Study Abroad Report in IIT-Delhi

1.　Outline of university

Indian Institute of Technology is the top university in India. IITs consist of more than 20 schools now, and old IITs located in Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi are popular among them. India has tried to become technology-intensive nation, so national policy matches the vision of the university. Especially IT global companies want to acquire excellent IIT students. They are famous for extremely high competition like more than 100 times.

2.　Motivation

Japan has great infrastructure technology but we don’t have much demand now after rapid economic growth was over. Therefore we have been searching market in developing countries, and India is one of the biggest market in the world. It is well known that we have arrived at an agreement for exporting high speed railway recently.

My major is concrete structural design in civil engineering and I’m going to start to work for a railway company after graduation. So I wanted to know the difference of research topic in India and have a valuable experience in future coming country. In addition, I wanted to get to know brilliant and motivated Indian students through laboratory activities in Japan.

3.　Program

I was assigned to structural engineering section laboratory, department of civil engineering. Dr. Bishnoi, who is assistant professor in IIT-D, kindly welcomed me and prepared a plan for sight visit. His main interest is experimental and numerical studies into hydration of cement and supplementary cementitious materials. In this program section, I divided into a few parts what I did.

 

CRRI: Central Road Research Institute

CRRI is a national research institute for road like “高速道路総合技術研究所.” I went there on open laboratory day guided by Dr. Pardeep who is a senior researcher. I visited many laboratories like bridge engineering, pavement, etc. I’m not sure that research level is high at a glance, but I was impressed with monitoring device demonstration.

 

NHAI : National Highway Authority of India

NHAI is a national highway authority like “日本道路公団（高速道路会社（NEXCO）の前身）.” I met Mr. Yamada who worked as external expert. I understood organization system for Indian highway. Infrastructure development by PPP model has been started recently in Japan because this model is useful when budget is limited, however it has been utilized in India since over 10 years ago. They choose the best contract methods from PPP, EPC and item rate based on mainly financial feasibility of each project. The main arterial highways connecting major cities in India has been developed already, and they are now developing highways in regional areas including mountains area, so Japanese road construction technologies is needed.

DMRC : Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

Delhi Metro is a fine urban metro network to ease congestion in the capital city of India. First corridor of Delhi metro was opened in 2002 supported by JICA. They have a massive network of 213km whose quality is not so different from that of Japan. Metros in other cities were constructed as an example of Delhi Metro. They are now building a new line for better connectivity, so I took a site visit guided by an Indian track engineer. Indian construction site is usually said to bepoor by the lack of safety consciousness, however the site of Delhi metro was highly authorized. I was surprised that workers and staffs used different color helmets according to their works. It is also interesting in bridge engineering that the most efficient way such as precast, on-site and metal bridge was chosen by considering road situation, building period and budget.

Research interaction

 I made a presentation on my research topic in the class of IIT-D. Main concern of Japan construction industry has been shifted from new construction to maintenance. Although India has a big demand of construction now, but the time that they have to focus on maintenance will come in a few decades. In that sense, today’s Japan is a good example for developing countries in future. Therefore I believe my research on fatigue analysis of bridge deck is meaningful for Indian students. It was the first time to make a presentation abroad, I got a confidence to work in foreign countries.

In addition, laboratory students kindly gave me some lectures for their research topics in personal. These days were so tough for me because I had to make discussions in English about topics that I’m not familiar with. I was surprised that their research is based on globally common topics like reducing CO₂ emission and some students had a joint research with other countries. Their ways of study were an motivation for me to follow the global trend.

4.　Lifestyle

Campus

IIT-D Campus is located in Houz Khas, where is an affluent area in South Delhi. It has large area and green. All students spend their life in Hostel inside the campus, and they walk to the academic area every day. They are very fond of tea, so they were gathered at tea stand around 3 pm. Most students are Indian, I might be looked strange. Laboratory members helped me in all angle.

Food

Meals are served three times a day in hostel. Curry and Roti are typical foods. Most people are vegetarian, so I couldn’t have meet for a while. At first it is hard for me to get used, but I’m glad to hear that you are just in the way of Indian life from Dr. Bishnoi.

5.  Impression

 It was a great opportunity for me to know the world which I’ve never seen. I was born and have studied in Japan, so everything was new in not only research but also lifestyle.

From the point of research activity, although the University of Tokyo is globally more famous than IIT, but I realized that it is no sense. Those who I met in campus are so excellent in a manner of study. I was treated as a representative of Japanese students because there were quite a few foreign people in campus. I regretted that I should have studied about all topics in Japan to have a mutual communication. They are my motivation now. I’ve decided to acquire more fluent English skills and finally have fruitful discussions in future.

India is a totally opposite from Japan in lifestyle. Of course Japan is more authorized country, but I could take another views for our habits and ways of thinking. I could change my mind flexibly and gain a confidence that I can get along in any countries.

I could also think about my future career. Because I went to India alone, I was a bit lonely. Therefore I tried to get acquainted with new friends from myself. I was surprised that there are some Japanese students who studied in other colleges and many Japanese people worked in India. Those who I met in India had an interesting background which is a totally different from myself. I could have an opportunity to rethink my career and respect them who struggled in foreign countries.

I’m deeply grateful to Dr. Maekawa for giving a great chance to study abroad. Thank you for kindly welcoming me to Dr. Bishnoi.