The topic was delivered by Dr. Saravana Kumar, Associate Professor, IIT Madras, Chennai.

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Fhyzics Business Consultants Pvt.Ltd.
Dr. Saravana Kumar
Associate Professor, IIT
Madras, Chennai
Teaching Product Design –
Experience @ IITM

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www.pdma-india.in

3. Teaching Product Design
experience @ IITM
Dr. G. Saravana Kumar
Dept. of Engineering Design
Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, Chennai, India

4. Outline of talk
• Engineering Design curriculum @ IITM
• What and How we teach PD
• Share our Experience..

5. 5
Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras
To develop design professionals with a strong
multidisciplinary engineering background
with a focus on
Automotive Engineering & Biomedical Design
Present intake: Dual Degree 60 students per year + MS + PhD
Faculty members: 15 (Mechanical & Electronics Background)

6. Process of Design ( Teaching @ ED Department)
6
Optimization

7. ➢ Introduce Engineering Design as a structured process particularly the
functional and conceptual design.
➢ Introduce concepts of Reverse Engineering and tear downs as
tools for design.
➢ Learn and practice theories of effective product design through the
adaptive and/or original redesign of consumer products.
Functional and Conceptual Design
– objectives in brief
Planning
Concept
Development
System-Level
Design
Detail
Design
Testing and
Refinement
Production
Ramp-Up

8. Product Design Lab
– objectives in brief
• Learn Product Design through Dissection
• Understand functions, forms and their relationship
• Understand product architecture
• Develop new products
Planning
Concept
Development
System-Level
Design
Detail
Design
Testing and
Refinement
Production
Ramp-Up

9. Example Lab Exercise
– product dissection
Students do product dissection and prepare a report answering the following
questions:
• What does the product do? How does it do it? What makes it do it?

10. Before dissection the students note
the following product information:
1) Product Name
2) Target Customer
3) Retail Cost
4) Estimated Production Volume
5) Manufacturers and Location
6) Estimated Labor cost
7) Cost of most expensive part
Example Product : Blender

11. 1) Part Name
2) Material
3) Method of Manufacture
4) Number of times used in the
Product
The students dissect the product and note the tools used, the
disassembly procedure and the part lists
Example Product : Blender

12. Example Product : Steam Iron
•Tasks of the Product (System) Elements:
Functional abstraction

13. Functional abstraction
Example Product : Steam Iron
•Over all Function and Function Structure

14. Example Product : Steam Iron
Architecture and Geometric Layout
Steam Generation Unit
Bimetallic Strip
Water storage and transport Unit
Soleplate
Heating element
Water and
Steam
Actuation Unit
Water and
Steam
Actuation Unit
Steam ejection Unit
Power supply
Unit

15. Example Course Exercise
– product design (3hrs)
Students are asked to do a small product design exercise with ready to use
materials like paper.
• Team building through hands-on problem solving
A Load Bearing Structure
Task: Build a 3-dimensional free standing load
bearing structure using only the materials
provided

16.  What worked?
 What didn't work?
 What problems did you have?
 How did you fix the problems?
This is the type of work engineers do!
Students Discuss..

17. Walking on Water (Aquaped)
The common water strider is a small (aprox 12
mm) insect that is capable of “walking” on, or
running across the surface of the ponds, by
employing the surface tension for support. This
project is inspired by this action of the tiny
insect. You are required to design, construct
the device (aquaped) that will allow a person to
“walk” on the surface of a body of water and
demonstrate the device. The aquaped is
propelled by the person, No external power
supply is permitted. The action of the person
should be similar to normal land walking gait.
Each team is to design, construct a working
prototype and demonstrate the same.
Example Course Project
– product design (complete semester)

18. What the Students Designed and Built..

19. • Alternate water extraction mechanisms in vertical axis
washing machines
•Either conceptual or adaptive design
•The final performance shall be measured by metrics
like remaining moisture content, drying rate
•Cross field concepts encouraged
Example Course Project
– product design (complete semester)
Problem statements from Industry

20. Example Products Designed by Students
– beyond courses and labs..
•PageFliper – helps disable people read books
•HuMotor – helps a construction worker lift
material / bend rods
•Tricycle – enhanced design that helps the disable
people with safe and comfortable ride

21. Acknowledgements
•Department of Engineering Design, IITM
•My colleagues, Dr. Sandipan Bandyopadhyay and Dr. Palaniappan Ramu
•Students and Project Staff
Thank you
Dr. G. Saravana Kumar
Dept. of Engineering Design
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India
Email: gsaravana@iitm.ac.in

22. Thank you