Statement of Purpose (SoP) for PhD in Civil Engineering

I am applying for admission in PhD in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT

Bombay since I want to pursue research based work in the Civil Engineering field as an
addition to the environmental prospective in a prestigious institution like IIT Bombay which
stands tall at 2nd in Engineering Colleges as per NIRF. From the childhood, I have heard
several times about IIT Bombay being one of the best colleges in terms of offering
knowledge, scope of work in a wide variety of discipline, research scope and practical
exposure. In recent days, the need for research based work and future development towards
ecological balance of environment needs to get increase while concentrating more on the
future prospective of advances in civil engineering field by minimizing the effect towards
environment.

I believe that gathering knowledge is a unstoppable process which has no limits and
research based work is an important pillar towards acquiring knowledge as well as offering
the well being and outcomes of the research work towards society to the next generation. I
personally believe that my educational background has motivated me and prepared me
strongly for the field of research in civil engineering. I have completed my M.Tech in
Construction Engineering & Management (CEM) from SRM Institute of Science and
Technology in 2018. I have also completed Diploma as well as B.Tech in Civil Engineering.
This has provided me the knowledge and motivation for research work in civil engineering.

I have done my M.Tech project in the field of Concrete Technology. The title of my
project work was “Experimental investigation on the effect of froth floated silica as a
replacement of fine aggregate in concrete”. The main objective of my project was to replace
the sand in concrete with a cement manufacturing bi-product known as froth floated silica
with partial as well as complete replacement. Sand is an important ingredient of concrete. The
constant urbanization and industrialization process has increased the rate of concreting works
due to which the availability of sand has reduced to a large extent. This is mainly due to the
continuous extraction of the river sand and over utilization of this resource which has resulted
in the depletion of the river bed. As a result of which the environmental problems are
increasing. Moreover due to the vast need of river sand, the cost of sand has increased which
directly affects the cost of construction. So there is an immediate need for an alternative
which can replace the river sand without affecting the quality and strength of concrete. One
such alternative is froth floated silica which is the bi-product of cement manufacturing
industry. In reference to this, I have also published a paper on my M.Tech Project named
“Experimental investigation on the effect of froth floated silica as a replacement of fine
aggregate in concrete” in Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems
(ISSN 1943-023X).

Therefore I am interested in carrying research based work in this field to the next level
as a part of PhD in Civil Engineering at IIT Bombay with my gathered knowledge and strong
academic background.

ABIR DATTA