“The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and its establishments need about 1000 aerospace engineers every year, while only about 400 pass out every year from 16 institutes in the country that offer aerospace engineering, including the IITs. To add to the gap, most of these engineers are hired by foreign institutes,” said M R Patkar, director of IIAEIT. “Currently, DRDO trains mechanical engineers in aerospace to fulfill their requirement,” said Prof G C Pant, dean (Academics) and pro-vice chancellor of Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT).

Not many universities offer aerospace engineering course is because it is a costly affair, given the huge investment needed for laboratories. “We have been running the course offered by Aeronautical Society of India which is equivalent to BE/ B Tech in aeronautical engineering for the past seven years and had the infrastructure and laboratories ready. Considering the imm5ense requirement for aerospace engineers, we thought of starting a full fledged B Tech course,” said Anshul Sharma, founder-chairman of IIAEIT.

The course was jointly launched by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Aeronautical Engineering and Research Organisation (AERO) at Indian Institute of Aeronautical Engineering and Information Technology (IIAEIT) near Warje on Monday.

Aero has designed the four-year fulltime course, IIAEIT will conduct the lectures and practicals, while some technical subjects will be taught by guest lecturers from Delhi via teleconferencing facilitated by IGNOU.

Prof Subhasis Maji, School of Engineering and Technology, IGNOU said that it is a myth that IGNOU offers only correspondence courses. There are others like BSc in nautical science that is conduced via videoconferencing through 3000 IGNOU study centres all over the country. “Similarly, IGNOU professors and invited lecturers from IIT will teach some technical subjects of this course via videoconferencing at IIAEIT that is one of its study centres,” he said. The DIAT has also extended its facilities for these students, Pant said. “If a student completes two years of this course and decided to quit for any reason, he/she will get a diploma certificate in mechanical engineering, while students who complete the course will get B Tech in aerospace engineering,” Sharma said.

The curriculum includes 19 laboratory courses, a one-year project in the seventh semester, eight elective courses in the final semester, industry visit and professional training. “The course that begins from this month will have 60 seats. This will be extended to Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad in June and the seats will be increased to 120 per centre,” Patkar said, adding that about 480 aerospace engineers will be produced by IIAEIT. While there will not be an entrance exam this year, HSC students with open category will need at least 55 percent on physics, chemistry, mathematics, while those in OBC will need 50 percent.

Those who have completed their diploma in any engineering field will get admission directly to second year of the course. The fees for the course is Rs 60,000 per year plus Rs 10,000 admission fees and students will get a certificate from IGNOU.