Prof. Allan Bateman from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Catalonia, UPC Barcelona Tech, Spain, visited the Amritapuri campus in late April-early May 2016. He was invited as a keynote speaker at the International Conference in Emerging and Sustainable Technologies for Infrastructure Systems (ESTIS 2016) organized by the Department of Civil Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. During the conference, he delivered the keynote address, speaking at length on the ‘Analysis of Residual Risk in Flood Processes’ and chaired the session on ‘Infrastructure and the Environment’.

Prof. Bateman met with faculty members and students from the Department of Civil Engineering and Department of Chemistry and expressed an interest in sending his students to Amrita. He was also keen on delivering online lectures and writing joint proposals. Prof. Bateman went on to meet with the team at Amrita Multi Modal Applications for Computer Human Interaction (AMMACHI Labs). There he shed light on the work an NGO under UPC Barcelona Tech, ONGTIS, did in the fields of hydraulic engineering, environmental engineering, and water and sanitation with a focus on developing systems for drinking water, flood control, and solid waste management in Ecuador, Argentina, Nicaragua, Morocco, Senegal, Ethiopia and Thailand. He was eager to collaborate and teach a course to the beneficiaries of AMMACHI Lab’s various projects. Prof. Bateman also met with faculty members and students from the Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (Amrita WNA) where he expressed an interest in collaborating in the area of disaster management.

Speaking on his experience at Amrita, Prof. Bateman said, “I am very impressed with what I have seen and look forward to working on collaborative projects between UPC Barcelona Tech and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.”