Research Expertise & Contributions

DESIGN CREATIVITY

Research during my PhD

Research area: Design creativity

Dissertation: Development of a support for effective concept exploration to enhance the creativity of engineering designers.

The research aimed to enhance creativity of engineering designers by providing a support that encourages exploration and search of new concept spaces in the conceptual phase of design by applying appropriate triggers.

SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING AND STANDARDS

Research at NIST (Post Doc.)

Research area: Sustainable design and manufacturing

As a postdoctoral fellow at NIST, I worked in the area of sustainable design and manufacturing. We collaborated with DOE, DOC, EPA, ANSI, Xerox and other organizations. I worked on three different projects. A short description of each of these projects is listed below.

SUSTAINABILITY OF PRODUCTS DURING CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

Sustainability has become a core goal for companies worldwide. Sustainable development, as defined by Brundtland, involves meeting current needs without compromising future generations. Achieving this requires sustainable production and consumption, where consumer behavior and product design play critical roles. While sustainable production benefits society, consumption patterns can significantly impact the environment, making it vital to understand and guide both designers and consumers toward sustainable practices.

ECODESIGN SUPPORT FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Global warming and resource depletion have made eco-friendly production a critical need. The Global Footprint Network’s 2016 data revealed natural resource use exceeding renewal rates by 1.6 times, prompting industries to adopt eco-design strategies. Eco-design integrates environmental considerations into product design across its life cycle. Despite its introduction in the 1990s, implementation in industries remains limited, primarily due to a mismatch between existing tools and designers’ needs. This research focuses on developing support mechanisms for designers to adopt eco-design effectively, especially during the early design stages.

SUSTAINABLE MACHINING

IONIC LIQUIDS AS METALWORKING FLUIDS IN MQL

Sustainable manufacturing seeks to optimize material conversion into products while minimizing resource and energy use, environmental impact, and health risks. Machining, a highly energy-intensive process, traditionally relies on cutting fluids to manage the heat generated. However, conventional cutting fluids pose environmental and health risks, such as toxic waste disposal and occupational diseases caused by exposure to harmful substances. To address these challenges, researchers are exploring alternatives like Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) systems, which use minimal, non-recirculated lubricants, reducing ecological and disposal concerns.

Surface Textured cutting tools

In metal cutting, material removal generates significant heat and friction at the tool-chip interface. Cutting fluids are traditionally used to mitigate these effects but pose environmental, health, and economic challenges. Surface textured cutting tools have emerged as a promising alternative, enabling dry and near-dry machining by reducing or eliminating the need for cutting fluids. These tools utilize microcapillary networks to enhance access to air or lubricants at the sliding zone of the tool-chip interface, altering tribological conditions and improving machining performance.

SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN

SUSTAINABILITY IN SUPPLY NETWORKS

Sustainability in supply networks is essential for mitigating environmental impacts and maintaining economic viability, especially in light of stricter global environmental regulations. For India, promoting sustainable manufacturing is critical to leveraging its demographic dividend and ensuring competitiveness in a global market. Current supply networks in manufacturing are often unsustainable, necessitating the integration of state-of-the-art, low-carbon technologies.

ENGINEERING AESTHETICS

Designers to Improve the Engineering Aesthetics of Products

In today’s competitive market, product aesthetics plays a pivotal role in design and consumer decision-making. Alongside functionality, cost, and ergonomics, aesthetics significantly impacts consumer perceptions, influencing both visual and cognitive responses. This research focuses on developing frameworks, methods, and tools to help industrial designers enhance engineering aesthetics, a critical factor for product success.

SUSTAINABILITY IN HOSPITALITY

SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES IN HOSPITALITY SECTOR

The hospitality industry, a key global economic sector, faces increasing pressure to adopt sustainable practices due to environmental concerns, regulatory changes, and shifting consumer expectations. Sustainable hospitality aims to balance environmental, economic, and social sustainability, ensuring long-term competitiveness. This study examines the integration and impact of sustainable hospitality practices (SHPs) in India's hotel industry, focusing on different star-category hotels.

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Entrepreneurial Thinking

Nurturing an Entrepreneurial Mindset: How Engineers Turn Opportunities into Real-World Value

Every successful innovation begins with a meaningful problem, and transforming an idea into a solution requires not only technical knowledge but also creativity, opportunity recognition, and an understanding of human and societal needs.

Our research in the domain of Entrepreneurial Thinking and Engineering Design Education contributes to developing a broader mindset among engineers by connecting engineering knowledge with innovation, creativity, and value creation. It helps in understanding how engineers can move beyond conventional problem-solving approaches and develop solutions that address real-world challenges. This research contributes to redefining entrepreneurial thinking as a skill that extends beyond business creation. It promotes the ability to identify opportunities, understand user needs, manage uncertainty, utilize available resources effectively, and develop solutions that create meaningful social and economic value. Our research in this domain contributes to strengthening engineering education by integrating entrepreneurial skills with the engineering design process. It highlights the importance of developing abilities such as opportunity recognition, creative thinking, risk management, innovation, and value creation among future engineers. Through systematic analysis of the perspectives of entrepreneurs, academicians, and design professionals, along with approaches such as Natural Language Processing, keyword analysis, and topic modelling, this research contributes to identifying the key characteristics and skills associated with entrepreneurial thinking. It supports the development of educational approaches that prepare engineers to address complex challenges in dynamic environments.

The integration of entrepreneurial thinking with engineering design activities such as problem identification, concept development, prototyping, evaluation, and project planning enables students to understand how ideas can be transformed into practical and impactful solutions. Frameworks such as the Lean Canvas Model further support learners in connecting technical solutions with user requirements, feasibility, and long-term value creation. This research contributes to creating engineers who are not only capable of developing technological solutions but also understand their purpose, users, implementation challenges, and societal impact. It encourages a shift from simply asking “Can we build it?” towards broader considerations such as “Who needs it? What value will it create? How can it be developed sustainably? and How can it improve society?”

Overall, research in Entrepreneurial Thinking and Engineering Design Education contributes to building a generation of engineers who combine technical expertise with creativity, strategic thinking, and social responsibility, enabling them to become innovators and solution creators for future societal challenges.

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