blueprint · suryansh shrivastava articles suhani shorewala kritin joshi dhawal desai saubhagya s...

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[email protected] Suryansh Shrivastava

Placement season is one of the most important yet

trying period in a student’s life. This period is filled

with emotions ranging from euphoria, frenzy to

sometimes despair &

torment. Many exit this

epoch, satisfied, a few

others, not that lucky.

With an ever increasing

intake of candidates by

our institute, the

Placement Team (PT)

does have its work cut

out for finding jobs

guaranteeing the satisfaction of students studying

in the most prestigious Engineering College in India.

Ranked 30th by the QS World university rankings in

2012 our department of Civil Engineering should

command a similar position in the placement

scenario. Is the above a ground reality? You will get

a clearer picture as you go through this article.

A noticeable feature of our department’s placement

was that out of 53 BTech students placed, only 5

have taken up Core Engineering & Technology

profile jobs. The rest have gone on to take jobs from

other sectors. Compared to 72% BTechs being

placed last year in our department, 69% out of the

registered students have been placed till yet. We

conducted a survey for this year’s placed t students

of our department. We asked the students if they

considered that CPI was a major criteria in

influencing the job offers they receive. As expected

about 82% of the students agreed to this fact. But

does it really affect a student getting placed. Lets

have a look.-

From the Pie Chart, we can see that as the CPI went

down the number of students placed went down.

But students also mentioned that CPI was not the

only basis of their selection. Communication skills,

PORs, projects, analytical and mathematical skills

student’s knowledge and interest in the job & the

company etc. were other major criteria for

selection.

Now we wanted to know from those; who want to

go for further studies, which exams were they

preferring. Most popular among them came out to

be CAT. Most of the students started preparing for

these tests form the starting of their 7th semester.

Another striking feature of this survey was that

more than 70% of the students believed that there

is not an equal opportunity for students of all

branches during placements. We tried to investigate

the ground reality. While speaking to Placement

Manager Anuj Shah about the same, he revealed

something different. Most of

the consult & finance

companies are open for all

the Departments. Roughly

one fourth students placed in

the top 5 finance & consult

companies recruiting at IITB

were chosen from Civil

Department. 25% share

among all numerous

departments is a considerable number. Some may

argue that the total students placed in such top 5

companies are very few and the reality for the rest

of the students is quite different. The above results

were brought up in front of the Head Of the

Department to which he responded by saying that

the results to our survey is quite surprising and that

he’ll try to bring this issue in the notice of other

faculty members.

On further conversation with the PM we tried to

gather the major problems, students from our

department face during the placements season.

One major problem during placements is not having

a sound background in the basics of core courses

taught in our department like making BMDs, SFDs

etc. For purpose of preventing such cases the

Department Placement Coordinators are

responsible for organizing preparatory activities like

tests, buddy talks (Alumni talks) etc. A good

suggestion form his side was the organizing of

refresher lectures by professors from our

departments to brush up the basics concepts. Such

lectures have been taking place in Chemical

Department. He also suggested students to be in

touch with seniors to have a general idea of the

placement period.

We hope to have brought up some much needed

light to the present placement scenario of our

department. Through all the interviews and

research we have come up with only one conclusion

—even if sometimes it may matter ,which

department a student belongs to, but at the end all

comes down to his preparation for placements and

his resume.

Wishing the present batch good luck for the

placements!!!

BLUEPRINT Volume 5 : Issue 1 April, 2013 8 Pages

Editorial Board

Editors

Namrata Singh

Suryansh Shrivastava

Articles

Suhani Shorewala

Kritin Joshi

Dhawal Desai

Saubhagya S Rathore

Prateek Deogekar

J R Achyutan

Outline and Design

Shahbaz Haidar

Special Thanks to Jaymin Kotecha , Vishal Khatri &

Anuj Shah

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Btech Mtech DD Phd

Department Of Civil Engineering

% Placedout ofRegisteredstudents

62%34%

4%Placed Students CPI Distribution

CPI>8CPI 8 to 6CPI<6

43%

19%

18%

16% 4%

Exams prepared by Studentswho filled the Survey

CAT

UPSC

GATE

GRE

News Letter by Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay

Content….

“Our country today needs

good civil engineers; our

stream is as promising as

the popular Computer

Science or Electronics, if

not more”

02 Blueprint: By Civil Engineering Department

“Will you have coffee or tea?” I suddenly looked up to see a worker standing near my chair with a plate of biscuits. I was actually waiting at the Laboratory of Professor D N Singh, while also framing a few of the interview questions for him. Meanwhile many of the members present in the laboratory came up to me and introduced themselves and also enquired about the interview. I could have mistaken the laboratory for a shared flat or rather a shared home of so many people, had I not read the 'Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory' board outside. The laboratory was properly furnished like a room, with coffee machines installed, many chairs kept around, air conditioner, Television, plants kept around, and a sofa, amongst others. The ambience was extremely calming and pleasant, and also very homely.

Professor Devendra Narayan Singh is an expert in his field, Geotechnical Engineering and has revolutionized the concept of Environmental and Geotechnical interrelations. B.Tech. in Civil Engineering with M.Tech. and Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering both from IIT Kanpur, he has several awards, publications and recognitions in his name. He has recently assumed the responsibility as member for editor board for International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Published in association with J. Ross Publishing. He has several Ph.D. students from all parts of the country working under him with around 8 patents till date.

How balanced do you think is the current course structure? Comment on the current course structure.

I consider the course structure is as adequately balanced as required and completely satisfactory. The problem lies more in the attitude of the students than the course structure. Students are not very interested in learning nowadays. We have the best possible faculty members and facilities. Still majority of the undergraduates are disinterested. I have students under me who come for summer projects or internships from far away colleges like NITs etc. They work really hard here and I can see the high level of motivation and desire for hard work and achievement in them. This aspect is completely missing somewhere if you consider our students.” As he completed his statement I could already see a glare of pride amongst his laboratory students. He further continued, “As we all know that IITs have degraded as compared to what they earlier were in our days. The kind of facilities and provisions which we have is difficult to find under one roof, all over the world. Yet, I do not know why the sincerity levels of the students have fallen dramatically over years.

He had already answered an array of questions regarding the curriculum and facilities which I had on my sheet.

I think you will want to reframe your questions now, he said notoriously smiling.

What grade on an average do you give to a graduate from IIT Bombay?

Very poor! I mean on an average. There are a few good students but the issue is that they are few. Our country today needs good civil engineers; our stream is as promising as the popular Computer Science or Electronics, if not more. Our Students have somehow diverted themselves to various streams but Civil Engineering. We have the best brains of the country; they must be optimally utilized. We have been through this age, but there was always a level of commitment involved in anything we did.

As a professor of IIT Bombay, I have always wanted to preach and teach such great minds. But the students are not interested. The graduates are expected to be professionals and not amateurs, and professionals respect time, of their own and that of others. I cannot be wasting my time on students who do not wish to learn, I am not here to waste my time.

We currently have no software courses running in our department. How much as per your opinion is it important to have software courses incorporated in the syllabus?

Software knowledge is definitely a great additional learning, but I do not see any need for a compulsory course for it. I think if a student is really interested in learning particular software, then he/she should contact the respective professor in the department and take it up under him. I believe in self learning, no one is going to force you all to learn at this age. IITians in my vision and opinion should be leaders and not followers, meaning that they have to take up initiatives themselves towards learning and not necessarily wait for a course to be introduced. Besides, our students are not giving their 100% to the current core courses itself, so there is no question of introducing new ones.

Shouldn't the work visits in our department be more frequent? Work visits could impart the students a practical experience of how things actually work and make them understand applications part of the theory.

I agree with your perspective regarding work visits, but it is not that physically visiting a site is the only means of gaining practical experience. Internet has evolved as a magnificent source of knowledge and

information nowadays; I don't need to explain that to your generation. Youtube is an excellent medium where you can get videos of all sorts of new construction technologies, both from India and also those practiced worldwide, which is otherwise not possible to demonstrate with the regular Work Visits.

What general advice do you wish to give the students?

I would like to ask them that what makes them so disinterested. What is it that they expect from us to get back their attention to serious academics? We as faculty really enjoy all your mischiefs, but in-sincerity and lack of discipline and non-professionalism are the attributes of notoriety. You all should behave like kids and not like mentally worn outs. I have conducted courses wherein no student has turned up for the mid-semester examination! This is sheer carelessness and irresponsible behavior. Teaching is enjoyable when students ask questions and both the faculty and the student learn from the answers. We have lost the inquisitive brains somewhere in either social networking or deep somewhere in other activities but studies.

Right now, research has become the fundamental backbone of Civil Engineering. There are numerous challenges confronting civil engineers like lack of natural resources, waste disposal etc. Other interesting topics like Sports Stadium construction or cricket pitch designing, environmental issues have also gained momentum. Today's world is different than what it used to be. A lot of opportunities are available to think new and innovative. Clearing one entrance examination is just like a new beginning of various other exciting opportunities to come and not the end of ones' career. I do not wish to wake up to a day when IITians become an absolute myth. What really matters is what one achieves after getting into IIT and not the rank one scored in the entrance examination.

He pointed towards his team of Ph.D. students, who were working in the lab and continued, the guy who I thought was a worker was also one amongst them.

I prefer teaching these guys, my post graduates. They belong to various other colleges and have no ego whatsoever. They are very clear in their vision that they want to learn and that is why they are here. These people are from all over the country and have come so far leaving their home with an aspiration of making it big someday. There have been 17 Ph.D.s under me before and 13 of them are currently working in some great places at high posts and have a total of 8 patents. You see the person behind you (he pointed at a middle aged man who was making coffee) he is a non-teaching staff at IIT Bombay. He works all day doing his job and finally comes over at night to study. If he can show such an enthusiasm at this age, why can't we? I just went around asking his students on the kinds of projects they were involved with. A very young lady Ms. Pankaj Pathak is currently working on 'Determination of distribution of soil contamination system' which is funded by BRNS. There were others doing similar very interesting projects which were also funded by other such organizations. The laboratory is an institution in itself and besides, working with Professor D N Singh could be a great learning opportunity for a lot of Civil Engineering students. He said he receives hundreds of emails daily from students of different colleges for working under him either for summer projects or research etc. It is extremely despairing to see that our own students have never utilized this opportunity of working under him. He mentioned in his interview that genuinely sincere students will always find his doors open; all he wants is to see his efforts and the students bringing about a change and leaving a mark in whatever they do.

Name: Professor Devendra Narayan Singh

B-Tech: IIT Kanpur (Civil Engineeing)

M-Tech: IIT Kanpur (Geotechnical Engineering)

PhD: IIT Kanpur (Geotechnical Engineering)

Position Held: Professor at IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur and presently at IIT Bombay

Field of Interest: Environmental Geotechnology

Publications: 6 Indian Journal and 117 International journals. He has authored 3 books

http://www.jrosspub.com/





Blueprint: By Civil Engineering Department 03

Prof Alok Goyal graduated with a doctoral degree in Civil from University of California at Berkeley, specializing in Structural Engineering. Apart from having numerous publications, Prof Goyal has also been a consultant to a large number of firms including Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Commission Ltd and Ministry of Railways. Prof. Goyal is also a member of the review committee for Indian Standards. What was your aim in life as a teenager? He politely smiled at the question “I was already a Thomsonian before I could realize my teenage.” A topper of all time, he cracked the first position in IIT Roorkee (the then University of Roorkee or the Old Thomson College of Civil Engineering) entrance examination at an early age of 16 years. He joined as an Undergraduate student of Electronics and Communication but passed out with a BE Degree in Civil Engineering. Having joined Roorkee, he realized that academic excellence is not the best part of one’s life and this was contingent on his growing interest towards billiards. He now dreamt beyond the identity of a studious geek to become a stalwart at pool, practicing 8 hrs per day on an average, even to the extent of changing his branch from Electronics to Civil, to develop a robust skill set on billiards. He had already mastered games like hockey, cricket and football before Roorkee, and billiards was the next goal. He dreamt of being a professional Billiards player. Well you have a great combination of degrees, name any three of your proudest professional achievements and also your best accomplishments as a student? To this he laughed and replied “I don’t have any!” paused for a few minutes and added “IIT Bombay Excellence in Teaching Awards twice and Winning the Mangal Ram Memorial Trophy- for Billiards in a competition at IIT Roorkee which was open to all.” The latter certainly implies that he was not a failure at billiards, then why the U-turn in his career choice? His reply was that “The State level was the maximum I could play due to problem with my eyes. Though I won the trophy, when I looked back at what I had given up - two and a half years, the happiness could not last long. It is then I decided to get back to my studies.” Can you name any three major influential people in your life? I could notice the difficulty in his mind to pick up three, but having taken some time, he replied with the following three-“ First of all my father. He taught me how not to worry about anything in life. He has been and continues to be a major source of inspiration even today. Next is Professor Alexander C Scordelis from UC Berkeley”, there was a glow in his eyes as he named the professor, and he continued in pride,” he was a great professor and I trace back my teaching skills from him. The entire department of Structural engineering in that era at Berkeley was the best that history ever saw, with experts like Prof Ray W Clough, Prof Robert L Taylor, and Prof E Popov among many others.” These names must definitely be ringing bells in the minds of Civil Engineers of current generation having more than half of the books in their shelves having these names. ” I believe Prof Alexander was the finest amongst his profession cohorts. Study at a US University is very different from here; this very idea of teaching was strongly reinforced in my mind due to him.” He shifted his chair a bit to the right pointing towards the next cabin of Prof Ravi Sinha and said with a finger in that direction, “Ravi is the third person whom I owe my current position to. He is four years junior to me and joined IIT Bombay as a faculty in 1992, and it is he who suggested that both of us should use our knowledge to benefit the people in larger meaning. We thus ended up becoming construction consultants to many government bodies.” We can clearly see your dedication to other activities apart from studies and you were still the topper of your batch throughout. What strategies did you use to be successful in college?

Amused at the word strategies perhaps, he answered “I don’t have any strategies; I only Live On My Strengths and also don’t generally panic about anything. I could bunk majority of the classes and still manage 200-300 pages on the night just before the exams at Roorkee. I passed but I didn’t learn.” Having said that, how closely do you relate to the current generation of Civil Engineers at IIT Bombay with yourself as an undergraduate? He quickly responded” Very close, in-fact we are the same”. He stopped at this and then continued “But still I largely feel that the commitment to a system is very low

now-a-days. Even we used to copy assignments, bunk a few classes here and there, etc. I know it all as I have been on the other side of the desk. But we were more

committed to our responsibilities than what we see on an average today. Today I give 20 FR’s to students, and it will hardly bother them as opposed to my generation. We also committed mistakes, but we were ready to bear the penalty and make-up for the same. This very attitude is missing today. When students make a mistake, they do not even recognize it as one and blame the system, or an external source for their failure. There is increasing arrogance in students while the habit of learning has reduced to a great extent. They have a very casual attitude to everything they do and engage with. I don’t mean study when I enforce learning; learning is a much broader concept in itself and includes any genre. Students must have a habit of learning, whatsoever it may be.” What is the best and the worst part about teaching young minds at IIT Bombay? “I love teaching as I get the opportunity to see happy faces”, given that his family members being doctors, have this chance very less often. He continued “Students at the campus are generally genuinely very happy and it is great to be teaching such high happy spirits, happy even on getting an FR grade”, he took a few seconds to smile a bit, “I mean they are very resilient. Teaching itself is a very flexible job and I enjoy living life my own way. More so as here at IIT Bombay, there is no hierarchy whatsoever and the system is adequately flexible to allow or free emergence of teaching styles and mannerisms to enable good teaching. I do not dislike anything about teaching here at IIT Bombay.” Having said that, what according to you is good teaching? And how do you adjust your teaching styles to the less-motivated or under-prepared students? I perceive his body language at the question as if pointing towards him as an answer to the former question. Having adjusted himself a bit, he answered “If I encourage you to learn something and you could learn it successfully, then that is what I call as good teaching.” Without a thought he continued “I have only one Mantra for such students- I treat them like my kids. I never give up; keep chasing them just like my two kids.” Professor Alok Goyal has two kids, elder daughter is currently doing an MS in Computer Science at USC, Los Angeles, USA and the younger son is currently a final year student at the prestigious KEM Medical College in Mumbai. This clearly demonstrates the efforts he must

have put in for his children and the magnitude of hard work he is ready to pitch in for less motivated students. “I always advice all such students and my kids never to loose heart, one can practically recover from anything in life.” That was very well said Professor Goyal. What do you think is the role of a professor in the life of a student at IIT Bombay? He confidently replied “A professor can influence the life of a student to a great extent. This is the age when you get influenced the most as you all have had a very limited exposure till now, your ideas have not frozen yet, you all are yet very flexible in terms of thinking. A great positive as well as negative influence could impact the young minds therefore. Role modeling is not what I am talking about here, if you adopt somebody as a role model, the only condition is that you should dream bigger.” We have all seen the movie three idiots, to what extent do you agree with the portrayed psychology of engineering professors in the movie? Before I could complete the entire question, he replied a yes to the first part of the question with amusement. Eagerly waiting for the question to end, he replied “Of course I enjoyed the movie a lot as I have somehow lived all the characters of the movie in part throughout my life till now. I was the Institute photography secretary as I wanted to learn photography” and he laughed aloud, while I could identify the Farhan Quereshi in his eyes. “Now-a-days I essentially play the professors role. But I have been on both the sides of the desk, and I have done all that I was not supposed to do just like the THREE IDIOTS. I understand the various psychologies that collectively go behind the observed behavior of a majority of students on the campus. But, I do agree with the movie in a lot many ways, the perception of the portrayed psychology is a bit different between me and your generation. I believe the intention of the professors was never to hurt, always to get things correctly done with pressure, although they could have avoided a few unfortunate incidences in the movie. How does this profession of teaching fit in to your overall goals? “I always wished to be a professor after the Billiards dreams were partially realized. More after I was a part of the prestigious Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley.” Prof Alok Goyal completed his BE in Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee at an age of 20 years and further enrolled in…ME in Earthquake Engineering at the same, to pass out with a gold medal two years later. Here after, he went for a Ph.D. at Department of Civil Engineering, University of California at Berkeley. Having completed his Ph.D., he joined IIT Roorkee as a faculty member and shifted to IIT Bombay in 1989. He became full professor in 1998 and continues till date. He has also been involved in professional consultancy since 1994 along with professor Ravi Sinha. He continued, “Shifting to IIT Bombay has been the best decision I took. IIT Bombay is the best place to raise your kids, the environment is simple and competitive and there is a lot of focus on academic career along with ample opportunities to explore other aspects of one’s personality.”

“I have only one Mantra for such students- I treat them like my kids. I never give up; keep chasing them just like my two kids.” There has been a lot of amendment to the Civil Engineering curriculum. How do you think has it impacted the students in terms of their knowledge, sincerity, inclination towards Civil Engineering and also internship and placement opportunities? “Well I would say the course structure is not balanced. The amendments were not done keeping in mind the student interests and the balance of courses.

……. Continued to page 4

Name: Alok Goyal

B.E: IIT Roorkee (Civil Engineering)

M.E: IIT Roorkee (Earthquake Engineering)

PhD : University of California, Berkley, US


They were majorly influenced by the lack of faculty at the department. There has to be an appropriate trade off made between reducing the load and balancing of curriculum, which was highly skewed. Students just take up courses to pass it with 40 marks, thus leading to weak

fundamentals. The basic idea is that one should be willing

to learn.”

Graduates find a number of options at their discretion, three of which are to take a job in a core company or to do an MS or to pursue Ph.D. Which one do you consider is a better option for core enthusiasts? “Eventually one has to get a job, so one must attain a balance between job satisfaction and the pay, you cannot deny that there are others dependent on you and only job satisfaction should not determine your choice. Influence should be what one likes and not what others are doing or one’s non-suitability to some other job.” He stopped to ask me if I would like to pursue a Ph. D. in India, smiling at my answer he continued, “Ph.D.’s in India do not have equivalent value as that of a Ph. D. from outside. I would strongly recommend higher studies in US as there one learns the respect of law, labor and academic honesty. Indian companies do not employ Indian Ph. D.’s. Ideally, a Ph. D. should have a higher placement opportunity than a B-Tech but that is clearly not the case, the opposite is true in fact. I think a Ph. D. student should have higher knowledge than the professor on the topic one is working on. When I am not able to attract my own students into Ph. D., there is no point in keeping a large Ph. D. program.” Why did you choose Structural Engineering as specialization field considering the graduates now-a-days are very much inclined to transportation? Was it the same scenario at your time also? What should be the major factor impacting students considering the choices of specialization? “A major factor influencing the choice of students should be the financial rewards and the job profile. There is not much exposure to the students and hence the choice of subject is largely determined by the funding opportunities available. When I graduated, Structural

engineering was a field attracting major research opportunities and projects available, although my choice was not based on funding; I received scholarship only after one year. This focus of research in European Countries and U S has now shifted to Transportation, basically the design of Intelligent Transportation System.” What qualities do you attribute to a student whom you consider to be having a great future ahead? Do you consider marks, grades and CPI important criteria for grading students? The integrated Rancho and Virus immediately spoke in reply to the latter question, “I would say it is a ‘Necessary Evil’ which I need to have to reward those who work hard, I need to reward them more. Those who know more, I need to give them more responsibility. I need to differentiate.” Readjusting his tone he added,” A student should have good communication skills, should not have rigid views, the views should be flexible and balanced. ‘Willing to take a chance’ is key attribute to success in what one does. But I would like to add that if you are happy, nothing really matters. It is not necessary that success fetches happiness. And you don’t need much to be happy! “On this I asked him if he defined success as happiness, to which he replied, “I don’t know what success actually means, all I know is that happiness is more important than what people call success. I am proud that I definitely belong to the happiest 10% people on this campus, although I don’t know if people count me in the top 50% most successful.” Having said this he laughed aloud. You have experienced the professional world for many years by now. Will you like to share your experiences about the kind of attitude, knowledge, skills etc. are required to be as good a survivor like you are? “I only know one simple thing that honesty and hard work always pay, sooner or later. In a professional life, you should do only what you know, I think we really lag this aspect. The deteriorating placement statistics are an indicative of the missing professionalism within our students. I have seen students who don’t even know

about the companies which come to interview them. One should go through the company profile at least once and try to find out where one fits in. It is very important for the students to realize that the companies have nothing much to do with the IIT Bombay degree.” What advice do you wish to give students both as a professor and as a professional? “You don’t need to be number one in everything but remain committed to whatever you do. ’Staying happy is a habit one should necessarily develop’.’ One should make the best use of the current situations.’ ‘Dream big and chase your dreams.’ ‘I strongly believe there is nothing one cannot achieve, it all depends on how badly you want it.’”. He further extended to share his advices for the placements “Students nowadays are very heuristic in their approach and look out for easier options. I always advise them that good grades will not hurt you, on the contrary they would fetch you more options when you graduate. I don’t believe that our lower grade holders are not well placed, but the difference is that you restrict your choices by a low grade. A decent grade point, around 8+ with robust communication skills and extra-curricular activities will definitely enjoy a decent enough job. I don’t mean to say that the topper will get the best job, but the above definitely holds true. As a Civil fresher, we constantly strike hard trying to do something different to prove ourselves above the higher rank holders of Computer Science or Electrical Engineering, thereby neglecting academics. I would advise to maintain a strict balance between the two.” Currently working on writing a book on Design of Structures based on his experience in the field, and with many prestigious professional consultancy works on his name, I wondered why he does not allow any Ph.D. student under him. To this response was unexpected and the deep thought behind it was that “I don’t have good students joining the Ph.D. program and I don’t wish to waste the caliber of the handful of good ones among them. I know that there will be only a very little value addition against the time and effort both of us would put in. Hence I consider this to be my effort to divert good students to better Ph.D. options available.”

Initially, like most of students, I also had a misconception that research is not my cup of tea and requires huge amount of time and commitment. Inspired by my peers, I with Mohit Gupta browsed through websites of different

professors of our department to identify topics of our interest and finally took a project on groundwater modeling under the guidance of Prof. T.I. Eldho. At the start we were given few research papers and couple of books to go through. One should not give up at this stage and should realize that this is very important to master the basics concepts involved in the project and also should be aware about the current research going in the field. This is how professors also check the enthusiasm and commitment of the student. We did half project in summers and half in-sem and after 6 months we got the desired results. We presented study in UG research symposium organized by SPUR. Impressed by work Prof Eldho recommended us for URA 01 (Undergraduate Research Award). Then we presented a technical research paper in 45th Annual Convention if IWWA (Indian Water Works Association) and got it published in their technical volume. . The experience throughout project was extremely enjoyable. With sincerity and regularity even a UGs can come up with good research works and professors are more than happy to support enthusiastic students.

-Saubhagya singh Rathore, 3rd Year

It all started with my Dec’11 internship at Ambuja Cements Ltd.

where I had my first hands-on

experience in preparation and

testing of concrete. This internship

increased my interest in concrete

technology and as a result I

approached Prof Nanthagopalan in around Feb’12 for a

project to be done in summers’12. I told him about my

winter internship and expressed my desire to work on

High strength concrete and got approval for the same.

Fortunately our academic council introduced Institute

Summer Project Allocation scheme at the same time so I

registered through it. Initially I thought of doing this

project for 2-3 months only but as time passed on, my

desire to get better results kept on increasing. I got a

very good guidance and support from my guide which in

addition kept me motivated. My work went well and I

presented poster at institute Symposium. My guide was

satisfied with my work so I thought of applying for URA

after around 6 months of project work. I applied for it in

Oct’12. This project also let me present my work in an

international conference.

Till this time we have achieved strength of nearly 130

MPa and I am continuing my work to achieve better

results.

-Dhawal Desai, 3rd Year

In my first year summer I was

selected to pursue research under

the guidance of Dr. Prakash Nanthagopalan in the field of “Concrete

Technology” along with a few others.

After initial process in which we

understood the very basics of concrete

we were made aware of the recent research going on in

the concrete technology field and were given the choice

a project of our choice. I along with my batch mates

Ashwini Jain and Sudhanshu Mishra selected the field of

“steam curing” for our research. We came with a plan

which was approved by our guide after some discussions.

It was only then that we set our feet in the lab. In the

hindsight though this period involved no experimental

work, it was the theory that helped us develop a

technical understanding of the process involved and

helped us analyse the data we obtained. After the

semester began, we started performing the steam curing

cycles which had been pre-decided. As these had to be

done for a fixed interval of time (up to 12 hours) the

work often involved working late into the night. We

enjoyed every moment of it. On completion of the

designated curing cycles we performed the required

analysis and drew appropriate conclusions. At the end of

this period of 6 months during which we worked for 8

hours on an average per week our professor found the

quality of our work suitable for awarding the URA . The

whole process spread over a period of 6 months was an

enjoyable and learning venture and the Undergraduate

Research Award was really the icing on top of the cake.

-Prateek Deogekar, 2nd Year

URA Achievers: Speak their mind…..


Curriculum Revisited and Revised A Namrata Singh

The Department Open House held on 14th of March

2013, which was conducted by the Head of the

Department Professor K V Krishnarao, saw an active

attendance by faculty members like Professor Subimal

Ghosh from Hydraulics, Professor E.P Rao and Prof Raaj

Ramsankaran from Geodesy, Professor Tarun Kant from

Structural Engineering, Professor Deepankar Chaudhary

and Professor D N Singh from Geotechnical Engineering

and Professor Gopal Patil with Professor P.Vedagiri from

Transportation Engineering. Students from the DAMP

community and Department Council along with a few

others also showed an interactive participation in the

same. The prime motto of the open house was to discuss

the proposed changes as worked out by the department

faculty members after a series of meetings keeping in

mind the suggestions from both the student as well as

the faculty communities. The allowable changes are

subject to the senate discussion.

HoD started with the prevailing dissatisfaction in the

Central Committee regarding a bulk of students

registering for minors/honors initially versus the single

digit number who actually procure a minor/ honor

degree supplementary to majors at graduation. This is

being cited as a matter of concern since the rudimentary

intention of introducing minor/honor program has not

been successful. A point was raised regarding this by the

students, that minor/honor courses are at times enrolled

by the students only due to their interest in one

particular course, with a pure intention of learning rather

than actually completing a degree. This also helps

because a few courses that are not offered as institute

electives are in fact offered as a minor. HoD assured that

the minor/honor program will not get completely

eradicated as the new curriculum committee cannot

destroy the basic structure as drafted by the Biswaas

committee, but certain essential steps have been taken.

He further added that the department has introduced

certain reforms to improve the scenario of minor offered

in Civil Engineering.

The total credits completed by a graduate in Civil

Engineering from IIT Bombay, excluding minor and honor

is 252 currently, which include only the very basic Civil

Engineering introductory courses. The Central

Committee has recommended a credit increment to a

range of 266-282; the exact number though is left at the

discretion of the respective departments. As proposed by

our department, the required credits will shoot up to 281

directly, which is a fairly high jump. For honors, the

student has to complete only 24 credits now, as against

the old 30 credits requirement; the credit requirement

for a minor however will essentially be decided by the

department offering it. The 24 credits required for an

honor could now be partially filled by the newly

introduced BTP 1 and BTP 2. BTP 1 and BTP 2 are B-Tech

Projects which may be undertaken in the seventh or the

eighth semester respectively, as a replacement of one

course, each carrying 6 credits. BTP 2 is not necessarily

an extension of BTP1. Hence, once could either tag two

BTP’s with two courses or one BTP with three other

courses as honors for an honor degree in Civil

Engineering, or traditionally take up four courses in Civil

Engineering with due consult of the faculty advisor on

the combination of courses/BTP to be taken. There will

be only one basket of department electives for B.Tech.

program which also includes BTP 1 and BTP 2.

Based on the past experience, it has been decided to

drop the Minors degree in Civil Engineering. If required,

however, to give broad introductory overview of Civil

Engineering, basic courses from each field will be

included to constitute a minor in Civil Engineering.

One major change as proposed is that the department

will now offer dual degree programs in all M.Tech.

specializations namely Transportation Systems

Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Water Resources

Engineering, Structural Engineering, Ocean Engineering

and Remote Sensing. This is one major step taken by the

department to expand the M.Tech. curriculum

considering that till now there was only one Structural

Engineering specialization offered by the department.

Changes in the U.G curriculum:

One phrase describing the proposed changes, as quoted

by HOD was “an increase in the science content.” The

phrase can be justified by considering the introduction of

Modern Physics and Biology courses. The course on Data

Analysis, known as IC 102 previously, has been removed

as redundant, because the Committee believes that the

course gave more emphasis on the probability methods

and minimal concentration to actual data analysis.

Hence, the course has been assigned to the responsibility

of the respective departments, to teach data analysis, as

demanded by their fields. A similar dissolution of a

fourth semester laboratory course, earlier known as IC

211(Experimental and Measurement Laboratory), to the

respective departmental labs has been done. The

Introductory Economics Course (HS 101) is shifted to the

third semester. The CE 206 course which is known to the

students by the name Hydraulic Engineering will now be

called Applied Hydraulic Engineering in view of the

revised course content. The new course will include

water treatment and network design and other such

applied field of study in addition to the original course

content. This is done in order to recoup Civil Engineers

into the field of waste water treatment and other such

fields which have become redundant for Civil Engineers

and are currently aced by Chemical Engineers. Two new

courses each in both the semesters of the second year

will be added, Differential Equations-2 in the third

semester and Building Materials and Construction will be

included in the fourth semester, the content being

similar to the current course ‘Concrete Technology’. The

earlier Soil Mechanics will now include rock mechanics

component and will be called as Geotechnical

Engineering henceforth. ‘Engineering Geology’ course

will be added to the sixth semester along with some

minor changes in the credit allotment to a few courses.

Very similar changes have also been done to the DD

curriculum with a few additional ones. The overall credits

for the DD program are now raised to 393. The

applications for converting to Dual Degree program will

have to be made by the B.Tech. students in the first

semester of third year itself and the final selection list

will be declared by the end of third year. A minimum C.P.I

criterion of 7.00 is injected and the allotted branch will

depend on the students’ C.P.I and the number of

available seats. The department is also currently

considering the proposal of D.D program offered by the

CTARA department. Another issue raised in the open

house regarding M.Tech. program was that in each

semester, there are 5 department electives to be taken

and only five courses are offered. To this the faculty

response was that one could take courses under other

departments like mechanical or aerospace and tag them

as department electives. The HoD agreed to work out a

list of courses in other department which we could allow

to tag as department electives. Another argument that

whether the lab courses should have written end

semester exams or not led to a decision by the HoD to

reform the current system after due consultation with

the respective faculty members. There was also a

consensus amongst the students to raise the number of

faculty advisors, which is also currently under scrutiny by

the department.

The faculty also had a few charges for the student

community at the end, in light of the recent incidence at

the mid-semester examination of one of the courses. The

general message was to avoid getting oneself into

wanton mischiefs and also try to avoid disrespectful

conduct. The HoD warned that extreme mischiefs will

not be handled in any way by the department and the

student will directly be allotted to the DAC, while the

forfeit for moderate cases will be as severe, if not more,

as the foul play. A major concern over plagiarism as a

trend in the reports was shown by the faculty. It is a

punishable offence and the students must be aware of it.

On request by the students, HoD agreed to initiate a

session at the beginning of each year which would only

be held to make students alert of the possible

consequences to a wide range of mischiefs.

Nostalgia….. It is rightfully said that "You can take the

person out of college, but you can never

take the college out of the person". Our

life in college shaped us into a passionate

group of smart people who know how to

get things done within strict time

constraints. The biggest assets of our

college education were the

companionship of our friends,

mentorship of our seniors and the

immersive practical experience of

working with some of the most diligent

people in extracurricular engagements.

After college, things change. You are

more free and independent in terms of

how to lead your life, but that aura of

college sticks to you. You always try and

get the same environment in your

workplace but then you realize that

workplaces are more or less all the same,

whatever industry or function. I think

what nowadays students should focus on

is to realize that they are the best and

make an attempt at "creating" more jobs

rather than doing them. That being said,

Civil Engineering department is one of

the most brilliant departments on campus

with a towering list of accolades and

research under its belt. Cherish your

department, cherish all the people you

are around because one day, you will

really miss being a part of this system!

- Kritin Joshi, Class of 2011

The total credits completed by a graduate in

Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay, excluding

minor and honor is 252 currently. As proposed

by our department, the required credits will

shoot up to 281. For honors, the student has to

complete only 24 credits now.


Department

Hulchul

UGs in action

Department freshmen’s Welcome function was conducted for the

incoming batch to the civil engineering department. The

Department council and Department festival, Aakaar were

unveiled at this function which was followed by an informal

interactive session between the incoming batch and other senior

batches.

Next Up, the Department trek to Lohagad was organized to

facilitate a break from the hectic schedule and encourage

informal interaction. Overcast, cool conditions with lush green

trees and intermittent waterfalls ensure that students had an

enjoyable experience.

This was followed by an Intra-department table-tennis

tournament to increase sportsman spirit and competitiveness

among students.

Following popular demand a “Sophie Cricket League” was

organized which created great excitement and enthusiasm among

all students.

To celebrate the feeling of ethnicity among the students,

department Kurta Day was celebrated with a brief photo session.

At the end, to help the students gain a global perspective of civil

engineering a competition by the name of “CIVILian WONDERS”

was conducted wherein the students were given an opportunity

to know about the indigenous solutions developed around the

world to tackle problems faced during construction etc.

PG Activities SARANGA, an innovative annual

departmental cultural Fest freshly

introduced by PG council of civil

department, meant for encouraging

interaction between PG students, especially

freshers. Painting, dancing, mad add, uncut

movie making, Dumb c, Singing, Solo

instrumental etc were the events which

made it quite interactive. It gained huge

success and good participation from PG civil

community.

Won “fresh look award” in tech connect,

Tech-fest 2013, which was fully lead and

managed by PG community.

Civil Department performed well in PG

Sports. We got number of gold, silver and

bronze medals in PG Sports 2013.

Civil Engineering Department secured 2nd

position in PG-Cult 2013. PG Cult is a

cultural fest comprises of series of cultural

events, particularly organized for PG

students of the institute.


Solar Decathlon, Europe 2014 J R Achyuthan

The Solar Decathlon is an international student competition taking place every two years. This competition

was created in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Energy in order to develop the transmission of the

knowledge and the research in the field of the green buildings, in particular solar energy. The first Solar

Decathlon was held in 2002 in the US and has since occurred biennially. The first edition of the Solar

Decathlon Europe (SDE) took place in June 2010 in Madrid. The second one was held in September 2012 in

Madrid and the next one is in Paris-Versailles in 2014. The purpose of this competition is to allow students

to discover and learn how to use renewable energies and to raise awareness among the general public, thus

helping solar technology to enter the market more quickly. The Solar Decathlon challenges 20 collegiate

teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

The winner of the competition is the team that best blends

affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with

optimal energy production. Team Shunya is the first team from

India to be selected for the Solar Decathlon. Team Shunya is a

collaboration of the premier technology and architecture

institutes of India, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

and Rachana Sansad’s Academy of Architecture. Team Shunya is a multi-disciplinary unit consisting of more

than 70 students and faculty from 7 disciplines of engineering and architecture working together to

represent India at the international stage. Ultimately, the team aims to achieve the following:

Sustainably meet the exponentially growing demand for urban housing in India

Bring about a change in the Indian building industry, by demonstrating the affordability of

sustainable housing

Formulate and document a design process, which could be replicated to create sustainable homes in

a resource efficient way

Conclusion

This project provides the team with not just a huge exposure to the technical aspects of a house, but also

imbibes in them a capability to think in terms of the practical implementation of the technologies being

developed and used. Moreover, since the team has to construct the house themselves, it provides them

with a unique experience at this stage of their academic life. The level of student-faculty interaction which

this project develops is also a very positive sign. The last six months have been exhilarating for me. I mean,

the project means a lot to me. It is something that we students conceived and are now helping take shape.

The learning that we get out of this is immense. But more than that what I value the most is the friendship

and camaraderie that we have built. It has been a really awesome experience!!!

“Team Shunya represents for us an opportunity for our students and faculty to work together on a very important problem and learn by doing” -Prof. Rangan Banerjee (Faculty Advisor)

Vision To maintain India’s tremendous growth

rate, it is crucial to meet the

exponentially increasing demand for

urban housing and energy in a

sustainable fashion. Through the project

Head Office, the team is looking to build

a sustainable zero-energy solar-powered

house for the average Indian

homeowner, the largest consumers of

urban houses in the next two decades.

The house has a carpet area of 65 sq.

meters and is meant for a family of 4-6

people. We plan to integrate passive

solar technologies for natural

ventilation, lighting and temperature

control into the house. The house,

named H O, also has its own air

conditioning system controlled by a

building energy management system.

Team Shunya will also actively endeavor

to increase awareness among the

building industry and the general

population about solar technology,

responsible energy use and energy

efficiency.

Judging Criteria S.No Field Points

1 Architecture 120

2 Engineering & construction 80

3 Energy efficiency 100

4 Electrical energy balance 120

5 Comfort conditions 120

6 Housing functioning 80

7 Communication & social awareness 80

8 Industrialization & market viability 80

9 Innovation 80

19 Sustainability 100

Total 1000

Solar Decathlon: A Civil Engineering Perspective

For a civil engineer, this competition offers unique challenges. This competition requires that the building be constructed by the participating teams

at a construction site convenient for them, and then later be disassembled and reassembled at the competition site within strict time limits. For the

assembly phase, a total of ten days are provided to each team in which the fully furnished house should be constructed. Four days are provided for

the disassembly phase in which the teams should disassemble the house and restore the site to the original condition. The house that the team

envisions is a single floored structure with various utility spaces based on the requirements of an Indian user and an accessible roof. To be able to

assemble and disassemble the house in such a short, Team Shunya is looking at a framed structure which may be of steel and wall panels which can

be connected and disconnected easily as required. The team is currently in the process of designing the wall panels which can suit our requirements

of minimizing the exchange of heat between the inside and outside environment. Further since digging is not allowed at the site, the team is

developing a footing which can comfortably transfer the load of the house to the soil underneath. On the water aspect, the team aims to minimize

the use of water by utilizing rainwater and recycling grey water for various purposes like irrigation or possibly a water feature. The constraints put up

by the competition and the specific requirements of the team make the civil engineering aspects pretty tricky and make it imperative that the civil

engineers think in terms of the construction process and not just the design process.

Team Shunya Team Solar Decathlon, 2014


As one of our professors rightly quoted, “Aakaar

had started with a vision to provide a platform to

civil engineering students from all over India to

interact with professional leaders in this field and at

the same time compete with the brightest minds in

the subject”. A team of 12 third year students as

managers and one fourth year student as the

overall coordinator, from the Department of Civil

engineering, successfully organize and manage this

technical fest to create new avenues

for all the budding civil engineers of

the country to hone their skills and

get a hands-on experience of real life

engineering. The 5th edition of

Aakaar was held on the 9th of

March, 2013. Around 200 students

from different cities showed up with

great amount of enthusiasm. Every year, team

Aakaar pin points one major social concern of our

country and tries to spread awareness about it

through awareness campaigns, online and offline

publicity and related competitions. Aakaar 2013

carried along with it a message of ‘conserve water

to save earth’. What follows is a detailed but brief

report on Aakaar 2013.

Unlike past years, this year Aakaar was a one-day

event. The managers optimized all the events such

that all those who come from outside Mumbai do

not have to face the discomfort of staying

overnight. The day started with an inauguration

ceremony, where the Head of the Department, Prof.

K.V. Krishna Rao and Civil Engineering Association

Faculty In charge, Prof. P. Vedagiri inaugurated the

event by releasing the abstract booklet of

symposium’13. National Civil Engineering Students’

Symposium (NCESS’13). This national research

paper and poster conference is the very essence of

Aakaar. It goes with an objective to enable closer

interaction between students and our Institute's

professors, to encourage research in the field of

Civil Engineering and to help students incubate

their innovative ideas by constructive feedback

provided by our professors.

Each year, we receive more than 200 entries of

abstracts from students from different corners of

our country. Our eminent professors then evaluate

these abstracts. Finally, some 50 papers are

shortlisted that would be presented at Aakaar. This

year, as an initiative, we tried to make provisions for

inviting international entries for this conference to

further improve the quality of participation and

competition among students. But due to time

constraints, the idea couldn’t be executed.

EVENTS

The Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay continues to maintain and cultivate its strong links with the construction industry and research institutions both within and outside the country. It provides high quality technical advisory support through various R & D projects and consultancy to

various organizations. With Exhibitions, we tried to showcase these advance research projects in a lucid and simplified manner.

WORKSHOP

A workshop on useful civil engineering softwares:

AutoCAD and Pro-E was also organized, conducted

by our Workshop partner White Matter Association.

Around 50 students attended the workshop. What

could have been better? The

workshop that was conducted

proved to be a failure as students

who attended it were dissatisfied

with the contents covered. One of

the plausible explanations might

be that the White Matter

Association who conducted the

workshop is a newly formed organization and

therefore had little experience.

A solution to avoid this in future could be to have a

demo-workshop conducted before Aakaar to check

if the contents are satisfactory. Nevertheless, we

have to agree that the quality of participation in

Research paper conference and competitions like

Bridge It, CiviQ (National Open Civil Engineering

Quiz) and others has definitely improved as

compared to the previous years.

Aakaar 2013 was a successful endeavor by a team

of students who worked all year long to make this

event successful and to realize the vision with which

Aakaar was started five years back. As Aakaar is

growing every year, the vision for next year is to

take it to the international level, so that not only

students from India but civil engineering students

from all over the world can become a part of Aakaar

to share their knowledge and compete on a

common platform.

We leave this vision unto our juniors who will make

the team for Aakaar 2014 and take the baton

forward.

Judging the Poster Presentation

CIVIQ Winners

National Civil Engineering Students’ Symposium

Project Exhibitions

Team AAKAAR 2013

Competitions

CiviQ: Nationa Open Quiz

Bridge It

Potential Prof

On the street

LogiQ: Online Crypt hunt

Photography Competition

NCESS’ 13: Winning Papers

UG Category 1.Microstructural Study of Hydration in Fly Ash

concrete

2.Seasonal Variation in Composition and

Characteristics of Indian Municipal Solid Waste

PG Category 1.Assessing Strength and Leaching Characteristics of

Fly Ash Blended Cements

2. Impact of Rainfall Variability on Reservoir

Sedimentation Using Modified MMF (Morgan-

Morgan-

Finney) Model, RS AND GIS

Poster Presentation 1.Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) in Cement Concrete

Composites

2.Retrofitting for Passive Solar Design and Energy

Efficiency

From hands-on activities to elite

professionals from around the country

delivering lectures with keynotes to drive

home to conducting workshops and visits to

best of labs in India, AAKAAR promises to live

up to its name of giving shape to the

brilliance within you.

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