TTL Organizes Workshop on “Engineering with Traditional Technology”

5 May 2014

The Turbine Testing Lab (TTL) organized a one-day workshop on “Engineering with Traditional Technology” at TTL Auditorium with an objective to disseminate knowledge of traditional technology and its potential application in modern engineering. The workshop was a collaboration of two projects being carried out at TTL, funded by RenewableNepal and University Grants Commission (UGC), Nepal. It was a third in the series of ArtEngineering Workshops being conducted by the lab. Prof. Bhola Thapa, Registrar, Prof. Bim Prasad Shrestha, Associate Dean, School of Engineering, Dr. Hari Prasad Neopane, HoD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KOICA members at Kathmandu University, team from Engineers without Borders (EWB), faculties, staff from TTL and students attended the event.

The program was hosted by Mr. Sailesh Chitrakar, Research Fellow at TTL. It consisted of three sessions - opening session, technical session and closing session. The opening session started with the welcome speech by Dr. Hari Prasad Neopane. Prof. Bhola Thapa officially inaugurated the program by lighting the ‘panas’. He also gave a short speech on the significance of traditional technologies in development of Nepal and how it may be utilized in the present situation.

The technical session included six speakers. Mr. Niroj Maharjan, researcher from TTL, presented a brief synopsis of the ongoing pump-turbine project at TTL. This was followed by Mr. Subash Panta’s short overview on UGC project of applying traditional techniques in modern engineering. Then Dr. Shin from KOICA shared the knowledge and experience of Korean development. He explained how Korea elevated itself from the chains of poverty and deprivation to modern sophisticated nation by building on its foundation of old technology and combining it with contemporary innovations. The speech was followed by a presentation of   Mr. Hridaya Man Nakarmi, Director of D-Matrix engineering, who discussed how his team manufactured the model pump-turbine by using the traditional techniques of forging, foundry and casting. He also demonstrated the products manufactured by his company. Then, Dr. Jeffrey and his team from the USA shared their experience in Nepal as part of their work for Engineers without Borders. The final speaker for the session was Mr. Tejesh Man Shakya, Assistant Professor at Center for Art and Design, School of Arts, who exhibited how traditional sculptures are manufactured in Nepal, and shared his idea on how such techniques may be applied in modern engineering.

In the closing session, certificates were distributed to the speakers. Prof. Bim Prasad Shrestha shared his thoughts on the need of uniting the traditional techniques with modern engineering and concluded the session.