The proposal has already been approved by the IIT Senate and is likely to be placed before the Board of Governors later this month.
“Be it machines or gadgets, what is inside is what engineers design. But for instance, a phone, how should the case be, how should it look like, where and how the buttons should be, this is not something a technocrat can work better upon and there is a need for someone who specialises in product design,” IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao told PTI.
The proposed School of Design will offer Bachelor of Design (BDes), a four-year-long course, and Master of Design (MDes) of two-year duration.
“For the BDes there is a separate entrance test in the country and we will be a part of it. Of course, for creative designs you cannot test one on concepts of Physics, Chemistry and Maths but on the ability of creative thinking which is not an engineer’s domain,” he said.
The institute presently offers Master of Design but only has four faculty members for the course with a limited intake.
“Once we have a full-fledged school of design, we will recruit more faculty for the Masters course and then start offering the Bachelor’s degree,” Rao said.
“For the practical aspects, design students will work with engineers and design products which we will patent and commercialise in the longer run as we do for the technical projects,” he said.