I'm Spoorthy B. M., a PMRF working in the area of sustainable pavement materials with Dr. B. Krishna Prapoorna and Dr. P. Venkataraman. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysuru in order to fulfill my desire to receive a professional degree in the design and construction of buildings. However, I was intrigued how a proper understanding of the materials and their properties could be used to properly analyze and predict the behavior of a roadway pavement system. The mini-projects in the undergraduate coursework reinforced my penchant to pursue a master’s degree in transportation engineering at an Institute of national importance: Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar (IITBBS).

The master’s program at IITBBS sowed the first seed of my deep attention in research on advanced pavement systems. I had an opportunity to work on a very promising sustainable pavement material for my master’s research: Pervious Concrete (PC). My thesis primarily focused on designing and developing a novel type of PC comprising two layers to address field performance issues such as clogging and raveling. This helped me understand how research could essentially provide solutions to potential problems during field implementation of such a specialty product. Further, I wanted to be a part of large-scale research on alternative pavement materials in India, may it be at the laboratory or in the field, which clearly indicated to me that I would want to pursue a doctoral degree with the vibrant Materials for sustainability, Asset management, & Performance monitoring of Smart infrastructure (MAPSmart) research cluster at the Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati (IITT). Eventually, I was offered a Ph.D. position at IITT, which has bolstered my passion to delve deep into research on sustainable pavement technologies.

Since my joining at IITT in August 2022, my work has been to carry out research in the context of development and applications of novel pavement materials that address the global issues of resource depletion and waste recycling. Through an extensive literature review, I have found that the fiber polymer composite wastes (CW) from the aerospace and energy sectors have high potential of being blended with other materials to create green pavement materials. Working towards the idea of “waste-to-wealth”, which involves the development of CW-modified products for pavement applications will help me achieve my aim of contributing to the global sustainable development goals (SDG) of the 21st Century.