Biographical note

Dr. Deepak Kumar is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, India (an Institute of National Importance, Government of India). He is working in the field of damage mechanics of composite materials, nanocomposites, smart materials, product design, and development of biomaterials. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from MAHE, India, Master’s degree in Computer Aided Analysis and Design from BITS, Mesra, India, and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. His Ph.D. thesis was about a multiscale damage model for composite structures, which considered the onset and evolution of intra-laminar matrix cracking and interlaminar delamination in various ply-configurations considering the mixed mode failure. Deepak also gained valuable experimental expertise in the areas of automated fiber placement technologies and composite bolted-joint mechanics. His latestresearch interests are the development of nanocomposites for development of supercapacitor, energy devices and artificial tissues.

Dr. Vineet Sahoo is an assistant professor in Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at NIT Jamshedpur, India. His research focuses on design and development of special drives such as strain wave gears, LSHT orbit Motors, etc., which are used in precision power transmission and automation. He is particularly interested in understanding stress-strain behavior such as devices in static and dynamic conditions. He has a very good hand on experimentation of such precision devices. Recently, his work is focused on unraveling the design methodology of strain wave gears such that it can be developed indigenously. Further, Sahoo and his associates at NIT Jamshedpur seek to bring design evolutions in various mechanical components like bearings, gears and other power transmitting devices. He has more than 08 years of teaching experience. He has published 22 research papers in reputed SCI and Scopus-indexed journals and international conferences.

Dr. Ashok Kumar Mandal is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, India. His research is in the field of nonlinear vibrations, control, acoustics and hyperelasticity. He received his master’s degree in Machine Design from IIEST, Shibpur, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. His Ph.D. thesis was on vibration characteristics of strings in the presence of unilateral smooth finite boundary obstacles. Dr. Mandal has more than seven years of teaching experience in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering of BIT Mesra and NIT Jamshedpur. He has guided four M.Tech. and one Ph.D. thesis. Dr. Mandal is currently working on three sponsored research projects which are funded by Govt. of India. His research interest also includes mechanics of Indian musical instruments and technology for rural development.

Prof. Karunesh Kumar Shukla is currently the director of NIT Jamshedpur. He earned his B.E. degree from M.M.M.E.C Gorakhpur (Gorakhpur University) in 1986 and his M.E. from M.N.R.E.C Allahabad (Allahabad University) in 1988. He completed his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in 2001. He was a visiting research fellow at Mechanical and Computer Aided Engineering Department, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, during Nov. 2002–March 2003 and June 2004. He was also a research scholar in Applied Mechanics Department at IIT Delhi, India, from July 1997–Sept. 2000. Prof. Shukla specializes in areas such as composite plates and shells, smart structures, retrofitting and strengthening of RCC structures, computational mechanics, stability and dynamics of structures, multi-scale composite. He has authored the book "An Introduction to Strength of Materials" which has proved to be of immense help to students nationwide.