IDC School of Design invites candidates to apply for PhD in the following core domains: Industrial Design, Communication Design, Interaction Design, Animation and Film, Mobility and Vehicle Design, Human Factors and Ergonomics. Besides these core domains, the PhD programme fosters an open interdisciplinary approach involving the disciplines such as engineering, social sciences, media and education.
Before applying, the candidates are strongly suggested to refer to the list below, to know about the research areas of the faculty members and the research topics that are suggested for this intake.
Candidates are strongly encouraged to contact and discuss their research interests with individual faculty members of IDC School of Design before applying, to gain a better understanding of the current research focus. Candidates are also encouraged to work with the faculty member, for a few months, and develop their research areas before the application.
PhD research areas for the 2023 Autumn Semester applications :
- Biomimetics
- Cinema
- Cognitive & Physical Ergonomics
- Comics Studies
- Data Visualization
- Design for Craft
- Design for Health
- Design Forecasting / Design for Future
- Design Theory
- Game Design
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems
- Human-Machine Interaction / HumanAutomation Interaction
- Immersive Media Design (VR/AR/XR)
- Information Design
- Design Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Instruction Design
- Interaction Design
- Mobility Design / Future Mobility / Vehicle Form & Aesthetics
- Sustainable Design
- Systems Thinking and Design
- Typography / Calligraphy / Type Design
- Visual Language & Storytelling
Below are a few specific PhD topics suggested for the 2023 Autumn Semester applications :
Faculty |
Topic |
Purba Joshi |
- Designing age-friendly cities of the future (see description)
|
Anirudha Joshi |
- Text input in Indian languages (e.g. see papers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- Understanding technology adoption by emergent users (e.g. see user usage model)
- Content creation in Indian languages (e.g. supporting education in Indian languages, tools to support content creation in Indian language tools such as dictionaries, spell checkers, grammar checkers and smart editors, improving accessibility in Indian languages e.g. this paper etc.)
- Usable security for emergent users (e.g. graphical passwords)
- Health and fitness among older adults (e.g. see this paper)
- Strategies for scaling up design education (e.g. design education at undergraduate and masters levels, school level design education, design for people from non-design domains etc.)
- Creating and evaluating interaction design tools (e.g. personas vs proto-personas, see papers: 1, 2, 3, 4, )
Here is a document summarising current developments in some of the above projects. The document is not publicly available, but can be made available on requests for access. Potential PhD students are strongly encouraged to do a 6-month to 1-year pre-doctoral internship in our lab, where we explore some research questions. Additionally, here is a blog for prospective PhD students.
|
Jayesh Pillai |
- Grammar of storytelling in Virtual Reality (e.g. see recent papers 1, 2, 3)
- Application of immersive media in education (e.g. see project & recent papers)
|
Prasad Bokil |
- Readability and legibility studies for Devnagari (Marathi/Hindi)
|
Sugandh Malhotra |
- Identification of form related design drivers in nature
|
Venkatesh R |
|
Swati Pal |
- Designing healthcare of the future
- Design for elderly
|