Engineering students may soon become full-fledged designers

NID and Autodesk,a 3D design software provider that has a research chair at the institute,initiated the session. Prof N Ramakrishna,a mechanical engineering professor at IIT-B,on deputation at IIT-Gn,said: “This is by far the most relevant curriculum in engineering today.”

Such courses exist at universities in developed countries,but exist only as two-week courses or as parts of other larger courses back in India.

Sashank Mehta,Product Designer at NID’s Faculty of Industrial Design said: “Designers and engineers speak different languages. This curriculum will bridge the gap.” Most importantly,the curriculum will mean a systemic approach to a product at its birth,so that producers will not have to improve products after things go wrong,he added.

Prof Ramakrishna said the course could bring about another intellectual boom for India,much like the IT and outsourcing booms of the last decade when “we took over the Silicon Valley”.

At present,such engineer-designers mainly work abroad and charge huge fees. But if India starts producing them indigenously,clients from developed countries will flock to India because of the services being provided here at a cheaper cost.

Prof Yogesh Kosta of Charotar Institute of Technology,Changa,said the curriculum “is important for non-linear growth”,ushering innovation and collaboration,as well as enhancing ergonomics — a design concept that builds equipment and appliances according to the user’s comforts.The curriculum will extend to all disciplines of engineering and will be ready by year-end or early next year,after which it will be taken up at a national meet.

NID Director Pradyumna Vyas said it had been the institute’s “agenda to have design modules in engineering colleges for many,many years”. “The impact (of the course) will be seen in industry immediately because right now they do not have an idea about design,” he said.

Vyas added that as NID is not under AICTE,prior approval by the body is unnecessary. The engineering colleges and universities that take up the cours can approach it for approval,he said.

He further said that if engineering professors are deputed to NID to learn design concepts,the faculty requirement could be easily met too. Mehta considered the option of “visiting faculty” from NID to the institutes as a possibility.