Mysuru: The civil engineering department of the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), as part of its biannual ‘AAKAR’ national level technical fest will be conducting a two-day international symposium on ‘Infrastructure and Heritage Structures’ at its premise on September 23 and 24. Internationally renowned experts in heritage structures will also be inspecting Lansdowne building and Devaraja Market on the occasion.
The aim of AAKAR is to promote the creative instincts of students in the field of civil engineering through various inter-collegiate competitions. It also provides a launching platform for budding engineers and harnesses creative skills and personality development. During AAKAR, cultural events will also be organized which attract thousands of people. The objective of the symposium is to provide an exposure to the current and future trends in infrastructure development and conservation of heritage structures. During the two-day symposium on ‘Infrastructure and Heritage Structures’ speakers from India and abroad will be delivering talks. Students, faculty and professionals from various institutions/ organizations will be participating in this symposium.
N Suresh, Professor and Head of Civil Engineering Department, NIE said, “Infrastructure is a major sector that propels overall development of the economy of a country. India is an infrastructure-starved country – be it roads, ports, railways, airports, power generation or distribution facilities, irrigation facilities, access to telecom infrastructure or even the very basic housing and sanitation infrastructure. One of the key challenges is rapidly developing India’s infrastructure. In this scenario, to face these significant challenges, critical areas including innovative financing mechanisms as well as rethinking the role and participation of the private sector has to be addressed. India has a rich heritage which includes a repository of archaeological treasures and incredible monuments. Every community and society has a very precious heritage which has to be and can be transferred to the next generation and it is the responsibility of the civil society to transfer that heritage to the next generation. Hence, the conservation and protection of heritage structures cannot be neglected any further. To ensure the stability as well as proper conservation of our cultural heritage, there is a need to give more thrust to the scientific research in conservation options”.
Vivek S Bindiganavile, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering , University of Alberta , Canada who has taken up many renovation works of heritage building in Canada will also be a part of the conference.
The symposium will be comprised of lectures/interactive sessions by eminent speakers from India and abroad. The list of speakers include B R Sreenivasa Murthy – Former Professor , IISc , Bengaluru; M N Sreehari, Advisor to Government of Karnataka for Traffic, Transportation and Infrastructure; Arun Menon – Professor , IIT Madras, Chennai; Vivek S Bindiganavile – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering , University of Alberta , Canada; Abdus Samad Siddiqui – Director, Starmass Environment Technologies; Venkataramana Bhat – CEO Venturesoft Global, California, USA; Mandar R. Chaphalkar, Associate Technical Director, Arcadis and Thejaswi – Archaeological Survey of India. The symposium is sponsored by Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), M/s CV Associates, New York USA and M/s Indian Estate Mysuru.
