The Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi) is a public technical and research university located in Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, India. It is one of the second-generation Indian Institutes of Technology established by the Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 (as amended in 2011), which confers it the status of an Institute of National Importance.
| Name | Indian Institute of Technology Mandi |
|---|---|
| Short name | IIT Mandi |
| Type | Public technical and research university |
| Status | Institute of National Importance |
| Established | 2009 |
| Location | Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, India |
| Main campus | Kamand Valley, on the banks of the Uhl River |
| Country | India |
IIT Mandi was set up as part of a wider expansion of the IIT system announced by the Government of India in the late 2000s, which led to the creation of new IITs in states that did not previously host one. The institute was established in 2009 and, in its initial years, operated from a transit campus while its permanent campus was developed.
The permanent campus is situated in the Kamand Valley, around the villages of Kamand and Salgi, a short distance from the town of Mandi. The campus is spread across two sides of the Uhl River, generally referred to as the North Campus and the South Campus, and lies in the lower Himalayan region at a relatively high elevation.
In its formative phase, IIT Mandi was mentored by IIT Roorkee, which assisted with academics, faculty recruitment and administrative setup. Academic programmes commenced with engineering disciplines and gradually expanded into the basic sciences, humanities and social sciences, and management and entrepreneurship.
The institute offers undergraduate (B.Tech), postgraduate (M.Tech, M.Sc., M.A. and similar) and doctoral (Ph.D.) programmes. Admission to the B.Tech programme is through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Advanced), in line with other IITs, and is coordinated through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA).
Academic activity is organised through schools rather than conventional departments, covering areas such as computing and electrical engineering, engineering, basic sciences, humanities and social sciences, and management. Interdisciplinary research centres at the institute work on themes including the Indian Himalayan region, artificial intelligence and robotics, biosciences and bioengineering, and clean energy.
The Kamand campus is one of the few IIT campuses located in a Himalayan setting, and its geography has shaped research interests in areas such as natural hazards, hydrology, mountain ecology and indigenous knowledge systems of the region. The institute also runs outreach and academic engagement activities relevant to Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring hill states.
As an Institute of National Importance, IIT Mandi contributes to higher technical education and research in India, with a particular focus on issues relevant to the Himalayan region. It is among the institutions that have helped extend the IIT model into states that previously had limited access to elite engineering education.