Jabalpur Engineering College (JEC) is an institute located in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the oldest technical institution in central India and the 15th-oldest in India.^[1][2] It is the first institute of India to have started the Electronics & Telecommunication engineering education in the country, and also the last educational institution to be set up by the British in India.^[3][4] The Government of Madhya Pradesh is in the process of converting it into a Technical University.^[5]

JEC was established as the Government Engineering College (GEC), Jabalpur, on 7 July 1947, during the British rule in India. It was inaugurated by the then Minister for Education of the Central Provinces, S. V. Gokhale.^[6] It started functioning from the existing building of Robertson College, Jabalpur, which was constructed in the year 1916.^[7] The building now houses the Civil engineering department of JEC, and Robertson College has been shifted to its present and permanent campus in Pachpedi.^[8][9] Dr. S. P. Chakravarti, the then Head of the Electrical engineering department of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, was appointed as its first Principal.^[10]

JEC is the first institute of India to award B.E. in Electronics & Telecommunication engineering, which it is offering since 1947, the first institute of India to award M.E. in Microwave engineering, Radio & UHF engineering, VHF & Carrier Telephone engineering, and High Voltage engineering, which it is offering since 1953, and the first institute of India to award PhD in Advanced Electronics, which it is offering since 1955. JEC is the first institute of Madhya Pradesh to introduce BTech in Artificial Intelligence & Data Science, and Mechatronics, and MTech in Defence technology. It has installed the first TV transmitter of India, and the first HV laboratory of India.^{[11][12][6][4][13][14]} Madhya Pradesh's second Global Skills Park is being established at JEC over an area of 16 acres.^[15]

The Silver Jubilee ceremony of the institute was celebrated in 1972, in the presence of the then Education Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh.^[6] The institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997, while the President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Mohammad Shafi Qureshi and the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh, graced the Golden Jubilee ceremony.^[16][17] The Platinum Jubilee year was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Technical Education Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, and the Minister in-charge of Jabalpur, Gopal Bhargava, on 7 July 2021.^[18]

It was funded since its inception by the Government of India, until the creation of the new state of Madhya Pradesh.^[19] It was affiliated since its inception to the University of Sagar, until the creation of the University of Jabalpur, and then to the State Technological University of Madhya Pradesh. In 1997, it was granted an autonomous institute status,^[20] and in the year 2017, a proposal has been sent by the Ministry of Technical Education to the Government of Madhya Pradesh, to declare it a technical university.^[5]

The ongoing projects at JEC:^[27]

• CORE (Centre of Relevance & Excellence) by TIFAC (Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India)
• CIIILP (Canada-India Institute Industry Linkage Project)
• Indo-Italian Research project
• DSP Lab, Texas Instruments
• Sun Microsystems Training Centre
• Cisco Regional Academy of Networking Programme
• Centre for National & Academic Networking for Continuing Education with AICTE
• Renewable Energy Park – Govt. of India
• Centre of Fuzzy Logic System by Govt. of India
• Microzonation of selected cities of India by Geological Survey of India
• Research Project of Robotics & Manufacturing, Ministry of Science & Technology
• Software Technology Park of India, 2 MBPS HSDC Node, Ministry of Information Technology
• Fuller Energy Awards (State level) Selection
• M.P. Chamber consultancy clinic of Katni with MPCON
• Mini Tool Room, Ministry of Commerce & Industries, Government of India
• ERNET- AICTE Facility for Distance Learning & Digital Library
• Remote Sensing Resource Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
• MOUs signed with national & international organisations e.g. Infosys, Wipro, TCS, IBM, Cisco etc., for promoting training of students.
• STA (State Technical Agency) and Remote Sensing Centre of Prime Minister's Rural Road Project – Govt. of India

• JEC campus
• MiG-21 Supersonic Fighter Jet
• 105 mm Indian Field Gun
• T-55 Main Battle Tank

JEC has been developed as a small township, centred around Gokalpur and Ranjhi. It has a lush green campus of 255 acres (1.03 km²), rich in flora and fauna, with Robertson lake as a background, which is used for Marine engineering. JEC is the only educational institute of India to house a supersonic fighter jet, main battle tank, naval warship, howitzer and missile on its campus.^[28] It is due the presence of large defence engineering establishments in Jabalpur, such as the Indian Ordnance Factories. The sporting facilities include a stadium, athletic tracks, cricket, football and hockey fields, basketball, badminton, tennis and volleyball courts. A multi-station gymnasium, olympic-size swimming pool, amphitheatre, having a capacity of 3000, two auditoriums, an on-campus college dispensary, banking and postal facilities, National Cadet Corps & National Service Scheme regional centres, alumni centre, common rooms for both girls and boys, Centre for Incubation, Design and Innovation, Central Computing Facility, Central Computerised Library, Central Workshop. The campus is well connected to the city, being 13 km from the Jabalpur Airport, 6 km away from the Jabalpur Railway Station, and 9 km from the Jabalpur Bus Stand.

• Ajai Chowdhry – Father of Indian Hardware.^[36] Co-founder & former Chairman of HCL Technologies. Awarded Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India. Chairman of IIT Patna and IIIT Naya Raipur, and former Chairman of IIT Hyderabad.
• Sharad Yadav – Former Union Cabinet Minister of India for Civil Aviation, Labour, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Member of Parliament of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Chairman of Janata Dal (United).
• K. S. Sudarshan – He was the fifth Sarsanghachalak (Chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the world's largest voluntary non-governmental organisation.
• C. B. Bhave – IAS officer. Former Chairman & Managing Director of National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• Sudhir Kumar Mishra – DRDS officer. Director General at the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), CEO and Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace.
• Sachidananda Kangovi - Indian-American engineer. Known for developing 'Service Linked Multi-State' system (SLIMS), a critical part of the Telecom provisioning and activation system
• Romesh Sobti - Former Managing Director & CEO of IndusInd Bank and ABN AMRO Bank, Director on Board of Dabur, Adani Green Energy, Delhivery and Aditya Birla Capital.
• Hemchandra Kekre – Founding Head of department, Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Bombay. Also served as a professor of Electrical Engineering at IIT-B.
• Vipin Kumar Saxena - Former Chairman & Managing Director of Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Rear Admiral, Indian Navy.
• Shyam Mardikar – Chief Technology Officer, Reliance Jio and former CTO, Bharti Airtel. Also served as an ITS officer.
• Dilip Suryavanshi - Founder and Chairman of Dilip Buildcon, richest person in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
• Sharat Saxena – Veteran Indian film and television actor.
• Prakash Naidu – Former Project Director, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Bangalore.
• Shreegopal Vyas – Member of Parliament of the Rajya Sabha.
• Visva Mohan Tiwari – Retired Air Vice Marshal, Indian Air Force.
• Vibhas Pande - Air Marshal, Indian Air Force, currently serving as the 37th Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), Maintenance Command.