IIT Mandi Admission Through GATE: CSE M.Tech with DA or CS, and Research

IIT Mandi gives its address as Kamand Campus, Distt. Mandi 175075, Himachal Pradesh. That is a long way from South India, so for a GATE DA or CS aspirant the useful fact is that the M.Tech offer itself comes through COAP.

IIT Mandi is organised into schools and centres rather than departments. Three are relevant here.

• The School of Computing and Electrical Engineering (SCEE) runs the M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering, plus M.Tech programmes in VLSI and in Power Electronics and Drives. It also takes M.Tech (by Research), PhD and dual-degree students.
• The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) admits M.Tech (by Research), PhD and dual degree students. Its January 2027 call lists areas such as vision-language computing and physical AI, drone and mobile robotics, healthcare robotics and multi-robot systems.
• The Centre for Human-Computer Interaction (CHCI) also ran an M.Tech (by Research) and PhD call for January 2027.

The 2026 M.Tech advertisement had five specialisations in all: Structural Engineering, VLSI, Computer Science and Engineering, Power Electronics and Drives, and Biotechnology.

The 2026 M.Tech advertisement set the bar for the semester starting in August 2026.

Requirement	2026 rule
Degree	B.E./B.Tech. in CSE/IT, or MCA, or M.Sc. Computer Science or equivalent
Marks	Minimum 60% (or 6.0 CGPA), reservation as per institute norms
GATE	Valid score in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, or Computer Science and Engineering
GATE exemption	IIT B.Tech graduates with CGPA 7.5 (7.00 for OBC-NCL, 6.5 for SC/ST/PwD)

This is good news for a GATE DA candidate with a CSE or IT degree: the paper is accepted on the same footing as a GATE CS score. The catch is the degree list. The list does not name electronics, electrical or mechanical engineering, whichever paper you write.

Final-year B.Tech students with a valid GATE 2026 score could apply and were admitted provisionally, on condition that they had appeared in all examinations for the degree by 3 August 2026. The advertisement also says these are minimum criteria and the shortlisting committee may use higher cut-offs.

IIT Mandi's programme document describes a two-year M.Tech, started in 2021, that can end in a general degree or one of two specialisations: Systems Engineering or Intelligent Systems. You need 70 credits: 11 in core courses, 20 in discipline electives, 9 in electives from any school, 3 in exploratory work, 26 in the postgraduate project and 1 in technical communication.

The exploratory work happens in the winter break after the first semester, either with an IIT Mandi faculty member or as an internship elsewhere (no fellowship is paid for that break if you take an internship). The year-long project starts the summer after the first year. A specialisation needs 12 discipline elective credits in that stream with a 7.5 GPA and a project in the same area. Students must stay on campus.

The programme document is older than the 2026 advertisement and gives its own eligibility wording (GATE in Computer Science and Engineering only, and a waiver for IIT B.Tech graduates with CGPA 8.0). For admission, go by the 2026 advertisement.

IIT Mandi's form is on its Samarth admission portal. Registering on COAP 2026 was mandatory for GATE applicants, and the COAP registration number had to be entered in the form. The PG admissions page reminded applicants they could update their COAP ID until 17 April 2026.

Step	2026 session
Online form opened	27 March 2026
Last date	17 April 2026
Results	Through COAP
Fee	Rs. 200 (General/EWS/OBC/Transgender/Foreign Nationals), Rs. 100 (Women/SC/ST/PD)

Each specialisation needs a separate application and fee. On selection, the advertisement says the institute may admit through COAP 2026 and, if required, call a limited number of candidates for a written test, interview, counselling or spot admission, based on GATE performance and qualifying-exam marks. It also says the institute will not contact candidates directly about shortlisting, so check the IIT Mandi website yourself.

SCEE programme queries go to scee-admissions@iitmandi.ac.in (01905-267071, 01905-267133). Form problems go to acadoffice@iitmandi.ac.in, and technical issues to it_helpdesk@iitmandi.ac.in.

IIT Mandi posted two annexures for the 2026 cycle on its PG admissions page. Both are GATE scores out of 1000, and neither names the GATE paper, so a figure could come from a DA or a CS candidate.

Annexure B gives the cut-off GATE score for M.Tech admission through COAP for AY 2026-27. For M.Tech CSE it prints UR 651, EWS 641, OBC-NCL 644, SC 495, ST 381 and PwD 495.

Annexure A gives opening and closing scores offered in each COAP 2026 round. For the M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering, as printed:

Round	UR	EWS	OBC-NCL	SC	ST
Round 01, opening/closing	1000 / 762	737 / 734	720 / 701	716 / 657	495 / 484
Round 10, opening/closing	691 / 690	683 / 683	661 / 661	526 / 526	395 / 395

UR (PwD) reads NA in both rounds. Read the two annexures together: the 651 cut-off is the floor for being considered, while the closing scores show where offers actually reached in each round. They describe one year and are not a forecast for 2027.

Research admissions at IIT Mandi are run by each school or centre, through calls listed on the PhD admissions page. The institute offers the M.Tech (R) + PhD dual degree in, among others, Computing and Electrical Engineering and Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

For January 2027, SCEE's call for M.Tech (by Research), PhD and dual degree ran from 8 October to 4 November 2026. The CAIR call ran from 5 to 30 October 2026, with shortlisting tentatively on 3 November and interviews on 10 November 2026. The CAIR document sets these rules for institute scholarship (HTRA):

1. A B.Tech from a non-CFTI needs a good academic record and a valid GATE score; no paper is named.
2. A B.Tech from a CFTI needs CGPA 7.5 (7.0 for OBC-NCL, 6.5 for SC/ST/PD) and no GATE.
3. A master's degree in engineering with a good record qualifies for the PhD scholarship.

An addendum raises the minimum CGPA for the PhD and dual degree in that call to 7.50 for UR/GEN (EWS), 7.25 for OBC (NCL) and 7.00 for SC/ST/PwD. Shortlisted candidates can be called for a written test and/or interview. CAIR's office is at cairoffice@iitmandi.ac.in (01905-267791).

The 2027 M.Tech advertisement is not out yet. Based on the 2026 cycle:

1. Check your degree first. The CSE M.Tech wanted CSE/IT, MCA or M.Sc. Computer Science.
2. Either paper works for that M.Tech, so pick the one you will score higher in. Use how to prepare for GATE DA 2027 or how to prepare for GATE CSE 2027, previous papers and practice tests. Exam details are on GATE 2027.
3. Watch the PG admissions page from March. In 2026 the window was 27 March to 17 April.
4. Register on COAP early and answer every round.
5. For research, the next calls should follow the same twice-a-year pattern; check the school's dates.

For another IIT whose AI M.Tech accepts GATE DA, see IIT Jodhpur, or browse all institutes.