Research

Exchange of Researchers from India to USA

Prof. Venkatesh Kodur facilitated exchange visits by Indian researchers to Michigan State University. A total of three exchange visits for students and faculties/scientist from India to US were facilitated in the first year. Details of the exchange visits are summarized below:
Mr. Pratik Prashant Bhatt, a Master of Science (Research) [MS (R)] scholar at Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi visited Michigan State University for two months i.e. from February 24^th - April 24^th, 2014. During this visit Mr. Pratik Bhatt carried out research on evaluating fire performance of high strength steel fiber reinforced concrete columns. He also visited the “Civil Infrastructure Laboratory” where state of the art test facilities are available for carrying out tests on structures subjected to fire. He presented a poster entitled, “Finite Element Modeling of High Strength Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Columns Exposed to Fire” at the Michigan State University “Engineering Graduate Research Symposium 2014”. Mr. Pratik Bhatt also interacted with the PhD students and other researchers of SAFE-D center and got acquainted with the state of the art practices in the field of structural fire engineering.

Dr. Vasant Matsagar, Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, visited Michigan State University for two weeks i.e. from July 1^st - July 15^th, 2014. During this visit Dr. Matsagar interacted with the faculties and PhD students of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, and explored collaborations for future research projects. He also visited the “Civil Infrastructure Laboratory” to acquire knowledge of the state of the art test facilities to undertake tests on structures subjected to fire. This would be highly useful to setup similar facilities at Indian universities. Also, Dr. Matsagar met with number of administrative officials of Michigan State University and explored collaboration opportunities for joint research projects and student exchanges.

In addition exchange visits of Dr. Suvir Singh, Principal Scientist and Prof. S. K. Bhattacharyya, Director, Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee was planned for the period of June, 2014. However, due to technical delays the exchange visit did not materialize and is rescheduled for end of September 2014.

Exchange of Researchers from USA to India

Prof. Venkatesh Kodur visited Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in August 2013 and July 2014 to kick start the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) project “Fire Center for Advancing Research and Education in Structural Fire Engineering” and also to plan for workshop and other deliverables from the project. Detailed minutes of the meeting are appended in APPENDIX-1. During his visit Prof. Kodur also interacted with students, as well as faculties of Department of Civil Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. In July, 2012 Prof. Kodur visited the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee, and delivered a seminar on “Innovative Strategies for Enhancing Fire Performance of Concrete Structures.” Also he held discussion with scientist of CBRI Roorkee as well as the faculties and students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. During the 2013 visit Prof. Kodur delivered a keynote lecture at “PROTECT 2013-Workshop on Performance, Protection and Strengthening of Structures under Extreme Loading” in Mysore, India, organized by “The National Institute of Engineering”. During the 2014 visit Prof. Kodur delivered a keynote lecture at the “International Workshop on Civil Infrastructure and Structural Materials” held in Surathkal, India organized by “The National Institute of Engineering-Karnatka”.

For the above US visits to India, Prof. Kodur utilized funds from other sources. The funds allocated by IUSSTF for the exchange visits of US researchers to India have not been utilized in the first year of the project. We request IUSSTF to reallocate these funds for the second year of the project to enable us for facilitate additional exchange visits from US to India.