IIT Hyderabad started functioning from August 2008 form its temporary campus located in Ordnance Factory, Medak district. On February, 27, 2009, on its main campus in Kandi, the foundation stone of IIT Hyderabad was laid by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Hon’ble Chairperson of UPA. In its first year IITH had B.Tech. programs in Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering; with total student strength of 111. Keeping its thrust on research, the Ph.D. program was started in January 2009 and the M.Tech. program in August 2009. Since 2009, our maximum effort has targeted capacity building – particularly faculty recruitment. In August 2010, IIT Hyderabad had 50 faculty members in 11 departments – more are likely to join soon and the number will grow rapidly. In 2010, IIT Hyderabad has total student strength of 510 – 351 B.Techs., 83 M.Techs., 69 Ph.D. and 7 M.Sc. students. In fact the UG:PG ratio for the students admitted for the 2010-2011 academic year is 118:99. Soon IITH will have a 1:1 UG:PG ratio –in tune with the thrust on research and development.
From the very beginning IIT Hyderabad has emphasized research and development. Today, R&D has become a culture among the faculty and students of IITH. This culture is evident by the fact that IITH has nearly 25 sponsored R&D projects ranging from 18 lakhs to 18 crores; and these include several international projects. In short, this is the spirit of IITH; and it all began when the first faculty joined in August 2009. There are several innovations hub in the offing at IITH; some of these are Cyber Physical Systems, X-Materials, Nano Technology, Scientific Computing, and Sensor Technology.