Talk on "Design Thinking for Technocrats"
Speaker: Professor Bhavin Kothari
Title: Design Thinking for Technocrats
Abstract:Today, India stands at the threshold of dynamic economic growth. To realize an economically-independent, environmentally-sustainable and socially- responsible future
requires the support of technically-sound, scientifically-rigorous and contextually-relevant solutions. This is where the role of design thinking becomes pivotal.
Design as ‘planning for change’ is the engine for innovation in all forms. It cuts across all facets of the innovation ecosystem and connects them together.
It is a knowledge-intensive activity that spans both problem-finding-and-formulation and problem solving to ensure development of feasible solutions that contextually fulfil functionality and improve the quality of life.
Design Thinking is frequently analogized to business today. It is important to recognize that Design Thinking is not exclusive to designers or unattainable to those in another discipline. Design Thinking is an approach to inquiry and expression that complements and enhances existing skills, behaviors and techniques.
Leaders are looking to find something new to grasp onto in order to make sense of what’s going on and to prepare for a future of unprecedented uncertainties.
The talk would expose the students to basics of Design Thinking and would have some hands-on experience to understand design thinking better,
which would help participants shape their career better.
Speaker Bio: Professor Bhavin Kothari is Senior Faculty with Strategic Design Management discipline at National
Institute of Design (NID). Prof Kothari is a qualified Engineer–Planner from CEPT University and has pursued another master in Intellectual Property Rights from NALSAR University. He has more than
20 years of experience.Prof Kothari has generated special interest in circular economy and related areas. He has actively worked to facilitate and generate Intellectual Property (IP) awareness in designer fraternity in general and NID in particular. Prof Kothari has been instrumental in revamping Strategic Design Management curriculum at NID besides developing, strengthening and delivering it.
Professor Kothari is innovation specialist and likes mentoring corporate on strategically designing their organizations imbibing ‘Design Thinking’ and ‘Innovation Management.’ His professional
interest also includes Organization Design and Designing Business Models for the Creative Industries.Prof Kothari has good knowledge about the emerging trends and paradigms in the field of Strategic
Design Management and circular economy with a research aptitude. He has been trained in Design Management through Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) at Japan. Prof Kothari
has published, attended, organized and presented at many forums and conference in the areas of his expertise.Strategic Creativity, Design Planning, Intellectual Property, Innovation Management, Change
Management, Design Audit, Craft Incubation and management, Business Model Innovation,Organisation Design, Circular Economy are few of his main areas of academic and research interests. He is faculty mentor for the design management at NID.Professor Kothari is an active member of International Association of Innovation Professionals. He is Executive Board Member of the Gujarat Innovation Society. Professor Kothari is mentoring Gujarat Technological University to incorporate Design Thinking in their engineering curriculum of all the streams. Prof Kothari helped in setting up National Institute of Design at Kurukshetra, as
faculty advisor for the education programme.Professor Kothari supports Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) initiative of NITI AYOG, GoI. Prof Kothari has been a party to help the Innovation Initiative support task force especially to develop Innovation Tool-Kit initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office. Prof Kothari is faculty mentor for his student, recipient of the Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship programme of Ellen MacArthur Foundation on Circular Economy. Professor Kothari has recently been nominated as Member, Board of Governance (BoG) of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dharwad.
Event Date: 10th April, 2019(Wednesday)
Event Time: 03:30 PM to 04:30 PM
Venue: Room 203
IIT Dharwad, Karnataka