The 1st International Conference on Advances in Civil Infrastructure and Construction Materials, CICM-2015 was an unprecedented event in the history of civil engineering groundwork and material science in Bangladesh. The conference was held at the premises of the Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) at Mirpur Cantonment on 14 and 15 December, 2015 involving a diverse national and international community of researchers in the field.

The tone of 1st International Conference on Advances in Civil Infrastructure and Construction Materials (CICM)-2015 was set with an Inaugural Ceremony on 14 December where Honorable Minister, Ministry of Road Transport and Bridge, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh - Mr. Obaidul Quader, MP was present as Chief Guest and Senior Secretary, Ministry of Defense, Kazi Habibul Awal joined the ceremony as the Special Guest. Numerous scholars and enterprise officials, representatives of sponsor organizations and media personalities had accepted the organizers’ invitations and gathered during the two conference days. The conference opened with a keynote by one of the keynote speakers, Dr. Anwar Jahid from ARCADIS, US Inc. The two days long conference program included 2 keynote sessions, 3 distinguished sessions and 17 parallel technical sessions.

The papers and presentations throughout the conference featured avant-garde researches in the arena of Construction Materials, and Structural and Geo technical Engineering relating to buildings, bridges, dams and other types of structures including aerospace and automotive structures. A total of 132 papers were submitted in the conference from which 94 papers were refereed and selected with an acceptance rate of 70%. IABSE, CSI, CSCE and S-Frame Software have recognized and agreed to be the partner organizations for this prestigious conference. The main conference agenda had been formulated with the support of the conference’s Advisory and Scientific Committees, as well as the input of the Conference Steering and local Organizing Committee composed of world renowned academicians and researchers as well as industry leaders from both home and abroad. The enormous support of the title sponsor of the Conference, Shah Cement Industries Ltd. and all other co-sponsor companies has contributed to the success of this event.

The 1st International Conference of CICM wound up at the evening of 15 December with an exclusive Closing Ceremony held at Kurmitola Golf Club residing in Dhaka Cantonment. The ceremony was honored with the presence of Honorable Minister, Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Engr. Mosharraf Hossain as chief guest and Lt. Gen. Anwar Hossain, Quarter Master General, Bangladesh Army as special guest.

Bringing together leading academicians and practitioners from about 12 countries around the world, the conference proved to be an excellent opportunity for networking and sharing experiences in the application of technology throughout the learning cycle. The organizers received enormous positive responses from the conference attendees including the foreign delegates and leading academicians around the globe. At the closing, the conference co-chair Shah Md. Muniruzzaman, Head, Dept. of Civil Engineering of MIST declared the continuation of this conference at each five years and made the averment of next CICM on 2023. The closing ceremony ended with a cultural event organized and staged by the current students of MIST.

The 1st International Conference on Advances in Civil Infrastructure and Construction Materials, CICM 2015 ended with a view to being a great international platform for the scientists working on Infrastructure development to present their innovations and getting the exposures of cutting-edge knowledge. The conference website (cicm2015.mist.ac.bd) will be kept open as a prominent landmark to anyone who is interested in Civil Engineering Infrastructure and Materials researches, and also conference updates including full papers will be available there.