Student projects to create earthquake-proof homes in El Salvador could potentially get a boost thanks to the generosity of an Imperial alumnus.

Student projects to create earthquake-proof homes in El Salvador or develop fresh water resources in Tanzania could potentially get a boost thanks to the generosity of an Imperial College London alumnus.

The College’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is establishing a prize for MSc students– thought to be the College’s largest prize awarded to a single student. The prize is being set up because of a donation from Dr Amiya Basu, who is a 76 year-old alumnus of the College.

Developing fresh water resources in poorer countries could be one of the student led projects that could benefit from the Prize Money

The annual Basu Prize for Civil Engineering will be awarded to an MSc student who submits the best proposal for undertaking their dissertation project overseas. Students will receive £2,400 to help them with their expenses while abroad.

The winner will be announced in March 2013 and they will take their trip abroad in the summer, before submitting their dissertation at the end of August.

Dr Robert Vollum, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says:

“We are very proud of the work that our MSc students have done overseas in the past such as helping to build a bridge in Malawi to connect an isolated community to the wider world. We are receiving an ever increasing number of requests each year from students wishing to take their dissertation project abroad, but the Department has very limited funds to help them, which often means that students have to face the challenge of raising money from elsewhere. Thanks to the generosity of Dr Basu, this new Prize will each year give a leading student the chance to reach their full potential by undertaking their project in the country of their choice.”

Dr Basu, who completed his MSc and PhD in the Department in the early sixties, is the patriarch of one of the most “alumni-populous” families in the College’s history. His children, Ms Urmi Basu (Materials, BSc 1988) and twins Miss Jhinuk Basu (Civ Eng BEng 1988) and Mr Upal Basu (CivEng BEng 1988) are studied in the Faculty of Engineering.

MSc students wishing to find out more about the Prize should contact Dr Robert Vollum in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.