Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee) is a technical university
located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. It is the oldest engineering institution in India.
It was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in 1847 during East India Company rule in India by James Thomason,
the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces in which Roorkee was located; its purpose was to train
officers and surveyors employed in the construction of the Ganges Canal.
In 1854, after the completion of the canal and Thomason’s death, it was renamed the Thomason College of
Civil Engineering by Proby Cautley, the designer and projector of the canal.
It was renamed University of Roorkee in 1949, and again renamed IIT Roorkee in 2001.
The institution has 22 academic departments covering Engineering, Applied Sciences,
Humanities & Social Sciences and Management programs with an emphasis on scientific and
technological education and research.