Concrete Call

His final year engineering project was born out of an already existing practice called Tunnel Form Work used to build houses in France and Turkey.

His final year engineering project was born out of an already existing practice called Tunnel Form Work used to build houses in France and Turkey. For recent civil engineering pass out Nikunj Sampat the project has transcended from being a classroom study to a full fledged paper,which he recently presented in Bangalore. One that saw him win the second place at the South Asia level of the Present Around The World (PATW) paper presentation competition organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Sampat,a student of the College of Engineering Pune (COEP),presented a paper titled ‘Accelerated Construction’ at the event,which was also his final year project at the institute. Speaking about the same Sampat says,The first round of the PATW was held in March this year where I had presented the paper at the local level. The thing is the IET is an international organisation that conducts the competition globally. Of course to compete in the international finals first one needs to clear the local networks and the South Asian level. Sampat cleared the local level held in Pune from where he was shortlisted for the South Asian level in Bangalore that was held on August 2.

There are a total of five networks in India,and one each in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The South Asian level saw participation from all these networks except Pakistan, he says. Sampat mentions that the technique holds a lot of importance in India given the huge slum population here. I began my paper by explaining accelerated construction. The technique basically involves constructing an entire storey in 24 hours. Making use of a tunnel mould to create the structure the concrete is poured and then set to dry. What happens then is,under ideal conditions,we can construct one storey a day because the concrete sets in within a day, he further adds. His work was overseen by his guide,Prof B Birajdar at COEP,who guided him all along.

Describing his Bangalore experience as bittersweet he says,I missed out on the international finals by half a mark, he says. Damith Abeywardana,Faculty of Engineering from University of Peradeniya,Sri Lanka won the top honours for his presentation on Designing of a Sensor System for Non Invasive Cross Sectional Imaging Using Electric Capacitance Tomography with Sampat coming in a close second. The truth is a technique like this one has a lot of importance in India especially in Mumbai, he says,adding,Since the slum rehabilitation work takes so long to actually help the dwellers the rising population gives birth to a new slum. The faster timing of constructing buildings can help curb it to a huge extent.

Having won Rs 12000,a certificate and a trophy at the local level and Rs 24000 and a certificate at the South Asian level Sampat does mention that monetarily the dark cloud of coming second does have a silver lining. It could have meant a representation on a global level in UK though, he smiles adding,Perhaps there is a next time.

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