Courses offered under UE-HCI Lab
Curriculum for these courses have been developed from fundamentals. These courses are unique and have been developed for the Interaction Design stream of B.Des program. Some courses are at the Postgraduate and PhD level.
Courses under Minor category are at the general Design levels meant for students from other branches interested in earning a Minor Degree in Design along with chosen branches such as Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering etc.
These set of courses have equal emphasis on theory and practice sessions unlike Design courses.
Pedagogy: New Teaching Innovations Adopted by the UE - HCI Lab
Contemporary education and pedagogy practices are continuously tried out and practiced at Department of Design. In one of the most opted specialization stream - Interaction Design, a series of six UE-HCI courses and 2 to 3 Core Design courses, when opted by the student, facilitate stringing them into a stream in Usability – HCI domain. In the six courses, the curriculum structure (labeled as D-STEAM by the UE Group at DoD) and classroom dynamics adopted has been a blend of conventional teaching mixed with Flipped assignments and hands-on Studio practices. (see pictures of students enjoying studio sessions)
The mini Projects prescribed around these courses act as mediums for collaborating as well as competing for the student to come up with a winning project. All the students themselves evaluate presentations in the Assignments and Mini Projects in live presentation sessions. Only the best of the projects withstand the peer discussions and win honors. Carefully prepared lesson plans by the instructor form the Assignments / Mini project Handout brief to students. Often it is observed that students develop these very mini projects and assignments to a more refined form to be included in their individual Portfolios for attending job Interviews. This is so because the assignments and problems chosen are contemporary both to the industry as well to the society.
The Blended instruction mode (Conventional + Flipped) has been successful for over a decade and a half since 2003 when the UE-HCI lab was set up. This mode of blended instructions has yet to reach perfection but is found to be the ‘knitting’ force by the student with which to synthesize multiple knowledge in an interdisciplinary way to result in a holistic Design at the end. Often inputs from a wide-ranging courses from Science to Engineering (Computer Sc, IT etc) to Arts (Aesthetics, Humanities etc) ( STEAM) go into Innovating an end use Technology demonstrator – the demonstration of which is mandatory in the form of a Prototype, Simulation, Mockup in Design in the B.Des and M.Des curriculum.
Flipped instructions often involve the instructor providing References, Website ids of related Multimedia, Information websites, Classroom Notes, Current developments etc. Important published papers are made available to students in the Hard copy form. The Blended Classroom Instruction and pedagogy practice have been contributing to the success of the Interaction Design stream courses, which put together, are termed as D.STEAM.
Evaluation and Feedback by Students
90 % of all B.Des Graduates (from 2003 to 2012) and 50 percent of M.Des post Graduates who have passed out of the Department of Design since the past 14 years have voluntarily opted for me as their preferred Thesis Guide. A total of over 100 IIT UG & PG Thesis have been supervised from 2002 to date. Student feedback for the past 14 years has rated teaching and interpersonal relationship in the class room consistently at high levels across all courses with a score of between 3.8 to 4.1 out of 5.
List of Courses offered since 2003
• DD 601 Usability Engineering – Human Computer Interaction. [
Course Material] [Final Report Submission]
• DD 602 System Analysis & Information Design
• DD 603 Innovation & Creativity
• DD 604 Environments & Experiential Design
• DD 705 Design Research Methods
• DD 706 Design Semantics
• DD 504 Design Methods
• DD 411 Design Management and Professional Practice.
• DD 412 Design Projects in ICT
• DD M201 Introduction to Design - Design Minor Program.
• DD M301 Design Methods- Design Minor program
Online Courses being offered
• Human Computer Interaction - An Introduction (NPTEL)
Online Virtual Studio and course in HCI
• Creative Design and Prototyping HCI: NMEICT - Virtual Lab
Short-term Courses
Over 20 short term industry sponsored training programs were planned & conducted as Course Coordinator for Industrial personnel in all areas of Design as the Lead Faculty. Also trained over 100 engineering college faculties in induction programs to dissimilate and propagate Design in engineering colleges.
DESIGN MANAGEMENT
• INNOVATION
• DESIGN THINKING
• DESIGN METHODS
• DESIGN STRATEGY
• DESIGN LEADERSHIP
• DESIGN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
UE-HCI Lab has been offering two courses. In the area of Innovation, Creativity, Design Thinking and Management.
(i) DD 411 - Design Management and Professional Practice. (since 14 years starting from 2003) .
(ii) DD 603 - Creativity & Innovation (Syllabus approved by 46th senate (spl) meeting held on May 27 2005)
The course deals with practical management of design process in an industry. It teaches Creativity, Design Thinking and Design Auditing. Legal issues, Intellectual property Rights issues, are integral part of the Innovation process taught to the students.
Design Thinking for Product Innovation: Examples from a Paper weight redesign projects executed as part of Design methods course.
Students have gone on to become Industry Leaders and entrepreneurs. Several Bachelors' thesis projects have been converted into Successful start-ups.
