Dr. Sarat Kumar Maharana

Professor and Dean, Faculty of Engineering Technology

Sarat Kumar Maharana received his BE in Mechanical Engineering with first-class honors from Utkal University, Govt. of Odisha and went on to earn his M.Tech and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, West Bengal. He has more than 25 years of professional experience. He served as the Principal of the Gandhi Institute for Technology (GIFT), an autonomous Institute in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Between 2010-2022, he was the Chairman of the Board of Studies (Aeronautical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering), VTU and the Dean & Head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, at Acharya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka between 2013 and 2023.

During his stint at Acharya Institute of Technology, he held the position of Dean of Research & Development for five years. He served for four years teaching at the mechanical engineering department of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology (IGIT), the government of Odisha. After that, he spent nearly six years( 2000-2006) as a Centre of Excellence Manager at GE's John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC), Bangalore, where he worked on projects related to propulsion, computational fluid dynamics, the development of engineering tools, energy, infrastructure, and GE's aircraft engine programs. He has worked at GE's facilities for aircraft engines and Global Research in Ohio and Albany, both in the United States and Infosys Technology Ltd. in Toronto, Canada. From 2006-2009, he worked as a senior project manager for Infosys Technologies' manufacturing business unit in India and Canada. During the academic year 2009–10, he briefly held the position of Dean (Academics) at the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), which is owned by the government of Odisha. Then he became a professor and the head of the aeronautical engineering postgraduate department at MVJ College of Engineering in Bangalore. Around Twenty M.Tech dissertations, close to fifty BE projects, Nine doctorate students are guided and two doctoral students are now being supervised by Professor Maharana at Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Karnataka, and one under Biju Patnaik University of Technology(BPUT).

Industrial aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, graphene-based composite materials for aerospace applications, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and machine learning (ML) to develop new materials, aerospace structures and materials, multiphase flow, heat, and fluid flow, and computational statistics are his main research areas. He has received National Rural Talent Search, GATE, and Institute scholarships to pursue a Ph.D. at IIT, Kharagpur. From GE Aviation, he has a Six Sigma Green Belt qualification. He was selected as a member of the VTU local inquiry committee for the years 2013 and 2021. He joined the Indian Society of Technical Education (ISTE) and the Indian Society for Wind Engineering as a life member (ISWE).

He has received grants from AICTE and VTU to carry out sponsored projects. He served as conference chair for the IEEE co-sponsored ITACT15 International Conference and has 45 research papers published in both national and international journals and conferences. He has been a speaker at conferences, workshops, and faculty development programs. He currently is serving on the journal : Advances and Applications in Fluid Mechanics' editorial board. He served as the journal's editor for Engineering and Technology Management (JEST-M, ISSN 2277-5161). He is a co-author of the book "Micro Aerial Vehicle" and contributed a chapter to the book "Cloud Computing Advancements in Design, Implementation, and Technologies" (IGI Publisher, USA) (LAP Lambert Academic Publishing). His biography is featured in the 2010 edition of Marquis Who's Who in America. He has received both the Infosys and the GE service awards.