Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat (NIT Surat) is one of the 20 National Institute of Technology(NITs) in India and is among the premier institute of the country. The college has seven departments for seven main engineering disciplines, namely, Electronics engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer engineering, Mechanical engineering, Production engineering, Chemical engineering and Civil engineering.

ACM SVNIT Student Chapter
The ACM SVNIT student chapter, the first ACM chapter in entire Gujarat state, is also the first of its kind in SVNIT, as this is the first endeavor aimed at promoting computing research amongst the students at SVNIT. The chapter is one of the most active and largest student groups in the college. The number of chapter members stands at a staggering 170 members, from a meager 15 upon formation of the chapter just over a year ago. The chapter has members from diverse majors such as Computer engineering, Electronics engineering, Electrical engineering, Mechanical engineering, Production engineering, Chemical engineering and Civil engineering.

The recruitment process was initiated by organizing various seminars and workshops to spread the message of ACM and convey to the prospective members about the benefits they would get on joining the chapter and ACM. We tried to make sure that our membership was not only limited to the students of Computer Science so we kept seminars focusing on the use of computers in various branches of engineering and how students of these branches could benefit on joining the chapter and ACM.

In order to have an effective recruitment program the members of the executive committee and the officers of the chapter visited each and every hostel and talked to each and every student personally explaining them about the activities of the chapter and the benefits they would receive upon joining the chapter. An orientation of the ACM website was also given to the prospective members in groups so that they could make the best use of resources available on the site and it was made sure that any queries they had were answered at immediately. We also appointed students in each and every hostel to serve as the nodal officers. Their role was to spread information about the various activities of the chapter and address any queries that the members may have.

After the initial recruitment process at each and every event we distributed the membership forms and encouraged the students to join the chapter. We also took an active part in various Technical Fest held at the university. This not only created awareness among students from our university about the activities of the chapter but it also provided us a platform to reach a much wider audience which included high school students and students from nearby colleges. In the long run we plan to expand the reach of our chapter and ACM by attracting high school students through various events at their schools and helping nearby colleges start their own ACM chapters.

Our chapter, being one of the most active student bodies in the university, is now receiving encouragement from the authorities in the form of computers and a room to setup a laboratory where student members can work on various projects. We are sure that this would further encourage students to join the chapter and ACM in the coming years.

To attract students to join the chapter and ACM they should be given personal attention, so we made sure that we talk to each and every student individually in addition to giving orientation in groups. Thus our relentless and continuous effort paid off as the numbers speak for themselves.