In consonance with first Statutes for National Institutes of Technology and based on the minutes of 29th meeting of Board of Governors of NIT-T (pertinent to thrust areas under any other item) held on 6th January, 2012, the Centre of Excellence in Corrosion and Surface Engineering (CECASE) was formally inaugurated by Dr.T.Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India with the august presence of Prof. Rajaram Nithyananda, Chairman, Board of Governors, NIT-Tiruchirappalli andDr.S.Sundarrajan, Director NIT-Tiruchirappalli on 26.02.2012. The Centre is poised for excellence in research and consultancy with many objectives including effective collaboration with small, medium and large scale industries. A team of fifteen members has been drawn from faculty of almost all Departments of this institute including Department of Management Studies, keeping in mind, the multidisciplinary nature of the Centre.
So far it has conducted eight events, including the mega one – Three one day colloquium which was inaugurated through video conferencing by Shri. Ashok Thakur, IAS, Secretary (Higher education), MHRD, Govt. of India, during December 10 – 12, 2012 and Conduct of National Conference during April 22-23, 2013. Launching of CECASE News Bulletin and Academic Programmes in M.S. (by Research) and Ph.D. in Corrosion and Surface Engineering for the benefit of Executives drawn from various industries such as Southern Railway, NLC – Neyveli and M/s. High Energy Batteries are two ongoing perennial events for CECASE.
A brief consolidated profile of CECASE as on 01.12.2014 is given below (for details please refer at appropriate places and also visit http://cecase-nitt.blogspot.in:
| Sl. No. | Description of Technical Event / Activity | No. of Events / Activities | Duration held | No. of participants benefited |
| 1. | Two Day Short term course | 1 | Oct 18 – 19, 2012 | 200 |
| 2. | One day Colloquium | 3 | Dec 10 – 12, 2012 | 40 |
| 3. | National Conference | 1 | April 22 – 23, 2013 | 102 |
| 4. | Program on Corrosion Awareness Day | 1 | April 22, 2013 | - |
| 5. | Three Day Workshop on Engineering Tribology (for M/s. Rane Group of Industries) | 1 | Oct 30 – 31 and Nov 1, 2014 | 25 |
| 6. | CECASE News Bulletin (Online – Version) | 1 | - | - |
| 7. | MS (by Research) & Ph.D. Programmes | 2 | Since Jan 2013 | 15 (MS) + 05 (PhD) |
| 8. | Publications in Journals of International Repute | 20 | - | - |
| 9. | Paper Presentations in Internationals Conferences held abroad | 7 | SMT 26 @ France | - |
| 10. | Paper Presentations in National & International Conferences held in India | 25 | - | - |
| 11. | MoU signed with R&D / Industries | 4 | 1. CSIR – CECRI, Karaikudi 2. M/s. HEB, Mathur, Trichy 3. M/s. SPB, Erode. 4. M/s. Ponni Sugars, Erode. | |
| 12. | Project Proposals Submitted to Govt. agencies | 3 | - | - |
| 13 | International Collaboration | Efforts have been already initiated to have international Collaboration with R&D Centres situated in US, UK, Australia, Spain, Belgium and Denmark. |
This Centre of Excellence is desired to emerge as a Potential Technical Advisor to the policy makers of Govt. / Private Organizations working on the theme of Corrosion and Surface Engineering.
