First Industry Advisory Board Meeting

MEETING MINUTES OF THE FIRST INDUSTRY ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
JANUARY 27, 2018, SYNDICATE HALL, NSU

The first Industry Advisory Board Meeting organized by Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, North South University was held on 27th January, 2018 at Syndicate Hall, NSU.

1. Attendees

1.1 Industry Advisory Board members

  • Md. Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan, President of IEB and Ex-Chief Engineer, PWD
  • Major General Abu Sayeed Md Masud, Project Coordinator of Padma Bridge, Special Works Division, Bangladesh Army
  • Engr. Faizur Rahman Khan, Managing Director, Building Technology & Ideas Ltd (BTI)
  • Itemad Ud Daulah, Chairman, DIRD Group
  • ASM Mainuddin Monem, Deputy Managing Director, Abdul Monem Ltd.
  • Kazi Anwar Ahmed, BSRM Head of Corporate in Dhaka
  • Malik Fida A Khan, Deputy Executive Director, CEGIS
  • Fahima Shahadat, Head of Infrastructure and Technical Services ,Lafarge Holcim Bangladesh Ltd.
  • Dr. Md. Abdullah Al Mamun, SE (RHD) and Director of BRRL

1.2 North South University Officials

  • Professor Gias Uddin Ahsan, Pro Vice Chancellor, NSU
  • Professor Arshad M Chowdhury, Dean, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, NSU
  • Engr. Mushtaque Habib, Project Director, NSU

1.3 Faculties of DCEE

  • Professor Dr. Md. Sirajul Islam, Professor, DCEE, NSU
  • Professor Dr. Javed Bari, Professor, DCEE, NSU
  • Professor Dr. Mohammad Nazmul Islam, Professor & Chair, DCEE, NSU
  • Professor Brigadier General (rtd) Dr. Habibur Rahman Kamal, ndc, psc
  • Dr. Nazmun Nahar, Associate Professor, DCEE, NSU
  • Dr. Md. Shoaib Chowdhury, Associate Professor, DCEE, NSU
  • Dr. Shama E. Haque, Assistant Professor, DCEE, NSU
  • Dr. Fahmida Ummol Ashraf, Assistant Professor, DCEE, NSU
  • Ms. Sifat Kalam, Lecturer, DCEE, NSU
  • Mr. Fokruddin Ahmad, Lecturer, DCEE, NSU
  • Mr. Md. Tousif Rahman, Lecturer, DCEE, NSU

2. Discussions

2.1 Dean, SEPS and Chair, DCEE

The Dean of SEPS welcomed all participants and called the meeting into order at 11.15 am. The meeting started with self-introduction of the participants. After the self-introduction, Chair of DCEE presented briefly on the Department’s current status. His presentations included

  • Mission and Vision statements
  • Students, Faculties and Laboratories
  • Research projects
  • Seminars and Conferences
  • Extra-curricular activities

After the presentation, the Dean explained the role of the Industry Advisory Board and its importance. Both the Dean and the Chair thanked the IAB members for their participation in the meeting and their continuous support by attaching themselves to DCEE. The discussions started. The following sections provides the gist of the statements made by the various IAB members according to the order they spoke

2.2 Dr. Md. Abdullah Al Mamun

  • Curriculum should be like something which increases awareness of technology among students, addresses industry demand and fulfills the gap between industry and academia.
  • Encourage diversified education by focusing equally on every aspects of civil engineering.
  • Program curriculum needs to be updated on regular basis

2.3 Engr. Faizur Rahman Khan

  • Though human interaction is an important factor for building assessment, program should put emphasis on Business and Public Interaction as well.
  • Corresponding course faculty could take students for a day long visit to field for getting hand on experiences.

2.4 Ms Fahima Shahadat

  • Curriculum should give emphasis on developing practical and decision making skill to students.
  • Students should be encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities as it facilitates to develop communication skill and decision making capability, two very important factors to be successful in industry.
  • Students should have a holistic view of engineering and need to be aware of new technologies.
  • Must have a close relation with industry and the gap between industry-university needs to be reduced.

2.5 Itemad Ud Daulah

  • Must have a close relation with industry and the gap between industry-university needs to be reduced.

2.6 Kazi Anwar Ahmed

  • Environmental lab needs to include more advanced apparatus
  • Course, at least some chapters, on national and international standard of steel could be included in curriculum as steel structure is gaining its popularity across the world.

2.7 Malik Fida A Khan

  • Curriculum could focus more on active research.
  • Courses on developing writing skill, presentation skill and communication skill should be included in curriculum.
  • Department could take initiative of sending students for internship.

2.8 Major General Abu Sayeed Md Masud

  • Mission could address the demand of MDG and SDG goals.
  • Lab experiment could be done on field so that students learn more about technological efforts put on those field tests.
  • Courses on critical thinking development could be included in curriculum or at least could give some problems during their thesis which will help them to get critical solutions.
  • Should teach about social awareness, ethical commitment and Bangladeshi customs and motivate students to work for the country.

2.9 Md. Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan

  • Need to give extra effort to make students more confident in decision making.
  • Make six-month-semester instead of current four-month-trimester.
  • Financial and Accounting courses could be included in the curriculum.
  • Department should accelerate BAETE accreditation process.
  • Geotechnical faculty should be strengthened.
  • Department could request government civil engineering agencies to take students as intern.
  • CEE 463 course could include 4 manuals documented by PWD (with the help of JICA)

2.10 Prof Brig Gen Habibur Rahman Kamal

  • A 4 weeks-1 credit internship could be included in the curriculum.

2.11 Engr. Mushtaque Habib

  • Though industry requires finished product, curriculum needs be more skill based.
  • Might consider of starting a five-years-long Work Study program.

2.12 ASM Mainuddin Monem

  • Knowledge should be accessible and replicable. Faculty should be involved in company and disseminate the acquired knowledge among students and the other researcher, as well, for the continuation of knowledge.

2.13 Prof. Dr. Md. Sirajul Islam

  • From the very beginning, CEE of NSU has been adopting the contemporary approach of civil engineering study with broader outlook, i.e. including the concepts of sustainability in it and providing a broad based general education, along with technical know how. This is an approach adopted by most of the western/developed countries.
  • In the name of the department, its reflection is there too, which is as the Department of "Civil and Environmental Engineering", instead of simply "Civil Engineering". It is to note that almost all US universities as well as other developing countries adopted this new name. Unlike most of the Bangladeshi universities, confining within a narrow technical domain, NSU preferred this forward looking outlook of broad based education.
  • Introducing an Industry Advisory Board was also the first in Bangladesh. CEE, NSU wants more interaction in near future with industries so that their curriculum is updated with market demand and contemporary innovations. He invited all members of the IAB to contribute CEE, NSU in this endeavor.

2.14 Professor Dr. Javed Bari

  • Masters in Civil Engineering program should clearly indicate both Civil and the expert field, such as MS in Civil-Structural Engineering or similar.

2.15 Ms. Sifat Kalam

  • Faculty should be encouraged to have a close affiliation with industry.

2.16 Tousif Rahman

  • Industry should step forward to create research based positions and promote thinking out of the box solutions for engineering problems.

3. Prof. Dr. G.U. Ahsan, Pro VC, NSU

The Pro-Vice Chancellor of NSU thanked the IAB members for their association with the Department. He stressed the need to have an Industry Advisory Board for all academic departments and lauded the DCEE for its activities with the industry leaders.

The Pro-VC also directed the chair of DCEE to take note of all comments and suggestions made by the IAB members in the meeting. He mentioned that the NSU administration will implement the suggestions at the earliest.

The Pro-VC also suggested to develop a skill based 5 years long academic program that will cater the needs of certain industries.

Finally the Chair, DCEE and the Dean, SEPS thanked all the attendees of the meeting and invited them to lunch. More Details