Plan for a hi-tech seven-storey Mechanical Engineering block, a get-together of alumni from across the world are among the several programmes lined up for the year-long celebration.
Apart from the Visvesvaraya’s birth anniversary celebration on September 15, preparations and registration are on for what is being dubbed as a mega reunion of more than 5,000 alumni.
UVCE Principal K R Venugopal said: “Reunion of the college alumni will be held on January 2 and 3 at Palace Grounds, UVCE campus and Jnana Bharathi campus Bangalore. A vision for the institution as its steps into its second century will also be unveiled at the event.”
The institution, the fifth engineering college in the country, started with 20 students in Civil and Mechanical Engineering branches and today it boasts of a total intake of 1,159 students including 400 in postgraduate studies spread across 20 branches of engineering.
It all began in 1917, when Visvesvaraya as Diwan of Mysore felt that the State needed to have an engineering college of its own.
“Engineering colleges at Madras and Poona were not able to provide seats for the number of students for whom Mysore wanted provision. We wanted admissions for ten students annually but the authorities in Madras and Poona would provide only for two or three. Thereupon we decided to establish a college of our own in Bangalore,” Vivesvaraya had told UVCE students in his address during his visit to the college in 1955.
The PWD building was utilised to conduct classes for students. Visvesvaraya’s words on that day were prophetic.
“The college has done well already and I have no doubt that it will continue always to strive to raise its efficiency and reputation as one of the leading educational institutions of the country,” the legendary engineer, then 95 years, had said.
The institution was named after its founder in 1965, three years after his death.
The alumni of the college include top technocrats including Roddam Narasimha, M R Srinivasan, V K Aatre, Prahlad Rao and S Rame Gowda. UVCE engineers have contributed to society in various fields too - cine actor Ramesh Aravind, music director Mano Murthy to name a few.
Venugopal said several new initiatives will be unveiled at the mega get-together including plans for constructing a new centenary building, rebuilding the Mechanical Engineering block, a new boy’s hostel among others. Several blue-prints for the proposed buildings have already been prepared thanks to the enthusiasm among the alumni of the institution.
The new buildings will cost around Rs 70 crore and is being proposed to be mobilised through alumni contribution.
Venugopal, an alumni of the UVCE himself, said a documentary on Visvesvaraya and a book on the association of M V with the institution, would also be brought out on the occasion.
Alumni of UVCE who wish to register for the mega union can visit www.visionuvce.in