‘TechTalks’ – Edging towards a connected future for the Second Year and Third Year Civil Engineering Students

The Institution Industry Cell (IIC) and Department of Civil Engineering – Don Bosco College of Engineering organised ‘TechTalks’ – Edging towards a connected future for the Second Year and Third Year Civil Engineering Students. The motive behind these sessions was to enhance the learning experience of students and encourage industry – institute interaction. Engineer Pravin Kumar Agarwal who is currently the Director of Centre Public Works Department, Goa.

The session began with an introduction to precast components. He briefed about how pre-casted components can be used to construct a large story building within a short time. His presentation also covered the current NIT Goa campus in Cuncolim. He explained how the entire campus was being built using precast components. He showed various pictures of the site under construction and a few computerised sketches of the complete project. The site is situated in a hilly area and thus the different buildings of the campus will be casted in its profile only with interconnectivity between the five building blocks provided.

The second speaker for the session was Dr. Yogini Deshpande who is the Technical Director of Renuka Consultants and holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. Under her leadership, Renuka Consultants opened India’s first Material Testing Laboratory in PPP mode with Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation. The topic for her session was “Innovation in Concrete Technology”. She gave a brief insight on the basics of concrete and also the concrete composition. She also explained the cement production process from quarrying up to the distribution of cement in various places. She then moved forward with her presentation, highlighting that one tonne of cement emits one tonne of carbon dioxide. Hence, the need to be sustainable. She also covered topics such as Supplementary Cementitious material (SCM), Self-Compacting Concrete & Light Weight Aggregate concrete.