My Passion

For years, we have seen designers drawing cues from nature. We see those inspired shapes and patterns all around us, like a bullet train’s nose inspired from a kingfisher’s bill, wind turbine arrangements inspired by schools of fish, and sustainable buildings inspired by anthill’s natural ventilation. But more recently, we have seen a boom in Computational Simulations and Artificial Intelligence, so much so that “AI Beats Human” is a daily occurrence. In Mechanical Design, I have realized, through my academic experiences and projects, the superiority of computational tools, predictive models, and optimization algorithms. These are promising areas of research, and these methodologies could set the tone for future designers.

I envision a future where wind turbines adapt to the weather, aircrafts morph their wings to counter turbulence, and ships that “swim” through rough seas. With the advent of compliant mechanisms, soft robotics and advances in material science, this future does not seem too distant. I hope to contribute to this future with my research in computational shape optimization and to investigate the potential extent and viability of these future technologies.

Conventional mechanical design involves optimising part performance through a manual iterative process of protoype testing and simulation, which results in a snail's pace in time resulting in enormous production costs. According to my vision, revolutionary new technologies like 3D printing, advanced computer aided simulations coupled with the data driven approach of artificial intelligence fueled with the rise in computational power, will all intersect to provide a more tailor-made future, propelling us into the augmented age, where our unique needs may be met, further reinforcing my vision to “Personalise the products and infrastructure of tomorrow“. Gone are the days of one for a million design, its time to embrace a one for one design ideology.