Thank you Abhirami!

We hosted Abhirami Vinod, 2020-24 batch B.Tech and our current student in M.Tech SECM in the alumni interaction forum, Civil House, yesterday, 14 August 2025. Presently she is working as Billing Engineer at Nina Percept Pvt. Ltd. Our faculty member Ms. Preethi introduced Abhirami and invited her to share her experience with the juniors. The formal welcome was presented by Somya Goswami of S3 CEB. Students from the third semester B.Tech attended the session.

Abhirami started the session by sharing insights on the importance of Civil Engineering in today’s world. She gave guidance for academics and industrial placements. She said,”Don’t study just for marks. Marks matters but knowledge matters more. Your attitude is everything. Nobody cares about your CGPA but your attitude". 

Her words focused more on how to develop a positive attitude and advised to say “no” in a polite manner. She said, “The recruiters coming from reputed companies are professionals and they expect their employees to be a professional too!”. She talked about the importance of preparing for an interview and explained it with her real life experiences and discussed few common but important interview questions. 

There were several question during the interaction from the audience. Students asked about the toughest question during an interview, the software knowledge that are important, expectations from employers etc. According to Abhirami, knowledge in software such as BIM, ERP, AutoCAD and SAP are very useful for getting a job. She also explained how Microsoft Excel plays an important role in estimating construction costs.

Thank you Abhirami for your time!

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Riddhi Sara Reji, S3CEB

The Woman behind the Steel Arc- Dr. G Madhavi Latha

It’s not every day you get to meet someone who changes the way you look at engineering. The Kochi International Foundation (KIF) brought to Kochi none other than Dr. Madhavi Latha - the driving force behind the iconic Steel Arch of the newly inaugurated Chenab Bridge. On 11 August 2025, at the RECCA Club in Kakkanad, I joined 10 of our fist year M.Tech students for a day that blended inspiration, engineering brilliance, and stories from one of the most challenging bridge projects in the world. 

The talk began with a brief introduction about Dr. Madhavi Latha’s journey. She is the first engineer from her village and first female faculty in the Civil Department at IISc, Bangalore. Her journey and the path that lead her into building the Chenab bridge is truly remarkable. It took her team 17 years to build the world’s tallest railway bridge. Learning first hand the challenges and uncertainties encountered by the team in executing the project, blew our minds.

She spoke eloquently about the project and the challenges faced. The river flows into Pakistan and hence, the area is politically sensitive. They had to keep every project aspect like dumping the earthwork, blasting etc considering the political sensitivity. There were environmental considerations as well and hence, they disposed off the waste/earthwork carefully. The earthwork removed and the subsequent loading by the arch bridge was considerably less, hence less challenging. The soil conditions, topography and the fact that it's part of the Indian plate crashing into the eurasian plate meant the complete opposite. The soil conditions were such that proper cores couldn’t be obtained from bore holes. The soil is soft, consisting of dolomite and shale. It also meant different types of joints leading to the threat of slope instability and landslides. They employed techniques shotcreting, soil nailing, preblasting, grouting etc as when required. The project challenges kept changing at every phase and they received very different analysis from different experts. They had to validate at every step by conducting different tests (like plate load). The team had to innovate and come up with ingenious solutions at every challenge thrown at them. She calls their approach- ‘design as you go’.

The fact that the team under her leadership was able to pull this off is a marvel of engineering. It is also a testament to the success of global partnerships. 

I hope that her journey and this bridge inspires generations to come.

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Neeraja Nair, AP, CE

Congratulations S6 & S4 toppers

It’s result season again, with a mix of happy news and lessons learned. Many students achieved strong results, and we are proud of their hard work. Special congratulations to the toppers of the University Exams for S6 and S4 B.Tech. Your dedication and effort truly stand out.