Being organized by School of Civil Engineering of KIIT Deemed to be University in association with Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., the three-day International Conference on “Recent Developments in Sustainable Infrastructure (Material & Management)” (ICRDSI 2019) was inaugurated today in the KIMS Auditorium, Campus 5.
The inaugural session was graced by a couple of foreign delegates of International repute as well as by eminent persons from academia, industry and Govt. Sectors. Also several sponsoring companies participated in the inaugural function.
The Conference focuses on various themes like Green Building and Technology, Characterization of Geomaterials and Physical Modeling, Sustainable Materials, Composite and Sandwiched Structures, Computational, Analytical and Numerical Modeling, Forensic Geotechnical Engineering and Case studies, Water Resources Planning and Management, Pavement Materials, Maintenance and Management, Structural Dynamics and Structural Health Monitoring, Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, Innovative Construction Methods, Time and Cost Optimization in Project Management etc.
In his inaugural address, Chief Guest, Mr. Vidya Bhushan, General Manager, East Coast Railway said,” sustainability of infrastructures is need of the hour”. He compared the performance of the structures built during Moghul & British Era with that built on current period and explained how the term “Sustainability” has vanished now a days with the advent of superficial technology. He appreciated the topic of the conference and urged the participants to deliberate on the current burning issues on “pollution due to mining, dwindling of water resources – need for water conservation, treatment of sullage and its reuse etc. Also, he welcomed the new and innovative ideas for construction of new infrastructures which are going to be sustainable.
Prof. Tarun Kant, Chair Professor, IIT Mumbai stressed on the need to change the attitude towards current design practices and adopt designs that are most sustainable. Dr. C. P. Gomez, Professor, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia expressed the vital need of such conferences at this point of time and highlighted how the research and innovation on sustainable infrastructure needs to be applied in the practices.
The Vice Chancellor of KIIT DU Prof. Hrushikesha Mohanty described the success journey of KIIT towards excellence which is based on the ideology of its Founder Dr. Achyuta Samanta.
At the outset, the welcome address was presented by Prof. A. K. Rath, Organizing Chairman, who also gave a brief introduction on the genesis of the conference. The abstract proceedings of the ICRDSI 2019 were released by the Chief Guest in the presence of other dignitaries.
Eventually, Dr. B.G. Mohapatra, Dean, School of Civil Engineering, KIIT DU proposed the Vote of Thanks.