Coimbatore Institute of Technology was founded in the year 1956 by V. Rangaswamy Naidu Educational Trust.Prof. P. R. Ramakrishnan, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MIT Sloan School of Management alumni, a visionary, philanthropist, industrialist and also former Member of Parliament was the founder principal. Founder of CIT was Sri.V.Rangaswamy Naidu. The philanthropic founders envisioned a unique professional learning order with special prominence on industrial training. CIT was affiliated to Madras University from 1956 to 1980. In 1980, the Institute became affiliated to Bharathiar University and subsequently to Anna University in 2001. CIT is recognized by the All India Council for Technical Education. The Institute was granted autonomous status in 1987 and is accredited by the National Board of Accreditation.
Academics
CIT offers 9 Under Graduate Academic Programmes and 12 Post Graduate Academic Programmes in addition for M.S. and Ph.D. Research Programmes. The CIT Sandwich Polytechnic College was started in 1961. Presently, 8 Engineering Diploma Programmes are offered by the polytechnic in various engineering disciplines. The National Board of Accreditation has accredited the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering diploma programmes.
The students union constitutes of 20 clubs which include arts, dramatics, muthamizh mandram, film, karate, literary, music, nature, photography, quiz, Kalam Knowledge Club, space, sports, NSS, NCC, YRC, RSP, Entrepreneurship development cell, Women Empowerment Cell, YHAI and Rotaract. All the branches of engineering, technology, and applied sciences run associations which organize technical meetings and symposia in their respective disciplines. The Coimbatore Regional Centre of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers functions with its office at the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Institute. The Coimbatore centre of the Indian Welding Society has been functioning in the Institute since 2002 in the department of Mechanical Engineering. A student branch of IEEE functions with its office in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in the Institute. The Institute has facilities for ball badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, tennikoit, tennis and volleyball.
Symposiums
Interface
Interface, an inter-collegiate technical symposium, is conducted by the circuit branches of Coimbatore Institute of Technology. Interface is held for two days in the month of February every year and invites the university students across the country, helping the external university students to showcase their projects, present research papers, network with other university students and participate in various events on campus. This symposium is organized entirely by students—of various departments—from fund raising for the events to event management.
Technovation
It is a national level technical symposium by the Chemical, Civil and Mechanical engineering students conducted during September every year.
Cyber Fest
It is a National Level Student Technical Symposium organized by Department of Computer Applications Association during January every year conducted By M.sc Software Engineering and M.C.A. Students.
Notable alumni
Akkineni Ramesh Prasad - 1960 BE Mechanical, director, Prasad Media Corporation, Hyderabad & Prasad Film Laboratories, Chennai
R. Prabhu - 1968 BE Mechanical, former Union Minister of India
