Badal Pokharel, MSc Student in Geological Engineering
NAME: Badal Pokharel
CURRENT TITLE: MSc Student
AREA OF EXPERTISE: Geological Engineering, Disaster Analysis, Geographic Information System (GIS)
EDUCATION: Enrolled as MSc Engineering Geology student (Third Semester). After completing my BSc in 2014, I worked mostly around disaster and its analysis in GIS. After the Gorkha earthquake in April 2015, I worked on a project for the Japanese International Cooperative Agency (Nepal). The project dealt with an earthquake risk assessment in Kathmandu Valley.
WEBSITE: http://www.badal.com.np
TWITTER: @GarnetBadal
What’s your job like?
My class begins at 7 am and goes to 2.30 pm. We do a lot of practical works and field trips along with theory subjects. Basically, our area of concern is applying geological principles in engineering construction.
What’s a typical day like?
The study time typically runs for 7 to 8 hours. There are theory and practicals. To add, field excursion is also done once a month. There is a separate field work excursion for 15 days.
What’s fun?
The fun is learning and exploring new things in geology. The interesting part is how a small parameter in engineering is driven by the geology of the site. Field trips are the amazing chapters.
What’s challenging?
The challenging part is judgement as a learner of geology. Like, in most of the cases, we are asked to give our analytical ideas on the occurrence of disaster (in most of the cases landslides). It’s hard to make the local people understand risk, probability and vulnerability of disaster. Most of the time, people seek 100% guarantee in occurrence of future catastrophes.
What’s your advice to students?
I hear a lot of issues on difficulties girls face in field work. I want to say that sometimes it’s up to the determination a girl has to learn and unravel the mysteries. It is not only the situation or people who create the hard things. Everyone has potential. It’s about the choice. Geology is a beautiful subject. Once you dive with interest and passion, you will go high.
===Thank you for reading. Check out Badal’s great blog at the website link above. If you would like to ask Badal any questions, please comment below.