In the background of globalization, there has been renewed realization in Indian Industry for highly qualified engineering professionals in Quality Engineering, Product Design and Manufacturing. IIT Kharagpur has been quick to identify this need and accordingly planned to establish a centre for Quality Engineering, Design and Manufacturing. A core group of faculty members from Mechanical Engineeri
ng, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, and Industrial Engineering and Management have put considerable time and energy over two years for making this possible. The core group has conducted numerous brainstorming sessions, met a large number of top Industry officials, and consulted academic experts from both India and abroad to come up with this proposal. The new 5-year dual degree curriculum in Quality Engineering Design and Manufacturing (QEDM) is proposed in two verticals – Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Electronics. Foe each of the vertical, there will be B Tech (Hons) in Engineering Product Design and Manufacturing and M Tech in Design and Quality Engineering. The Dual Degree Program is a unique program conceived at IIT Kharagpur to inculcate in students an enhanced awareness of Engineering Design, Manufacturing and Quality issues related either to mechanical Engineering Products such Automotive Systems or to Electronic Products such as Real-time Embedded Systems. The academic content of the program is accordingly designed to expose the students to most major engineering aspects related to such products including Product Modelling and Development, Design for Quality, Manufacturability and Assembly etc. Faculty members from the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Industrial Engineering and Management will jointly hold the proposed dual degree program for both the verticals. The department of Industrial Engineering and Management will be the coordinating department. Designing new products and getting them to market quickly and successfully has become more challenging than ever. Quality Engineering Design and Manufacturing deals with each of the four essential aspects of conceiving, conceptualizing, designing and manufacturing a product that maximizes customer acceptability, is profitable for the roducer, and suffers no social or environmental externalities. Traditional engineering design courses cover only some select aspects of the design tasks. The QEDM program as proposed here, has been designed to impart the skills, competence, and theoretical and experiential knowledge to its entrants. Enrolled through JEE, they will be taught to expertly handle the required tasks—end-to-end. It is felt to be imperative that the students be exposed to industrial product development cycles at reputed industries. Based on interaction with leading industry experts it has been decided that six- month Internship be included in the programme replacing the Thesis Project of the B. Tech Programme, it is necessary to articulate the essential requirements of Internship to ensure its rigour, quality and value based on which the performance of a student during internship can be assessed objectively.
