MOU for setting up the Rail Research Centre at IIT-Roorkee shortly: Director/IIT-Roorkee

MOU for setting up the Rail Research Centre at IIT-Roorkee shortly: Director/IIT-Roorkee

Roorkee (RK): Union Ministry of Railways will soon set up a rail research centre at IIT, Roorkee. Giving the information at a press conference here today, Director of the institute Pradipta Banerjee said the process for establishing the rail research centre has already begun at the institute. An MoU in this regard will soon be signed between the Ministry of Railways and IIT, Roorkee, he said. Also, we want to start M.Tech program in Railway Engineering.The whole idea is to train our students for future.

About Pradipta Banerji, Director, IIT-Roorkee

Pradipta Banerji is currently the Director of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, a post he has held since October 2011. He also is Professor of Civil Engineering at IIT Bombay and at IIT Roorkee.

He graduated with a BTech degree from IIT Delhi in 1981, securing the Director’s Silver Medal as the topranked graduating student in Civil Engineering. He has also received the National Science Talent Scholarship. He completed his MS and PhD degrees in Structural Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, USA. During his studies at Berkeley, he was awarded the UC Regents’ Fellowship twice, the prestigious Popert Research Fellowship, and a Distinguished Teaching Award.

He joined as an Assistant Professor in IIT Bombay in April 1988 and spent more than 23 years there as a faculty member, during which period he has also been awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award, and was the Dean (Alumni & International Relations) for two terms. He has been Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of Statics and Dynamics for Aerospace Structures at University of Stuttgart and the Mechanical Engineering Department at University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. His areas of research specialization are Earthquake Engineering and Structural Health Monitoring, and he has been active in guiding research, publishing scholarly papers and developing technology that has been applied in practical situations in both areas. Notably, he has helped the Indian Railways by developing a technology for “Bridge Asset Management under Increased Axle Loads”.

He is a member/fellow of several professional societies including IISHMII, where he is also a member of the Executive Council from the inception of the society. He is an Editor of the Journal for Civil Structural Health Monitoring published by Springer. He is also a member and/or chairman of several national and internal level boards and committees for capacity building and research.

During his term as Director here, IIT Roorkee has won several National Awards for being an Outstanding Engineering Institute, students have participated in several International Competitions and brought laurels to the Institute. IIT Roorkee has also been ranked amongst the top three or four universities in India in the QS and Times Higher Education Rankings in both 2012 and 2013.