro at IIT Kanpur metro station. The Metro links the campus to Kanpur Central railway station.
New York Office The institute has set up an office in New York with alumnus Sanjiv Khosla designated as the overseas brand ambassador of the institute. It is located at 62 William Street, Manhattan. The office aims to hunt for qualified and capable faculty abroad, facilitate internship opportunities in North American universities and be conduit for research tie ups with various US universities. The New York Office also tries to amass funds through the alumni based there. A system that invites students and faculty of foreign institutes to IIT Kanpur is also being formulated.
Organisation and administration Governance
All IITs follow the same organization structure which has the President of India as the visitor at the top of the hierarchy. Directly under the president is the IIT Council. Under the IIT Council is the board of governors of each IIT. Under the board of governors is the director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. Under the director, in the organizational structure, comes the deputy director. Under the director and the deputy director, come the deans, the heads of various departments, and the registrar.
Departments The academic departments at IIT Kanpur are: Engineering Humanities Inter-Disciplinary Aerospace Engineering Biological Sciences and Bioengineering Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Science and Engineering Electrical Engineering Materials Science and Engineering Mechanical Engineering Design Sustainable Energy Engineering Space, Planetary & Astronomical Sciences & Engineering Intelligent Systems Humanities and Social Sciences Environmental Engineering and Management Photonics Science and Engineering Material Science Nuclear Engineering and Technology Sciences Management Economics Mathematics and Statistics Physics Earth Sciences Cognitive Science Chemistry Management Sciences Economic Sciences
Academics
Undergraduate IIT Kanpur offers four-year B.Tech programs in aerospace engineering, biological sciences and bio-engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering. The admission to these programs is procured through Joint Entrance Examination. IITK offers admission only to bachelor's degree now (discontinuing the integrated course programs), but it can be extended by 1 year to make it integrated, depending on the choice of student and based on his/her performance there at undergraduate level. IIT Kanpur also offers four-year B.S. Programs in Pure and Applied Sciences (Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in particular), Earth Science and Economics.
New academic system
From 2011, IIT Kanpur has started offering a four-year BS program in sciences and has kept its BTech Program intact. Entry to the five-year MTech/MBA programs and Dual degree programme will be done based on the CPI of students instead of JEE rank. In order to reduce the number of student exams, IIT Kanpur has also abolished the earlier system of conducting two mid-term examinations. Instead, only two examinations (plus two quizzes in most courses depending on the instructor-in-charge, one before mid-semesters and the other after the mid-semesters and before the end-semesters examination), one between the semester and other towards the end of it would be held from the academic session starting July 2011 onward as per Academic Review Committee's recommendations.
Postgraduate Postgraduate courses in Engineering offer Master of Technology (MTech), MS (R) and PhD(Doctor of Philosophy) degrees. The institute also offers two-tier MSc (Master of Science) courses in areas of basic sciences in which students are admitted through Joint Admission Test for MSc (JAM) exam. The institute also offers M.Des. (2 years), M.B.A. (2 years) and MSc (2 years) degrees. Admissions to MTech is made once a year through Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering. Admissions to M. Des are made once a year through both Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) and Common Entrance Exam for Design (CEED). Until 2011, admissions to the M.B.A. program were accomplished through the Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET), held yearly, and followed by a Group Discussion/Personal Interview process. In 2011, JMET was replaced by Common Admission Test (CAT).
Admissions Undergraduate admissions until 2012 were being done through the national-level Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE). Following the Ministry of Human Resource Development's decision to replace IIT-JEE with a common engineering entrance examination, IIT Kanpur's admissions are now based on JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) -Advanced level along with other IITs.
Postgraduate admissions are made through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and Common Admission Test.
Rankings
Internationally, IIT Kanpur was ranked 222nd in the world by the QS World University Rankings of 2026 and 6th in India.
IIT Kanpur was also ranked 5th in the overall category, 5th in Innovation Category, 7th among research institutions, 4th among engineering colleges and 29th among management schools in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024. Outlook India ranked IIT Kanpur 5th among government engineering colleges In India Today Best Engineering Colleges 2024, IIT Kanpur was ranked 3rd.
Centres and labs
The campus is spread over an area of . The institute has its own airfield for flight testing and gliding. The departments have their own libraries, laboratories and research facilities including the National Wind Tunnel Facility.
Research centres at IIT Kanpur include: Advanced Centre for Electronic Systems (ACES) Advanced Centre for Material Science (ACMS) Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies Centre for Lasers and Photonics Centre for Mechatronics Centre for Nanosciences Centre for Technology for Sustainable Development DIA Centre for Excellence Interdisciplinary Centre for Cyber Security and Cyber Defense of Critical Infrastructures Mehta Family Centre for Engineering in Medicine National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering Prabhu Goel Research Centre for Computer and Internet Security Samtel Centre for Display Technologies