Chennai: CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre (CSIR-SERC), Chennai, on Monday exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Panimalar Engineering College (PEC) to promote academic and research collaboration.

The MoU was exchanged at CSIR-SERC in the presence of Dr N. Anandavalli, Director, CSIR-SERC, and Dr C. Sakthi Kumar, Director, Panimalar Group of Institutions, Chennai.

The collaboration aims to foster joint activities in academics, research, training and knowledge exchange, with a focus on long-term and mutually beneficial engagement between the two institutions.

Senior officials and faculty members from both sides were present on the occasion. From Panimalar Engineering College, Dr S. Prasanna Devi, Chief Academic Officer; Dr K. Mani, Principal; Dr L. Jaba Sheela, Head, CSE Department; Dr S. Mageswari, Head, Civil Engineering Department; and Dr Umarani Srikanth, Professor, CSE Department, participated.

CSIR-SERC was represented by Dr S. Parivallal, Chief Scientist and Advisor (Management); Dr K. Sathish Kumar, Chief Scientist and Head, BKMD; Dr S. Maheswaran, Chief Scientist and Head, SHRDD; Dr S. Vijayalakshmi, Principal Technical Officer and Coordinator for PEC; Smt. Chitra Sankaran, Principal Technical Officer; and Smt. R. Soniya, Senior Technical Officer.

Officials said the MoU would facilitate collaborative research, student internships, faculty interaction and joint academic programmes, strengthening industry-academia and research linkages.