Day 1 - 19 Nov 2020, Thursday, Session 1 - 3:00 pm to 4:45 pm IST

Mr. Mohan Ramathan, Advanced Construction Technologies (P) Limited, Chennai,
DFI India 2020 Conference Chair, and Executive Committee Member,

Mr.Mohan Ramanathan is the Founder Director of ACT Group of Companies. He has over 40 years of experience in varied fields such as Pile Foundations,Heavy Earthmoving Equipment,Demolition and Concrete Flooring. He is a  B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT, Madras in India and Masters  from UIUC,USA. He is also an active member in several professional societies like DFII, IGS, Inst of Engineers,ACCE, ICI and IDA.He is constantly involved in the transfer of technologies into India from developed countries. Presently,his firm Advanced Construction Technologies (ACT) represents several giants in the Infrastructure sector. He is an active member in the Executive Committee of DFII and also heading the initiative in the introduction of Helical Screw Piles in India.

Day 1 - 19 Nov 2020, Thursday, Session 2 - 4:55 pm to 7:15 pm IST

Dr. N Kumar Pitchumani, AECOM India, Exexutive Committee Member, DFI of India

Dr N Kumar Pitchumani has 27 years of experience in the field of Geotechnical Engineering. His experience includes teaching, research, consulting, analysis and design in various aspects of Geotechnical Engineering. His experience includes foundation designs for various types of structures in the transportation and marine infrastructure projects. He has been responsible for various projects involving ground improvement of soft clays and reclamation fills. He is also involved in design of underground structures for metro projects. He is presently involved with Nagpur Metro, Kolkata Metro and Chennai Metro.

Dr. Pitchumani obtained his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in the year of 1987 from Bombay University and later did his masters and research work in IIT Kanpur during 1987 to 1992. He is a chartered engineer with Institution of Engineers and level D certified project management associate from Project Management Associates.

Dr. N Kumar Pitchumani had four-year teaching assignment at IIT Madras during 1995-1999 and also served as an adjunct Professor in Geotechnical Engineering at IIT Madras. He worked in prestigious organisations like L&T Ramboll, L&T ECC, National Institute of Rock Mechanics, COWI Dubai and presently working at AECOM India as Technical Director and Regional Director.

Day 2 -  20 Nov 2020, Friday, Session 1 -9:00 am to 11:15 am IST

Prof. Amit Prashant, IIT Gandhinagar, Executive Committee Member, DFI of India

Dr. Amit Prashant is Professor of Civil Engineering and Dean of Research and Development at IIT Gandhinagar. He is currently the chairman of the Ahmedabad chapter of Indian Geotechnical Society and also member of the Board of Governors of SVNIT Surat. He completed his Bachelors of Engineering degree from IIT Roorkee in 1997. After two years of consulting experience, he went for higher studies at Clarkson University, NY and then to University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After completing his doctoral studies and one year of post-doctoral research, he worked at IIT Kanpur as Assistant Professor during 2005-2010, and then moved to IIT Gandhinagar in 2010. He has been actively involved in academic administration, as Chairman, SUGC at IIT Kanpur earlier and for six years as Dean, Academic Affairs at IIT Gandhinagar. With that experience, he was also appointed as officiating director of IIT Gandhinagar during July-September 2019. His research interests are in constitutive modelling of soils, earthquake geotechnical engineering and applications of Geosynthetics, which includes experimental investigations and numerical modelling. He has done field projects related to hill slopes, excavations, canals, ash-dyke, bridge foundations, barrage, etc. He has conducted several industry courses in earthquake engineering, FEM and Geotechnical investigations, which have been quite popular. He is also coordinating a faculty development programs for last six years under the aegis of TEQIP Scheme of Govt. of India for engineering colleges in country.

Day 2 -  20 Nov 2020, Friday, Session 2 11:25 am to 1:00 pm IST

Prof. M Muttharam, CEG Anna University, Executive Committee Member, IGS Chennai Chapter

Dr. M. Muttharam is a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, CEG at Anna University and now heading the division of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. She obtained her bachelor’s in civil engineering from Madras University in 1992 and her master’s from Anna University in 1995. She subsequently obtained her doctoral degree in the field of soil mechanics and foundation engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 2001.

She pursued postdoctoral research at Institute National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France from 2002 to 2003, which was funded by French Higher Education Ministry and has worked as a CSIR research associate for about 3 years. She started her academic career as a lecturer at CEG, Anna University in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2006 and then professor in 2014.

She has published more than 40 papers in national and international journals and at conferences. She also served as the secretary of the Chennai chapter of the Indian Geotechnical Society for 5 years and is currently an executive committee member of the same chapter.