Product Engineering and Design Thinking

Prof. Pranab K. Dan, Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, in the School of Engineering Entrepreneurship (RMSoEE), obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from IIEST, Shibpur, and Ph.D. in Production Engineering from Jadavpur University. He has been the Founding-Head of the Industrial Engineering & Management Department at the West Bengal University of Technology. Before joining academics, he worked in several renowned national and multinational industrial organizations, such as GEC-Alsthom Ltd., Williamson &Magor Group company, and held senior positions, bringing industrial perspectives. His research interests encompass Design Thinking and Innovation, Automotive Powertrain Engineering and Ecodesigning, Product Engineering and Innovation in Process in Product Development and value-sensitive Frugal Engineering. He has introduced courses like ‘Engineering Design Process’, Frugal Engineering and ‘Design Thinking Lab’ at IIT Kharagpur and also teaches Technology Entrepreneurship, focused on design-led product creation. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and bookchapters. He has supervised several Ph.D.’s and is guiding several others.His research group in the ‘Product Analytic and Modeling Laboratory (PAM Lab)’ are engaged in research in Assistive Technology, Engineering Optimisation, and design creativity. He has been on the technical committees of prestigious design and manufacturing-related international conferences and reviewer for journals. He mentored product-based start-ups and is the Chairman of the Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Dan has been the Principal and Co-Principal Investigator of several sponsored projects, including the prestigious ‘National Initiative for Design Innovation’ sponsored by MHRD, Govt. of India. He has traveled across the country and abroad to deliver talks and presentations on the subject matter. He is a Fellow Member of the Association of Engineers, India.

Prof.Prabir Sarkar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar. He was also the Chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) cell of the Institute. Before joining IIT Ropar. He worked as an Associate Researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce Gaithersburg, USA. He completed his Ph.D.in Design Creativity from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He also did his Master of Design from IISc on Product Design and Engineering. He worked for Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) in the Research and Development division after completing his master’s.Prof. Sarkar’s research interests include product design, sustainability, creativity, and design research. He is interested in developing new methods and tools for helping designers and companies to design novel, useful, and sustainable products. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications.His research group in the Design Research Laboratory and Sustainable Design and Manufacturing Laboratory are engaged in research in Ecodesign, biomimicry, engineering aesthetics, sustainable machining, and design creativity. He is an editorial board member of Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Emerald and is a reviewer of several journals and conferences. Dr. Sarkar secured jointly funding of more than 100 crores from various external funding agencies. He is currently a fellow of the Institute of Engineers, India.