Director, IIT Bombay is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and joined the Chemical Engineering dept. in 1987. For his research achievements, Prof. Khakhar has been accorded several prestigious awards, which include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and the Swarnajayanti Fellowship. Prof. Khakhar is also a recipient of IIT Bombay’s “Excellence in Teaching Award”.

A Padma Bhushan recipient, Mrs Birla is the director of all major Aditya Birla group of companies. She is also the chairperson of the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development. Mrs. Birla is regarded as a role model in the CSR domain for her social work in India and abroad. Through her visionary leadership, She has made a difference to the lives of millions of people through initiative in education, women empowerment safe drinking water among others.

Mr Jhunja is an alumnus of IDC, Industrial Design. He is one of the well known names in Industrial and automotive industry. In the span of 25 years he has performed in various roles as a Designer, Design Manager, Project Manager and more. He has been associated with companies like Milton, Dilip Chhabria Design, Renault and Tata Motors. Mr. Pankaj’s association with Design has seen him mature from designing simple, low technology products to highly complex products like the automobile.

Ajit Rao started his career working with renowned architect B V Doshi in Ahmedabad in 1983. His added passion for the art of cartooning got him to explore diverse skills in varied mediums of communication. Today he is at equal ease in his roles as architect, sculptor, painter, designer, cartoonist, caricaturist, comic-book artist and animation trainer. He has headed various animation-training programs at leading studios and has been a visiting faculty at premier design and architecture institutes in India. Presently he has set up a studio in Lonavala, endeavoring to bring these diverse resources to the service of Indian cultural expressions.

Mr. Rao is an alumnus of  IDC. His 17 years of professional experience covers Graphic design, Multimedia design, Photography, Typography, Audio video Editing, Web design and now rooted into UX. He belongs to the pre-internet, pre-Google era, an early adapter to switch to the technology wave, Mr. Rao works has been associated with companies such as Tata interactive, Philips, iGata and currently working with Persistent Systems as a Sr. Managar. An all-rounded creative he actively pursues music composition, singing and theatre.

Mr Moorthy is an alumnus of M.S University of Baroda and NID. He is an Animation Film Maker, Production Designer and Writer. He was a visiting faculty at the NID Ahmadabad for several years, and also at other institutes. He designed the curriculum for Animation Cinema at The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Kolkata and taught there as Professor and Head of Department, Animation Cinema, from 2014 to 2016. His own book on his teacher, R L Mistry, “Animating an Indian Story” was published by NID in 2006. Presently he teaches Animation Cinema at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

Deepa Balsavar, is a writer, illustrator and story teller. For almost 30 years, she has been developing educational material and teaching and conducting workshops on scriptwriting, storytelling and illustration for children and adults. For 21 years Deepa worked with the Avehi-Abacus Project researching, writing, designing and illustrating material that is currently being used in all primary schools in Mumbai. She has been a consultant on the Meena Project for UNICEF in South Asia. Deepa is the author / illustrator of over 27 books for young children. Her story book ‘The Seed’ was chosen by White Raven, Germany as one of the outstanding books for young.

Jayesh Pillai is an architect turned Designer, Film Maker. He is an alumnus of  Arts et Métiers ParisTech, France, a Masters in design in Visual Communication from IIT Kanpur. Prof. Pillai Previously worked as a graphic designer at COSTFORD, Trivandrum. He has also worked as an interaction designer at Presence & Innovation Lab, France. He is a faculty at IDC, since Jan 2016. His first short film ‘Beyond’ on the theme of Virtual Reality was selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner 2011 and so was his short film ‘Gulzar’ at this year’s  Short Film Corner 2016.

Ajay Sharan Sharma completed his post-graduation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design post which he joined as an Automotive Designer in 1998 at Daewoo Motors India Studio. He worked in Maruti-Suzuki on products such as WagonR phase 1. refresh, Alto refresh and Zen refresh among others. In his current role as AGM-Design at Tata Motors, Ajay is involved in identifying market opportunities for design, implementation of Design DNA and participating in setting up of the initial vehicle package that ensures a desirable end-product apart from providing aesthetic direction.  He believes that the best and only way forward is for (Industrial) Design and Engineering to have a highly synergetic relationship.

Noopur Datye, a graduate of Sir J J Institute of Applied Art, is a type designer and calligrapher from Mumbai. She is the co-founder of Ek Type a Collaborative type design studio that focuses on designing contemporary typefaces in Indian scripts. Her work includes custom Bengali and Devanagari typefaces for television channels Star Jalsa and LifeOk. She has also worked on open source typefaces such as  Mukta Vaani Gujarati, Modak Latin and Baloo Bhai Gujarati.

In addition to her work as a typeface designer, Noopur is also a part of ‘Aksharaya’. She has conducted letterform design workshops at various design schools in India, including the IDC, Srishti School of Art and NIFT Mumbai amongst many others.

Vijaybahu Joshi is an alumnus of IDC, visual communication and SPA, Delhi(BArch). He is a branding, advertising & UI/UX professional based out of Mumbai. In 17 years of rich industry experience he has held strategic leadership positions in design & strategy development at leading digital advertising agencies, brand consultancies and design firms. He has been associated with  Intel, Lufthansa, American Express, Citifinance, ICICI Lombard, Microsoft India,Sony, Philips, Videocon, Tata Motors among others.He expertise is  in the areas of design thinking & management, process innovation, consumer experience journey design, communication strategy development, across digital and print platforms for Global and Indian clients. Now he is the Asst. Vice-President, Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Bala is a co­founder of Ticket Design and alumni of NID. Ticket Design has over the past several years established itself as a respected design consulting firm with award winning products launched in international markets. His work involves design strategy and business development. He believes a test of a good design is to see how it works in the hands of end- users. He has been instrumental in design projects for brands like Exide, BASF, Bluestar, Tata Motors and Oxy­gen.

Poornima Phaltankar an IDC Postgraduate with  25+ years of experience in Television ( Media ) and Telecom (VAS). She has headed graphics studios at prominent media houses like PLUS CHANNEL and B4U before joining the telecom sector. Her telecom stints include Reliance Infocomm and TATA teleservices where she handled the entire – UI, Design and Graphics. She started Popup Technologies in October 2011 and has worked with clients like Nokia- Microsoft, Samsung and several well known brands.

Dr. B. K. Chakravarthy is the Head of the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) School of Design.After his Masters in Design from IDC, he undertook active research in the area of new product innovation and obtained a PhD at IIT Delhi. He specializes in the area of innovation by design which encompasses new product innovation process and methodology. His aim is to create a new breed of designers who can come up with innovative products focusing on humanizing technology. His most notable products are the Z-Line gasoline dispenser and the maintenance free Post Box for India Post. He has been awarded the Faculty Research Fellowship for India Post for the same.

Prof Vijay Bapat is an alumnus of IDC,Industrial Design. Since 1976 actively associated in developing curriculum for Master of Design (Product Design) course for graduates in engineering and architectural fields. His areas of work include Product Design, Designing for Plastics, Nature of material and Processes, Product detailing and Design for Manufacturability, Ergonomics among several others. He has been associated with companies like  Hindustan Leaver Ltd, Voltas, Crompton Greaves Ltd, Siemens Ltd., Godrej

Prof A G Rao is an alumnus of NID, Product Design.  In 1980, he spent 9 months in U.S.A. under a UNESCO fellowship, studying creativity at M.I.T. He has been instrumental in developing courses in Basic Design, Product Design, Creativity and Design philosophy. Prof. Rao has designed more than 20 products for Indian industries, including the “Electronic Voting Machine” currently being used in India. In 1969, Prof Rao spent a year studying bamboo craft in Northeastern India. Prof Rao developed a tool-kit and small technologies for bamboo, establishing Bamboo Studio at IDC and gave a new direction to design in bamboo. He has also started an Incubation company, ‘AG Bambu Style’.

Prof Uday Athvankar is an  Alumnus of Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Retired from IDC, he teaches at several design schools and continues to be associated with IDC as an Adjunct faculty. All along he has been actively involved in design education,design research and design related consulting to companies. His current interests are in frugal design, innovation in affordable housing and frugal games with an educational purpose. His recent projects deal with culture specific localization of products and technologies for global companies like NCR, Unilever, Nokia and Samsung entering markets in India and Asia pacific region with new products. Prof Athvankar codesigned the electronic voting machine with Prof. A.G Rao.

Prof. G. V. Sreekumar is a faculty member and HOD designate of IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. His areas of specializations are Typography, Publication Design, Information design, Anatomy and Figure drawing and Design Pedagogy. Prof. Sreekumar worked on Typographic communication and publication Design under the guidance of renowned Typographer and Calligrapher Prof R.K.Joshi..He has worked for several publications including the popular computer magazine “CHIP”, Intelligent Investor, The Times of India Group and Indian Express and Jasubhai Digital Media. He has guided many students including the prodigiously talented Dr. Girish Dalvi and Dr. D. Udaya Kumar.