Civil Engineering Department students have brought laurels to Sona College of Technology by winning the national level Mapathon contest conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), IIT Bombay and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The participant teams had to work on a crowd-sourcing method and they came up with thematic maps using remote sensing data. The teams were given 10 topics to choose from the dial box. The Sona Civil Engineering students’ team chose to work on Waste- to-Wealth topic and worked on mapping the potential waste generating industrial sites in Salem District.
Led by students R.Madhan, S.Udayakumar and G.Sriharikrishnan the team was mentored by Dr.R.Malathy, Professor and Dean (R&D), Department of Civil Engineering, Sona College of Technology and research scholar N.Kuaruppasamy.
The types of wastes generated in particular industries; their links to concrete making units through railway and road were mapped. The team had the backing of the Civil Engineering Department’s previous and ongoing research in concrete technology. The maps would help the government to identity potential sites for initiating environmental pollution mitigation measures and to envisage support schemes for economic design and production of eco-friendly and cost-effective concrete using industrial wastes.
The Mapathon is a map-making competition for a specific problem statement. The primary objective is to understand the potential of ISRO’s Indian remote sensing data and make maps for Indian regions using free open source mapping software (e.g. QGIS). Totally 5225 teams registered for the event and 9343 participants took part in the contest.
AICTE, IIT Bombay and ISRO declared result on February 10 2021 under three categories with 25 champions, 175 winners and 500 notable participants. The Civil Engineering Department team of Sona College of Technology has emerged as winner and also as a notable participant.
Sona College student’s team emerged as winner plus notable participant’s category.
It was yet another proud achievement for the department and the college as a whole.
