CIC B.Tech Program: Admissions, Curriculum, Research, Campus Life

Name: CIC DU Students Honest Review | Reality of Cluster Innovation Centre DU | Video -75/365
Uploaded: 2026-03-19T07:55:49.770658+00:00
Duration: 21 min 20 s
Channel: College Drisya
Description: Summary and key takeaways on CIC B.Tech Program: Admissions, Curriculum, Research, Campus Life, covering to CIC B.Tech Program The Centre for Innovation in

College Drisya

Mar 19, 2026

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21 min video

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3 min read

YouTube video ID: H7RaJLlw_ok

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The Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CIC) offers a B.Tech program titled Information Technology and Mathematical Innovations. The speaker, with 2.5 years of experience at CIC, aims to give honest insights into admissions, curriculum, campus life, research, and extracurricular options.

Admissions Process

Entry to the B.Tech program requires the CUT UG examination. Candidates must sit for papers in Mathematics, General Aptitude Test (GAT), and a language paper; English is not mandatory. The institute does not publish specific cutoff marks, and they change each year. CIC also runs a BA Hons in Humanities and Social Sciences and an M.Sc. in Mathematics Education, but the focus here is the B.Tech pathway.

Course Structure & Specializations

The B.Tech curriculum blends IT applications with mathematical fundamentals. It is divided into three specialization streams:

Electronics, Physics, Embedded Systems & Robotics – covering hardware and system design.
Management, Economics & Commerce – formerly called Managerial Economics, integrating business concepts.
Systems Biology – a holistic study of organisms or biological systems as whole entities.

Each stream applies core IT and mathematics to its domain, and students can tailor projects to their interests.

Campus Environment

CIC is a very small centre with a calm atmosphere and a strict no‑ragging policy. Peer‑to‑peer learning is emphasized, and relationships among seniors, juniors, and faculty are described as among the best worldwide. Faculty are reachable via WhatsApp at any hour or by visiting their cabins, allowing students to pitch ideas and seek help even late at night. The curriculum includes month‑long projects that apply concepts from a single paper to a real problem, and semester‑long projects that tackle larger, interdisciplinary challenges.

Future Opportunities & Placements

There is no dedicated placement cell, and the industry outreach cell is inactive. Nevertheless, the centre was founded on research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, preparing graduates for jobs or higher studies. Alumni are spread globally, from New Zealand to the United States. The program may not suit students whose primary goal is hardcore DSA‑focused placement preparation.

Research Opportunities

Semester‑long projects are research‑oriented, helping students discover a knack for research. The Student Internship Scheme supports research‑based internships, and faculty mentor students toward conference presentations or journal publications. These experiences build a foundation for future academic or industry research roles.

Extracurricular Societies

CIC hosts several societies: Colloquium (discussions on social, technological, and climate issues), Quizzing, Poetry, Music, Drawing, Photography, and Dance. Activity levels are modest because students devote much time to academics and research. The music society notes an imbalance between vocalists and instrumentalists.

Sports Facilities & Activities

Football players use a corner of the nearby stadium or the polo ground (about 1.5 km away) and compete in DU tournaments, though full pitch access is limited. Chess enjoys a calm environment with several strong players, including a FIDE‑rated participant and a junior rated above 1500. Players request a dedicated room and earlier event notifications.

Laboratories & Facilities

Active labs reside in the Design Innovation Center, notably the Epigenetic and Chromatin Biology Lab and the Nanobio Conjugate Lab. Some labs, such as the Engineering Kitchen and electronics labs, are largely inactive, with learning often conducted through computer simulations. Computer labs support high‑speed computing projects, and paid software like MATLAB and Wolfram Mathematica is provided by Delhi University. Hands‑on work in electronics or physics is limited, though a commerce student expressed interest in physics research.

Comparison with Other Institutions

IITs typically have more developed societal activities, while some DU colleges may better serve students focused solely on dramatics, music, or quizzing. CIC’s strengths lie in its research‑centric education and close-knit community.

Takeaways

Admission to the CIC B.Tech program requires the CUT UG exam with papers in Mathematics, General Aptitude and a language, and cutoff marks are not publicly disclosed and vary each year.
The B.Tech degree, named Information Technology and Mathematical Innovations, offers three specialization streams: Electronics/Physics/Embedded Systems/Robotics, Management/Economics/Commerce, and Systems Biology.
CIC’s small campus fosters peer‑to‑peer learning, strong student‑faculty relationships, and faculty accessibility via WhatsApp or cabin visits, with month‑long and semester‑long projects forming core coursework.
Research is emphasized through semester‑long projects and the Student Internship Scheme, with faculty mentorship that can lead to conference presentations or journal publications.
Extracurricular societies and sports exist but are less active due to academic focus; active labs are in the Design Innovation Center while many engineering labs rely on computer simulations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the three specialization streams in the CIC B.Tech program?

The program offers three streams: Electronics, Physics, Embedded Systems/Robotics; Management, Economics, Commerce; and Systems Biology, each integrating information technology and mathematics to study their respective domains.

How does CIC support research through its semester-long projects?

Semester-long projects are research‑oriented, allowing students to work on interdisciplinary problems under faculty mentorship, and the outcomes can become conference papers or journal articles, with the Student Internship Scheme providing additional research opportunities.

Who is College Drisya on YouTube?

College Drisya is a YouTube channel that publishes videos on a range of topics. Browse more summaries from this channel below.

Does this page include the full transcript of the video?

Yes, the full transcript for this video is available on this page. Click 'Show transcript' in the sidebar to read it.

Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.

Matlab Software For Technical Computing Recommended

MATLAB is a powerful software for technical computing, which is provided by Delhi University and used for high-speed computing projects and simulations, as mentioned in the video.

Amazon →

Wolfram Mathematica Software License

Wolfram Mathematica is a technical computing software provided by Delhi University, useful for the mathematical and IT-focused curriculum described.

Amazon →

Design Innovation Center Equipment

The video mentions active labs in the Design Innovation Center, suggesting that specialized equipment for areas like epigenetics and nanobio conjugates might be relevant for students interested in these research fields.

Amazon →

Links may be affiliate links. We only include resources that are genuinely relevant to the topic.

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Full Transcript YouTube

Since it's a very small center, that's
about the environment. No ragging at
all.
>> Uh it opens up a lot of options for us.
Also, CIC's professors are very helpful
and supportive in what you're doing.
>> Did not get a lot of facilities here.
Although we have the stadium right
behind our building. We do not get the
whole pitch to ourselves.
>> Chess and CIC is very calm. I would say
we have many good players.
Today we will be talking about CIC as a
junior with all my experience of 2 and a
half years at CIC with CIC from CIC.
Now we would try to give you some very
honest and internal insights through
this video. So initially let's clear all
the basic stuff. In order to get into
the BTE program at CIC, you need to
appear in the CUT UG examination where
you will apply for any one language
paper. English is not necessary. You
have to give the mathematics paper and
you also have to give the general
aptitude test paper. Apart from that,
CIC has two more courses. One is a BA
honors in humanities and social
sciences. One is an MSE mathematics
education. But we can talk about that in
later. This video will focus mainly on
the B Tech side of things. And please do
not ask for cut off marks because no one
really knows them, right? You have to
get 99% in each of the papers, language,
mathematics and your GAT papers. But do
not ask for the marks. It is going to
change every single year. But if you
want you can check the last year trends.
Maybe that will help. So now let's uh
deep dive into some of the more inner
topics.
What are the specialtities of CIC if you
come here to Mercy or Btech? Right.
First is the course and the course
structure.
Now the course is called information
technology and mathematical innovations.
So along with application of information
technology
there will also be a focus on the
fundamentals behind those IT techniques
and fundamentals of mathematics.
Apart from that we have uh three
specialization streams or minor streams
in whichever way you would like to call
it.
One is electronics and physics and
embedded systems robotics cluster of
that. The second is on you know earlier
it was called managerial economics but
now you can mainly call it surrounded by
management but of course you have some
commerce and economics subjects in that
as well.
And the third stream would be systems
biology. Now what is systems biology?
Systems approach in any subject means
you are not zooming into a particular
subdomain or a sub part right you are
considering the entire package together
and studying right so systems biology
means if it's an organism you are taking
the entire organism together all the
processes all the biological networks
which are at play in case of a
particular phenomena
And that's how you study the whole
thing. And the the focus is always on
applying your IT and mathematics which
is your major stream into studying these
minor streams. That's about the core
structure, right? Number two, the
environment here. The best part is that
there's peer-to-peer learning and the
relationship between seniors and juniors
and students and faculty has got to be
one of the best in the entire world. You
can say everyone is like friends and uh
since it's a very small center there are
not many people everyone knows each
other by their name and their face.
Right? Anytime you have a doubt at 900
p.m. at night, you can message your
faculty on WhatsApp, right? Or you can
simply walk up to them in their cabin
and you can discuss your problem. If you
have some project idea or research
topic, you can pitch it to a professor
and you can work on it together or you
can also get some of your friends
together and then work on it. Right? We
have something called you know
month-long projects which we have to do
for every subject that we study.
For one month we dedicate ourselves to
applying the concepts of that paper into
solving a real problem. And then we also
have something called a semesterl long
project. What we do in a semester long
project is it's a bigger problem
and
you know throughout the semester
we can apply multiple papers multiple
subjects and solve it using an
interdisciplinary
fashion you can say right and we try to
take real problems which matter which
need to be solved
that's about the environment no ragging
at all not just in CIC and due you won't
find any ragging at all. So don't worry
about it if that was something which you
were thinking right and number three you
know future opportunities.
So we do not have a placement cell that
might strike a chord in your brain but
that's how it is.
Our center was conceptualized and
founded by professor Dh Singh in 2010.
He was the vice chancellor of Delhi
University at that time.
And the center was
created with the philosophy of you know
research, innovation, entrepreneurship.
Placement has never been a concern. All
right.
That said, if you do want to get a job,
you won't have any problem because our
students are well prepared by the end of
the four years to get placed anywhere to
go for higher studies anywhere they want
to. And apart from that, if you ask any
faculty, they will say that our alumni
are everywhere from New Zealand on one
side to the United States of America on
the other side. So that's not a problem
at all. But even then if you know having
a traditional engineering journey where
you uh basically per practice a hardcore
data structures and algorithms then from
the third year itself you sit for the
placement cell for the company
interviews which the cell has brought.
CIC might not be the best place for you
if that's what exactly you are looking
for.
Now one more thing to add earlier we had
something called you know an industry
outreach cell it is no longer active so
you can see old records on old reports
on the existence of that it is no longer
active right so that's pretty much it
from the academic point of view in the
next section we will try to cover more
about the facilities which we have and
what kind of extracurricular activities
we engage in
engage in
>> okay so basically in CIC what happens is
that every semester uh we have a
semester long project and these semester
long projects are mostly research based
so initially during semester 3 and
semester 4 when I did carry out two
research projects under like my esteemed
professors I kind of realized that um I
do have an interest in knack for
research and I think uh similarly of a
lot of my classmates have found their
knack in research because of this
particular exposure that we get through
these semester long projects. It creates
a base for research and uh interest for
research and henceforth uh it opens up a
lot of options for us also in CIC for
research based projects. We have uh an
internship which is called the student
internship scheme where mostly students
do pursue research ba research based
projects which uh eventually like helps
us to build a base for the like in
future uh base for our future self which
like if we do want to pursue research.
So yes, this is like more or less about
the research internship opportunities
and the research opportunities in CIC
and also I feel CIC's professors are
very helpful and supportive of what
you're doing. So if you uh at any point
of time want to come up with a research
based internship it will like they will
be supportive and they will mentor you
or guide you throughout that internship
throughout that project or you know
whatever you want to take up. So yes
>> and like do the project works go on to
become confidence presentations or
publications.
>> So yes uh it uh depends on the professor
of course because as I told you about
the semester long research projects. So
those are m mostly like those are the
main research projects which are
conducted in CIC uh very regularly every
semester. So after the you know after
every semester the work you're doing
that definitely has to have some output
right. So that output may be in the form
of a product as well uh or in the form
of a research paper which again is
depends on the individual professor key
whether the professor wants to send to a
conference or not or whether it has to
be published in a journal. So yes, most
of the research works that you do for
the semester are like you know they are
targeted for you targeted to be
published in a conference or a journal.
So to give you an idea about some of the
co-curricular societies
which we have here now I'll mention some
of them like one society I'm an active
part of that it's called colloium. Okay,
it's not a standalone debating society
or a panel discussion society something
like that but
it's a mixture of that and it's a place
where we can you know discuss about
topics
my friend is going dead for more chance
concert happy everyone so yeah
uh
discussions conversations about you know
topics which matter. Social issues,
technological issues,
you know, climate could be anything.
Topics and questions which will make you
think which would challenge your
beliefs, your biases
and a lot more things are discussed in
this society.
Similarly,
we have a quizzing society. We have a
you know poetry society creat
also includes pros. We have a music
society you know but again one problem
with CIC right now is that there are
many vocalists and very few
instrumentalists at this at this moment.
Then
there's a drawing society, there's a
photography society and many of them,
right? Then there's also a dance
society, you see.
But the thing is that the societies are
not that active like we try to have
sessions
many of times but it's not that you know
you finish classes at 5:00 p.m. then
from 5 to 7 every day you're practicing
or you're doing the work like it happens
in the due colleges you see that thing
won't be there because students are
actually very much busy with busy with
research and academics. So that thing
has to be kept in mind. If you know
academics are your second priority
and you want to do the you want to make
a career or a living out of say
dramatics, music, quizzing then CIC
might not be the place for you. You
might want to go for a good Duke college
not a center or department like CIC.
But again if academically or in research
or in you know teaching you want to do
the main thing or you want to get placed
and along with that you want to explore
some of these stuff then CIC can be a
good option right
but still since this video is going to
be honest if you go to an IIT for
example of course they are much more
developed when it comes to societal
activities so keep that in
while you are thinking of this. Okay,
we were discussing about the condition
of sports exposure and facilities in
CIC. So to talk about football, we have
with us Arnish.
So he is an active player in the CIC's
football team. He has participated in
tournaments. He will walk us through the
situation of football. Anish.
>> So when it comes to football,
uh like any other sports,
we do not get a lot of facilities here.
Although we have the stadium right
behind our building, we do not get the
whole pitch to ourselves. But then there
is a corner of the pitch that we get to
use especially at the evening hours once
classes are over. But uh besides that,
there is not a lot of facilities for
sports. But there's a space and there is
at least you have your classmates to
play with and anytime there's a
tournament we get notifications for it
and we are always ready to create a team
and go and participate in any tournament
that we know are taking place in the
campus or outside anywhere in DU. So
that is the status of football here. We
are active but we would also we are
hopeful for more exposure, more
opportunities and more help and
assistance from the campus authorities
>> and can you take some special permission
to get a complete stadium to play in
case of a tournament for practicing and
all
>> for the college team only it is
difficult as said by the authority of
our college because they think and they
have informed us that it costs a lot of
money to rent it or use it for a day or
two. So they feel it is difficult to get
the entire field to ourselves. But then
we have the polo ground which is around
1 and a half kilometers from here to use
for our practice purpose. But then that
also is not very convenient
but that is to look at the bright side
an option we have.
>> Okay. And uh which all tournaments take
place? Do tournaments take place
regularly in Delhi University or
outside?
>> Um there is one tournament that attracts
a lot of teams and that is the Delhi
University football cup which in which
all the colleges participate in the
college football cup and there are also
other ones that are uh organized time
after time by colleges. Let's say SRCC
organizes its youth festival where it
has sports events that include football.
So that is one and other colleges that
have a
good football team or a good football
organization committee. They also
organize cups whenever they have a
routine for such schedule for such cups
and tournaments.
>> Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Now I want to tell you a bit
about the laboratories and those
situations in CIC. All right. Now
the two most active laboratories which
we have they are in another building by
the way which we call the design
innovation center. They are the one is
epigenetic and chromatin biology lab and
another will be the nanobio conjugate
lab. Okay. Like nanotechnology and
biology combination of that. Other than
that we
had something called engineering kitchen
which is quite inactive nowadays.
Okay. Then electronics labs are mostly
inactive and most of this kind of
education is actually done using
simulations on your computers. Computer
labs are generally not used unless you
are doing some you know high computing
related you know high speeded computing
related project. We do things on our own
PC systems itself which is not a bad
thing which is quite good if you see
things actually stay with us whatever
things we make whatever things we learn
then
if you want softwares like MATLAB wolf
from Mathematica
then
other software which are paid you know
most of them are paid for by the
University of Delhi itself. So you don't
have to worry about them. This is
another advantage which you have here.
Right? But like if you want to do some
lab work with electronics or physics
that's not something which you will get
here. And now I remember two years back
there was this guy
he was from a commerce background
actually and he had asked me that like
he was interested in physics and he
wanted to do some kind of studies and
work in physics. Now CIC's metech degree
if you see it is
you know you become eligible if you just
had mathematics up to class 12 and
science up to class 10th. He had science
up to class 10th. So he had asked me if
he could join CIC or not because he
wanted to
do research work and all in physics.
Eventually he did not join because
physics research yes you can do it but
he was more interested in proper
laboratory physics work which is not
available in CIC. So that's something
which you have to keep in mind.
Now we have with us Dhup. He is a he is
an international chess player and he
will walk us through the situation of
chess at CIC. So over to you. Yeah. So
chess and CIC is very calm. I would say
we have many good players as you'd
expect in a uh in a course with B tech
students. We have many casual players
and along with me we have one more
player in my batch itself who has a feed
rating and we have this year we have
also junior who is also a player he has
played fated at tournaments and is has a
rating of above 1500
and yeah we uh we also participate in
the interdu tournaments and recently we
participate in the SRC sports fest as
well. So like chess is a dominant sport
in CIC.
>> I wouldn't say dominant because it's not
as like it doesn't have as many players
as football or other sports has like
cricket. But yeah, it has definitely
like more more players than I would I
had expected initially.
>> And what kind of improvements would you
like to see? Uh dedicated room would be
nice for players to hang out, practice,
play like just a simple room with a
setup of just a table is enough for
chess as you know right we just need a
board and that's it. That would be very
nice to have and also uh with more
exposure like you know letting us
participate in all the events that D
organizes intimation of that earlier
would be very nice.