I was invited to deliver a guest lecture to Civil Engineering students at Sona College of Technology, Salem.

About Sona College of Technology, Salem

Sona College of Technology is one of the top-ranking engineering colleges in India. It was built and developed on the reputation of the well-known Thiagarajar Polytechnic College.

The college offers Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Engineering and doctoral degrees (Ph.D) in all major disciplines. It includes Bachelor degrees in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics, Electronics and Communication, Computer Science, Information Technology and Fashion Technology. It also offers several Master of Engineering and Master of Technology specializations, Master of Business Administration and Master of Computer Applications courses.

I understand that Sona college is the first educational institution to get the Five Star rating by GRIHA for its Green Building. It’s strategic location, infrastructure and strong academic and research team makes it one of the most sought after institutions for engineering aspirants in Tamil Nadu.

Finalizing the topic for guest lecture

I had a few rounds of discussion with the Faculty Co-ordinator to choose the topic for the guest lecture. He informed that the students would be more interested to know about my practical experience. So, I proposed few topics to him including Project management, risk management and construction of underground structures.

We finally decided that “Underground Structures and Execution Techniques” would be a topic of interest to the students. I agreed that I would share my knowledge and practical experience from various underground projects I managed.

About the guest lecture

The faculty member introduced me to the audience. Following the introduction, I was given the stage to deliver the guest lecture. I started my presentation to the huge gathering of keen students and faculty members.

The lecture was focused on covering the following topics:

• Possibilities in underground construction – explained some of the interesting applications of underground construction. The opportunities with underground construction is endless; the idea is to give awareness to the students about the abundant prospects for them to explore further
• Challenges faced during underground construction – shown some of the major accidents that happened worldwide during underground construction. While the opportunities galore, the student community should also be aware of the risks involved in such a complicated work environment
• Types of shoring system/ earth retaining structures used to support underground construction
• Special attention was given to diaphragm wall construction, its construction sequence, quality assurance/ control in diaphragm wall works
• Top-down and bottom-up construction methodologies used in building underground structures

The programme ended with a Question & Answer session. The students actively participated in the Q&A session; they had several doubts. While some questions were limited to underground construction, there were several questions focused on the opportunities for Civil Engineers and the recent trends in Construction industry.

It was an interesting session overall. I enjoyed the presence of youngsters and their keen interest to take away something from my experience/ knowledge gained over the years. The students were so interested that I had several off-line discussions after closing the programme.

As featured in SONA CREA Newsletter

The guest lecture was covered in the seventh issue of SONA CREA newsletter, published by Department of Civil Engineering and ICI Student Chapter of Sona College. The snapshot from the Newsletter is presented below:

Interested in similar guest lecture for your college?

If you want me to deliver a guest lecture at your college/ institution, please get in touch with me at a_manick@hotmail.com