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 at the erstwhile Central Workshop of IISc, with a goal to combine engineering and industrial design and train students to make products that balance functionality, usability 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.
Amaresh Chakrabarti
Chair, DM, IISc
Over the last 25 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.
To support the growing need for PhDs in design in India, in 1995 IISc at its Centre for Electronic Design and Technology had 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; 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.
DM initiated four areas of research at IISc: Design Methodology, Human Factors and Aesthetics, 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 via socially impactful solutions through the following:
- Champion a holistic approach that embraces functionality, aesthetics, usability, and sustainability.
- Develop knowledge, including methods and tools, to inform and empower practice and education of design and manufacturing.
- Nurture an innovation ecosystem in design and manufacturing.
- Create innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders in design and manufacturing; and
- Collaborate with industry to develop impactful products and manufacturing systems.
As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, 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.
The international review of DM was conducted in August 2023 to provide it with an independent assessment of how well its infrastructure, funding, people and activities are aligned with the above vision and how these should be evolved, supported and strengthened for DM to remain true to its vision. I thank the review committee for their kind support in helping us in our ongoing journey in achieving this evolving goal.
‘Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM)’ accorded ‘department’ status and renamed ‘Department of Design and Manufacturing’
With great delight, I share that in its silver jubilee anniversary ‘Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM) at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India, is accorded ‘department’ status and renamed ‘Department of Design and Manufacturing’. The Department is among the top 3 design schools in India (QS World Rankings) and the youngest among the three by at least 25 years. In terms of number of faculty members in the top 2% list of most impactful researchers in the world (Stanford University Study, 2019-, PLOS Biology), the department is the topmost in Asia and among the top ten design schools in the world. It is privileged to be part of IISc – the highest ranked institution in ‘University’ and ‘Research’ rankings in India (NIRF), and highest ranked in the world in ‘number of citations per faculty’ (QS World Rankings). Initiated in 1997, its Master of Design (MDes) programme provides holistic education in product design, engineering, development and management, embracing technology, aesthetics, usability and sustainability. It produces some of the finest designers from India, who can identify new 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. In the last 10 years, DM produced 1285 publications: 790 in journals, 414 in conferences, all peer-reviewed and Scopus-indexed. The first PhD programme in design in India, initiated at CEDT, IISc in 1995 continues at the Department of Design and Manufacturing.
The department also initiated and leads India’s flagship design research conference series ‘ICoRD’, the ‘National Design Innovation Network’, and India’s first indigenously designed smart factory ‘IISc Smart Factory’. In 2019, it initiated an MTech in ‘Smart Manufacturing. It is unique to have a school of this kind where advanced programmes in both design and manufacturing flourish together! The accordance of department status comes as a wonderful gift as we draw close to the year celebrating the 25th anniversary of establishment of the department! With reverence, we acknowledge the debt to the initiators of this journey that took the revolutionary step of bringing the technological and humanistic ends together to create this unique vision of design education in India! Our sincere thanks to the founding team: Professors TS Mruthyunjaya (founding Chair), Pradeep Yammiyavar, B Gurumoorthy, Ashitava Ghosal, Jaywant Arakeri, Satish Vasu Kailas, Dibakar Sen, Mary Matthew, NVC Rao and JE Diwakar.
Amaresh Chakrabarti
Chair, Department of Design and Manufacturing (Erstwhile CPDM)