After a successful five year tenure, Dr Mini Shaji Thomas bid adieu as the Director of the NIT Tiruchy on Saturday. Taking charge as the first woman director of the 56-year-old institute, she ensured that NIT Tiruchy remained as the top institute among all the 31 NIT's in the country for the past few years. 

During her tenure, the institute improved its NIRF ranking from position 12 to 9 in the Engineering Category) and Position 34 to 24 in the overall category. A total of six centers of excellence, in the domains of advanced Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Energy Harvesting & Storage, Combustion and Emission studies and Electronic System Design, Calibration & Testing has been established in the campus along with the numerous infrastructure developments.

Other notable achievements during her term include a total of 19 Prime Minister's Research Fellowship (PMRF) awardees in the last three years,Green campus award for NIT Tiruchy campus in 2017, setting up of the TCS Foundation AI center at a cost of Rs 10 crore in 2021 and signing of several MoU with various engineering and technological giants. 

Mini Shaji Thomas also released the strategic plan (2019-34) for the institute in 2018, after conducting several rounds of consultations with stakeholders and experts. The plan which is significant in improving the quality of the institute, focused on five areas - teaching-learning, Research, collaboration, sustainability and governance, infrastructure.