The research programme at CPDM (MTech by Research and PhD) is carried out in laboratories at the bleeding edge of research, in a variety of areas in advanced design and manufacturing, including ideation, PLM, medical diagnostics, human factors, digital manufacturing, engineering safety and sustainability. CPDM pioneered design research in India to support development of its capability to pursue basic and applied research into Design. CPDM initiated India’s first design observatory in 2002, and India’s first Smart Factory in 2015 in collaboration with The Boeing Company, USA -a strategic partner of IISc, alongside University Cambridge in the UK and Tshinghua University in China. Equipped with a strong faculty, a well-groomed library and an array of sophisticated facilities, CPDM has a congenial atmosphere to develop future leaders in design and manufacturing research.

CPDM hosts one of the first five Design Innovation Centres (DIC) funded by MHRD, GOI to support innovators and mentor teachers via a programme that straddles incubation, training and online courseware.CPDM also initiated India’s first Joint Center of Excellence on Design of Sustainable Systems, in collaboration with University of California Berkeley, Syracuse University, Washington State University, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy Bangalore, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad.

A major thrust of research at CPDM is developing knowledge-intensive and testable tools for supporting development of complex products and manufacturing systems. Outcomes include the world’s most advanced Digital Human Models, a biomimetic tool called Idea-Inspire that pioneered systematic bio-inspired ideation, and lightweight 3D compression systems for fast transfer of complex geometric models across the internet. Research from CPDM directly impacts practice: it enables product developers and manufacturers tackle challenges more efficiently, and stretches the boundaries of what can be tackled.

For fostering international research into design and informatics in India, CPDM initiated two major conferences that have become benchmarks. The first is the PLM series – the world’s first Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) conference series started in CPDM in 2003 that has now gone global. The second is ICoRD – the International Conference series on Research into Design that started with only 20 papers and as many people in 2006, but grew rapidly to about ten times its size in a decade to become the benchmark international conference in India, providing international quality at affordable price.

Research students are selected thorough a stringent selection procedure comprising a rigorous and extensive interview, in order to determine their individual ability and motivation. A research student can select a research topic from among the areas of research offered for admission in the year of admission.

Ph.D. at IISc generally requires three and half years of extensive, in-depth research. A PhD student is expected to make major contributions in philosophy, understanding or enhancement of the state of the art in design or manufacturing.

MTech by Research [MTech(R)] is generally a two years research course. MTech(R) students are required to enrol more number of courses compared to that required for PhD students. MTech(R) is a perfect blend of course work and research, thus providing students with freedom to take up either doctoral research or to be a part of a company where both research and general design are essential.