Take this as the opinion of an Alumni who passed out in 1995 after spending 4 glorious years in HBTI. Some things may have changed with time, but as I know of it today, most of what I am going to write remains as it is.
Brief History:The history of HBTI dates back to 1921. It started with a Bachelors degree in Applied Chemistry, that evolved into the Chemical Engineering discipline in the 1960’s. Some of the professors who taught me were ex-students on the 60’s batches. It went on to develop super specialised branches like Plastic Technology, Oil and Paint Technology, Food Technology, Leather Technology, Bio-Chemical engineering and technology etc. in the 1980’s. HBTI was the first institute in India to run the above degree courses. You would find some of the alumni in the who’s who of IPCL Ltd, Reliance Petrochemicals, HPCL, BPCL, Vam Organics, UB Group, Du Pont, Engineers India Ltd., Exxon etc.
The evolution: As time passed, other normal technology disciplines were added. These included Electronics & Telecommunications, Electrical, Mechnical, Civil, and of course Computer science and Engineering. HBTI has always had a good reputation in the Chemical Engineering discipline. This may be due to it decades of experience in churning out Chemical Emgineers as well as due to the Indian economy growing decently in the manufacturing / process industry sector. The fact that lot of the alumni were doing well in the industry has also been paying rich dividends, at least on the campus interview front. The year when I wrote the last of my examinations saw 100% placement before the results were out(Results were not that delayed!).
The Faculty: It would be unfair ot say that we have everybody of the calibre of Dronacharya. Some of the faculty was truly outstanding in the way they help students understand concepts - by communicating at the frequency of the avarage student. There were some who took their job for granted and wasted our precious time.
The Students: It would again be unfair to say that all were of the calibre of Arjun. We had students from very different backgrounds. Some were lucky to have gone to really good schools, and some could not. Some had done better in understanding basic concepts of mathematics and general science during school, while many other had to face the demon during graduation.
Tie-ups and research: HBTI has tie ups with several international bodies like IEEE, All India Institute of Chemical Engineers etc. Each department has its own tie-up with some organisations of their segment and conduct several research studies for mutual benefit. Copul of World Bank funded projects were being carried out by the Computer Science department and the Electronics depertment. Such efforts give the students an opportunity to start interacting with the industry before really entering the labrynth of corporate structures. I found the faculty, including the visiting faculty, to be very forth coming to help research students who sometimes get overwhelmed when practical problems demand radical solutions.
What makes it different: Despite being situated in Kanpur, a place not as well developed as any of our commercial hubs, the faculty are generally well aware of how the industry is shaping up - outside the region as well as outside the country. I am not sure of the actuals, but funds available to HBTI from UGC are not high enough to help build up an IIT like infrastructure, but the management manages to expose everyone to the latest technology during practicals and workshops. We were forced to think logically(something that I need everyday in corporate life now) and come up with viable soultions.
And yes, it borders the Kanpur Zoo! so some good company in the neighbourhood - so far no one has been admitted from there however.
What can HBTI do differently: It needs to do a few things to make the product(Engineering Graduates) more well armed in the real world:
Employ faculty who have had some real industry exposure in the fields that they teach. A cut-off of 5 years of minimum industry exposure would help weed out faculty who became teachers because they could become nothing else.(Is that true of other colleges too?)
Make it compulsary for all the faculty to be involved in research and development projects, in order to keep their skills and knowledge more recent. At present, it is not mandatory for faculty members to do so, and we have all seen the difference between this lot and the R&D savvy lot. After all they are teaching engineering, not the history of engineering.
Implement an assessment framework for faculty members, just like we have for students, to judge the current "form" of each faculty. This would be in a way linked in a way to point no 2. above. I have seen some professors who have really good reputation with our alumni, but their current perfomance or interest in the profession seemed fading.
And yes the cafeteria: That can do with a ramp up and a better menu. This is one aspect that I really missed. Students did not find good reasons to bunk classes, maybe a better cafeteria would help. Just kidding:-)
The website: That does not do justice to HBTI’s stature.
Disclaimer: I am a Chemical Engineer hence my review may be biased towards this discipline. Do conduct your own research before enrolling for a course(or a career) there. To begin with you can look at its website https://hbti.edu