Michael Topping was the Chief Marine Surveyor of Fort St. George in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

 (then Madras) responsible for founding the oldest modern technical school outside Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The Survey School was completed on May 17, 1794, with an initial intake of eight students. In 1858 it became the Civil Engineering School and the College of Engineering in 1861.

Topping was also the first full-time modern professional surveyor of India having surveyed the seas off the Coromandel Coast

Coromandel Coast

The Coromandel Coast is the name given to the southeastern coast of the Indian Subcontinent between Cape Comorin and False Divi Point...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's south-east coast. Topping persuaded astronomer William Petrie

William Petrie

William Petrie was an Officer of the East India Company in Chennai during the 1780s. He set up a private observatory in his residence located in Egmore, Chennai, India. The main aim of the observatory was "to provide navigational assistance to the company ships and help determine the longitudes...

 to gift his equipment to the government and set up the first modern astronomical observatory in Nungambakkam

Nungambakkam

Nungambakkam is one of the wealthiest localities in the heart of Chennai, India's fourth largest metropolitan city. The neighborhood is abound with multi-national commercial establishments, important government offices, foreign consulates, sprawling educational institutions, shopping malls,...

. The school was established in 1792 and Topping was appointed as the British East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

's astronomer. Topping died in 1796.