Prof. Prabir Sarkar
Professor
PhD 2007, Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India
- Office: 328, Satish Dhawan Block, +91-1881-23-2368
- Specialization: Product Development, Sustainable design and manufacturing
- Research Areas: roduct Design, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Manufacturing, Sustainable Supply Chain, Design Creativity, Engineering Aesthetics, Bio-mimicry, Industrial Design (practicing)
Prof. Prabir Sarkar is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. He is the founding Chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Cell at IIT Ropar and has played a key role in promoting innovation and patent-related activities within the institute.
Prior to joining IIT Ropar, Dr. Sarkar served as an Associate Researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Creativity from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he also completed his Master of Design in Product Design and Engineering. Following his postgraduate studies, he worked with Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) in the Research and Development division.
Dr. Sarkar’s research interests span product design, design creativity, sustainability, and design methodology. His work focuses on developing innovative methods and tools to support designers and organizations in creating novel, practical, and environmentally responsible products. He leads two research groups: the Design Research Laboratory and the Sustainable Design and Manufacturing Laboratory, where current research themes include Ecodesign, biomimicry, engineering aesthetics, sustainable machining, and rural product development.
He has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and regularly contributes to leading journals and conferences as a reviewer. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology (Emerald Publishing). Dr. Sarkar has jointly secured over ₹100 crores in research funding from various national and international agencies. He is currently a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India).
Professional Achievements:
- Fellow of Institute of Engineers, India
- Notable Alumni Award, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore
- National Doctoral Fellow, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), awarded to 50 Ph.D. scholars across India, 2005-2007.
- Associate Editor, Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Systems (ASTM)
- Founder editor-in-chief of International Journal of Product Design, Serials Publications
- Co-Principal Director, Agriculture and Water Development Hub (AWaDH), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, NM-ICPS, IIT Ropar)
- Chairman and Nodal officer IPR cell (2015-2021)
- Co-coordinator (HOD equivalent) of the central workshop (2012-2018)
- Additive Manufacturing
- Sustainable Design and Manufacturing
- Product Design and Realization
- Computer Integrated Design and Manufacturing Systems
- (1) Sandhu, K.*, Sarkar, P., & Karupppasamy, S. (2025). Understanding entrepreneurship thinking for designers: Perspectives from entrepreneurs, academicians, product designers, and students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 56, 101728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101728. (I.F. = 3.5, Q1)
- (2) Jitender Singh and Prabir Sarkar, 2025. Engineering Aesthetics generic definition, tests, factors and methods. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. (accepted) https://doi.org/10.1080/21650349.2025.2536001. (I.F.= 2.5, Q1)
- (3) Patidar, A.*, Sharma, M., Agrawal, R., Sangwan, K. S., & Sarkar, P. (2023). Building supply chain resilience in developing economies: A weighted Ishikawa diagram approach. Operations Management Research, 17(1), 363–386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-023-00319-3. (I.F. = 9.0, Q1)
- (4) Singh, P. K.*, & Sarkar, P. (2023). An artificial neural network tool to support the decision making of designers for environmentally conscious product development. Expert Systems with Applications, 212, 118679. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2022.118679. (I.F. = 8.6, Q1)
- (5) Kumar, R., Sandhu, K.*, Ranjan, N., Singh, S., Sarkar, P., Subburaj, K., & Ramakrishna, S. (2023). Form exploration on different fabrics using material extrusion based additive manufacturing and end users experience. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 101, 959–973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2023.06.053. (I.F. = 5.7, Q1)
- (1) Patel, A. R., Sarkar, P., Singh, H., & Tyagi, H. (2024). Formulation, monitoring, and adaptation for moving towards a low carbon economy. In The costs of climate change mitigation innovations: A pragmatic outlook (p. 135). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003403456
- (2) Kumar, S., & Sarkar, P. (2024). Exploring fundamentals: Theory of machines and mechanism inversions. Futuristic Trends in Mechanical Engineering, 3(3), 55–77. IIP Series. https://www.doi.org/10.58532/V3BIME3P2CH1
- (3) Singh, J., & Sarkar, P. (2022). Visual product assessment by using the eye-tracking equipment to study the effect of product shapes on consumers’ thinking. In K. C. Popat, S. Kanagaraj, P. S. R. Sreekanth, & V. M. R. Kumar (Eds.), Advances in mechanical engineering and material science (ICAMEMS 2022). Lecture notes in mechanical engineering. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0676-3_12
- (4) Singh, P. K., & Sarkar, P. (2019). Eco-design approaches for developing eco-friendly products: A review. In K. Shanker, R. Shankar, & R. Sindhwani (Eds.), Advances in industrial and production engineering. Lecture notes in mechanical engineering. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6412-9_17
- (1) Mr. Amit Rajnikant Patel, Dr. Prabir Sarkar, Dr. Himanshu Tyagi and Prof. Harpreet Singh. System and method for tracking details of energy associated with an energy generation process. Application no.: 202011011721 dated 18/03/2020.
- (2) Dr. Prabir Sarkar, Nishant Bagaria, Ekjot Singh, Nabajit Hazowary, Gaurav Kumar, 2016. A rectangular slot- cutting machine for slots of variable sizes, Indian patent application number: 201611015347, filing date: 03- May-2016.
- (3) Dr. Prabir Sarkar, 2016. A programmable electro-mechanical combination locking system, Indian patent application number: 201611004726, filing date: 10-Feb-2016.
- (4) Dr. Prabir Sarkar (Principal Investigator), Banoth Praveen Kumar, Honey Singla, Imroj Qamar, Jaskaran Singh Virdi, Kumar Harshad, 2013. Weighing system, Indian patent application number: 3354/DEL/2013, filing date: 15-November- 2013.
- (5) Dr. Prabir Sarkar, Bishal Ghosh, Mahak Sarin, Alluvala Mamata, Dev Prabhaker Singh Tomar, 2015. Stapler device with multi-tier force multiplication mechanism for binding hard materials, Indian patent application number: 3961/DEL/2015, filing date: 04-Dec- 2015.