Welcome to the Department of Design and Manufacturing – DM (erstwhile Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing – CPDM), the design and manufacturing face of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru!
In 1996-97, a two-year MDes programme in Product Design & Engineering was initiated at the department of Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology (now Department of Electronic Systems Engineering). A year later (1998), this led to the formation of DM, with a goal to combine engineering and industrial design and train students to make products that balance functionality, usability, business and aesthetics – a need that was not being met at any institute in India.
DM continues to remain true to this goal, with faculty members’ and students’ backgrounds ranging from architecture, engineering and science. Its flagship MDes programme trains students in a holistic vision of design that embraces all aspects of the product, encourages hands-on prototyping to demonstrate the functioning of the complete product, and translate it to the society.
Over the last 28 years, DM has established itself as one of the top design schools in the country, and among the top research-intensive design schools in the world. It leads India’s National Design Innovation Network and runs one of the first four ‘Design Innovation Centre’ hubs created by India’s Ministry of Education to train India’s ecosystem in design innovation.
Prof. Vishal Singh
Chair, DM, IISc
To support the growing need for PhDs in design in India, in 1995 IISc at its Centre for Electronic Design and Technology initiated the first PhD in design in India; this continues to be run at DM. In 2006, to support dissemination of design research, DM initiated ICoRD, India’s first international conference series on Research into Design. Manufacturing has always been an important area of research at DM. In 2015, with funding from the Boeing Company, DM had initiated India’s first Smart Factory, and expanded this into a Common Engineering Facility Centre (CEFC) for research into factories of the future in 2019. In the same year, DM co-initiated an MTech programme in Smart Manufacturing and a research (MTech Research and PhD) programme in advanced manufacturing.
Research at DM evolved with the changing interests and needs of its faculty, India and the world. Earlier focus on research into rapid prototyping, design methodology, geometric modelling, CAE and mechanisms expanded over the decades into six areas: Development Process, Informatics and AI; Human Factors, Aesthetics and semiotics; fundamentals of design composition; Mobility, Robotics; Smart, Sustainable Systems; MedTech, Digital Health; and Materials, Manufacturing. In the last 10 years, core and associate faculty of DM alone have published 1285 articles in peer-reviewed papers, conferences, books and book chapters; all peer-reviewed and Scopus-indexed.
DM initiated five areas of research at IISc: Design Methodology, Human Factors, Aesthetics and semiotics, Biodesign, and Smart Manufacturing. It also started the culture of innovation at IISc, and the training of industrial design engineers and innovator-entrepreneurs in India.
The vision of DM is “excellence in design and manufacturing for a sustainable future”.
The mission of DM is to lead education, research and practice of design and manufacturing to address systemically complex and technologically intensive problems through socially impactful solutions by:
- Adopting Herbert Simons (1969) view of design as a science of the artificial.
- Championing a holistic approach that embraces functionality, aesthetics, usability, economics, and sustainability.
- Developing knowledge, including methods and tools, to inform and empower practice and education of design and manufacturing.
- Nurturing an innovation ecosystem in design and manufacturing.
- Creating innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders in design and manufacturing; and
- Collaborating with industry to develop impactful products and manufacturing systems.
DM produces some of the finest designers from India, who can identify new product and market opportunities, ideate, develop, and demonstrate working, functional prototypes of solutions. 30% of the final year projects receive patents and a significant number of students initiate their own startups. Our students continue to win major awards: Red Dot, James Dyson, LEXUS, IEEE IROS, IEEE ICRA, ASME ISHOW, CII MILCA, etc. The PhD programme continues to produce well-rounded researchers who have gone onto notable research roles across industry and academia, both in India and overseas.
It is unique to have a school of this kind where advanced programmes in both design and manufacturing flourish together! Over the last 28 years, DM has established itself as the design and manufacturing face of IISc and continues to serve the country and the world in research, training and practice of design and manufacturing and its education.
Prof. Vishal Singh
Chair, Department of Design and Manufacturing