Dikshita Nath

Ph.D. Student

dikshita.nath@ubc.ca

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I hail from the northeastern part of India and have lived in different parts of the country over the years. I received my Bachelors’ in Civil Engineering from Assam Engineering College in 2012. Thereafter, I finished my M.Tech (Thesis based) in Structural Engineering from VIT University in 2014. I went to work in the industry for a while and later gravitated back into academia. I finished another MS by Research from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi in 2021. Over the years, I worked as an Intern in an MNC and Research Lab during my academic studies. Professionally, I worked as a Structural Engineer, an entrepreneur, and an Associate Business Manager in firms and startups in India. My motivation for a PhD stems up from my childhood interests of working towards safe and resilient structures during the event of an Earthquake. In UBC, Okanagan, I am working towards developing resilient structures for the northern and remote communities of Canada.

I enjoy photography, hiking, reading, cooking, writing and dancing in my leisure time. I have been involved in local volunteer activities engaged in peace, culture and education with the Soka Gakkai International for a decade now.

In the Okanagan, I love the Sun and the Snow!

Always happy to learn and connect to new people and learn from life-to-life experiences.

Current Research Project

  • sustainable housing for remote communities

Academic Projects

  • Eggshell derived Antibacterial Concrete (Masters’ by Research thesis project, Structural Engineering, IIT Mandi, 2021)
  • Upgradation of critical components of RC structures under Earthquake loading (Master’s thesis project, Structural Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, 2014)
  • Analysis and design of a G+4 residential building for Zone V and medium type soil (Bachelor’s thesis project, Department of Civil Engineering, Assam Engineering College, 2012)

Patents

  • “Antibacterial construction materials using CaO Inclusion”, Patent, Dikshita Nath, Dr. Rahul Vaish, and Dr. Rajeev Kumar.

Publications

• Journal Paper:

  • “Antibacterial and photocatalytic performance of eggshell derived CaF2-mortar cement composites“, 2022 D Nath, P Azad, S Ibrahim and V.P Singh, Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society
  • “Eggshell derived CaO-Portland cement antibacterial composites” 2021, D Nath, K Jangid, A Susaniya, R Kumar, R Vaish. Composites Part C,Vol 5
  • “Influence of Nonhomogeneous Viscosity on the Dynamics of Debris Flow: A Numerical Study” 2020, G Bhutani, M Mukherjee, D Nath, Advances in Computer Methods and Geomechanics, 315-327p
  • “Seismic performance of non-invasive single brace made of steel and shape memory alloy for retrofit of gravity load designed sub-assemblages” 2017, S Sasmal, D Nath. Engineering Structures 143, 316-329p
  • “Evaluation of performance of non‐invasive upgrade strategy for beam–column sub‐assemblages of poorly designed structures under seismic type loading” 2016, S Sasmal, D Nath. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 45 (11), 1817-1835p

• Conference:

  • “Influence of nonhomogeneous viscosity on the debris flow dynamics” 2019, Proceedings of the Symposium of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG), IIT Gandhinagar, India, March 5-7, 2019. G Bhutani, M Mukherjee, D Nath
  • Attended “International IACMAG Symposium and Workshop” at IIT Gandhinagar during March 4-7, 2019.
  • Attended “Workshop on Computational Fluid Dynamics: FVM” at IIT Dharwad during June 11 -15, 2018.
  • Attended “Teaching Learning Workshop” at IIT Mandi during April 28, 2018.
  • Presented a paper entitled “Development of upgradation strategies for critical components of Reinforced Concrete structures under Earthquake Loading” at the International Conference on the Advances in Civil Engineering and Chemistry of Innovative Material (ACECIM’14), SRM College, Chennai during March 3-4, 2014.
  • Attended “Earthquake Engineering Literature Survey Workshop” at IIT Kanpur during June 17 -26, 2013.
  • Participated in “International Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology (SET)” at VIT, Vellore during 2012 and 2013.

Service to community/industry

  • Position: Structural Design Engineer, L.J Purani and Associates, Ahmedabad (June 2015-Jan 2016)
  • Position: Entrepreneurship Experience (Co-Founder), Being Home, Kota, Rajasthan (Feb 2016- Aug 2016)

Leadership Roles

  • Resident Warden for the women’s hostels at IIT Mandi 2018 – 2020
  • Organized Research Social Meets for graduate students at IIT Mandi for the academic year 2018.
  • Served as the Sales Coordinator of Riviera, 2013, the Cultural festival of Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore.

Awards & Honors

  • Awarded Dr. M. Ramaiah Prize 2018 for paper entitled “Seismic performance of noninvasive single brace made of steel and shape memory alloy for retrofit of gravity load designed sub-assemblages” for best paper among all papers published from SERC, CSIR, Chennai during 2017-2018.
  • Received “Best Teaching Assistant” award for the academic year 2017-2018 for outstanding contribution to teaching, IIT Mandi.
  • Received Best Paper presentation on “Experimental study on the mechanical properties of rubber powder in Concrete” in 5th International Conference on “Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), 2012”, VIT, Vellore.