Sustainable Structural Materials

Dr. Elango Natarajan obtained doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India in 2010. He worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2013 and carried out research on soft actuators. He has served for engineering colleges/universities for about 25 years in various academic positions. He is currently attached to Faculty of Engineering, UCSI University, Malaysia as an Associate Professor in Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. Besides, he is the Deputy Director of Praxis, Industry and Community Engagement. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng.) awarded by Engineering Council UK, Chartered member (CMEngNZ) awarded by Engineering Council NZ and Fellow awarded by Institution of Engineers India. He has published 130+ research articles with citations over 1500 and his h-index is 23 in Scopus. He has completed many research grant projects including projects supported by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia worth of about RM 1 million. He has edited three Conference proceedings, and three books. He is an academic Editor of J. Advances in Materials Science and Engineering (Wiley) and Special issue editor at J. Welding International (T&F).

Ir. Dr. Kalaimani Markandan is an Assistant Professor and current Head of Programme at the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, UCSI University, Malaysia. She previously graduated with a first-class MEng (Hons) and PhD (Chemical Engineering) in the years 2013 and 2017 respectively from the University of Nottingham. Prior to joining UCSI University, she worked as a research scientist at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Her research area focusses on composite materials, functionally graded materials, additive manufacturing, mechanics of materials and MEMS. She is also a chartered member with the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) and a Professional Engineer (PEng) with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM).

Dr. Cik Suhana Binti Hassan is the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department Head at UCSI University, Malaysia. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in 2009 and 2011, respectively, from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, and her PhD in 2019 from Universiti Putra Malaysia. In 2011, she began her career as an Intellectual Property Executive at SIRIM Berhad, a corporate organisation wholly owned by the Malaysian government, and in May 2012, she began her career in academia as a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department of UCSI University. Dr. Suhana is passionate about turning environmental waste into value-added products as part of her quest to live a more environmentally friendly life. Her research interests include bio-composites for automotive applications. She is also an active member of the materials community, having been named a Professional Member of the Institutes of Materials Malaysia and a Professional Technologist of the Malaysian Board of Technologists in the field of Material Science Technology.

Mr. Praveennath G. Koppad is currently a Ph.D. candidate at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and holds B.E and M.Tech degrees from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India. With 18 years of industrial and academic experience at various positions, his research is mainly focused on thermal spray coatings, non-ferrous metal casting, nanocomposites and 3D printing of polymeric materials. He has published more than 63 scientific contributions in the form of original articles, conference papers, editorials and book chapter with 1800+ citations and H-index of 25.