IIT Ropar Admission Through GATE: M.Tech AI, M.Tech CSE and PhD Routes

The Indian Institute of Technology Ropar was set up in 2008. Its M.Tech brochure puts the permanent campus on 501 acres in Rupnagar, Punjab, on the banks of the Satluj. Another IIT Ropar brochure gives the town of Ropar as 42 km from Chandigarh, with Chandigarh airport about 50 km from Rupnagar. For a reader in the south, that brochure suggests a flight to Chandigarh (or Delhi, then Chandigarh) and a taxi of about an hour and a half.

Two academic units matter for a DA or CSE aspirant:

• The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, founded in 2008, says it has more than 20 faculty and over 80 PhD students, working across theory, AI and computer systems.
• The School of Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering (sAIDE) lists 11 faculty and runs B.Tech, MS and PhD programmes. Corrigendum-I of April 2026 names it as the host of the M.Tech in Artificial Intelligence.

The institute's department list also includes Mathematics and a Centre of Drone and Autonomous System, which matters below because its M.Tech also takes DA.

The 2026-27 admission notice lists the GATE paper codes each programme accepts. Seats below are the revised figures from Corrigendum-I, a scanned notice dated 6 April 2026, which raised Computer Science and Engineering from 20 to 40 seats and Artificial Intelligence from 15 to 25. The brochure updated on 1 July 2026 carries the same numbers.

Programme	Host unit	Seats 2026-27	GATE paper codes listed
M.Tech in Artificial Intelligence	sAIDE	25	DA, CS
M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering	Computer Science and Engineering	40	DA, CS, EC, MA
M.Tech in Autonomous Systems & Drone Technology	Centre of Drones and Autonomous Systems	20	AE, CE, CS, DA, EC, EE, GE, IN, ME

One detail is worth reading twice. For Computer Science and Engineering, the eligibility sentence names only CS, EC and MA, while the paper-code column beside it adds DA. For AI, the sentence names CS and the column lists CS and DA. If you are a DA taker, the column is what the notice prints, but confirm on the 2027 notice before you pay. The drone programme also asks that your degree included mathematics and computer programming courses.

Chemical Engineering also lists DA among its many accepted papers, and Biomedical Engineering lists CS and MA. Each programme is a separate application with a separate fee.

In the 2026 cycle the order was fixed: register on COAP to get a COAP number, then fill IIT Ropar's own online application, which asks for that number. COAP is only where offers appear; it is not the application form.

• Window: 26 March to 15 April 2026, 5 pm. GATE 2024, 2025 or 2026 scores were valid.
• Fee: Rs 500 for GEN, OBC and EWS; Rs 250 for SC, ST and PwD, paid through SB Collect, per programme.
• Merit: the brochure says offers follow GATE score, CGPA and department review, with ties broken on graduation percentage and then age.
• Offers: on COAP you choose Accept and Freeze, Retain and Wait, or Reject and Wait.

Reporting was tentatively 20 July 2026, with classes from 23 July. Indian nationals in M.Tech receive a Half-Time Teaching Assistantship of Rs 12,400 a month for up to 24 months, in return for 8 hours a week of department work. IIT B.Tech graduates with CGPA 8.0 (7.5 for SC, ST and PwD) and sponsored candidates apply through a separate link and get offers by email instead of COAP. Queries went to office-coap-1@iitrpr.ac.in.

IIT Ropar published opening and closing GATE scores of admitted candidates after every COAP round, ten rounds in all, from 5 to 8 May (Round 1) to 11 to 13 July 2026 (Round 10). Each table gives Round 1 and the last round in which that category still has a printed score; in later rounds the PDFs print "Seat Filled". Scores are out of 1000, copied as printed.

M.Tech in Artificial Intelligence

Category	Round 1 opening	Round 1 closing	Last round with a score	Opening	Closing
GEN	799	747	Round 10	667	665
OBC	735	689	Round 9	609	609
SC	716	577	Round 7	500	488
ST	478	468	Round 6	423	390
EWS	737	730	Round 7	678	678

M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering

Category	Round 1 opening	Round 1 closing	Last round with a score	Opening	Closing
GEN	1000	739	Round 10	678	678
OBC	730	690	Round 8	628	621
SC	716	573	Round 6	518	489
ST	649	478	Round 7	388	375
EWS	730	722	Round 8	674	674

The PDFs do not split scores by GATE paper, so DA and CS candidates sit in one list for each programme. The PwD column carries notes such as "No candidate in PwD, seat has been merged with SC seat", so it is left out here. Sources: Round 1, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9 and Round 10.

PhD admission does not use COAP. Each unit runs its own call, with a Google Form application and a fee of Rs 200 (Rs 100 for women, SC, ST and PwD).

The CSE PhD brochure for January 2027 closed applications on 31 October 2026. Shortlisted names are due on 4 November, and the written test and interview are on 19 and 20 November 2026, in person at the S Ramanujan Block. A B.E. or B.Tech holder needs 60% or 6.0 CGPA (55% or 5.5 for SC, ST and PwD) plus a qualified GATE or another listed national test. An M.Tech or M.E. holder needs no national test. CFTI graduates with CGPA 7.5 are exempt from GATE. The department may add stricter shortlisting criteria.

sAIDE ran three PhD cycles in 2026-27. The Cycle-III brochure closed on 20 October 2026, with a written or computer-based test and/or interview planned for the second-last week of October. Candidates interviewed in Cycle I or II could not apply again. Its eligibility table also lists a B.Tech with valid GATE as a route for part-time candidates.

Two routes are worth knowing about even though most readers will not use them. IIT B.Tech graduates with CGPA 8.0 can apply to M.Tech without GATE, as above. And the Department of Artificial Intelligence & Data Engineering runs a one-year MS in Data Science with IIT Madras, only for students of the IIT Madras BS programme who finish the BS level with CGPA 8.0. It needs no GATE score, has 20 seats (8 General, 5 OBC-NCL, 3 SC, 2 EWS, 2 ST) and pays no fellowship. Selection is by written test and/or interview; applications for July 2026 closed on 15 May 2026.

If IIT Ropar is on your list, the choice of paper is less about eligibility than about score. In 2026 DA appeared in the paper list for both M.Tech AI and M.Tech CSE, and both merit lists mix papers. Round 1 GEN closing scores in 2026 were 747 for AI and 739 for CSE, and in Round 10 they were 665 and 678. Apply to both programmes if you are unsure; each is a separate form and fee.

The GATE DA and GATE CSE pages cover each syllabus, and the DA 2027 guide and CSE 2027 guide set out a plan. For exam dates, see the GATE 2027 page and gate2027.iitm.ac.in. Other northern IITs on this site include IIT Mandi and IIT Delhi.