Biography

Dr. Prabir Sarkar is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. He is the founding Chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Cell at IIT Ropar and has played a key role in promoting innovation and patent-related activities within the institute.

Prior to joining IIT Ropar, Dr. Sarkar served as an Associate Researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Design Creativity from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he also completed his Master of Design in Product Design and Engineering. Following his postgraduate studies, he worked with Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) in the Research and Development division.

Dr. Sarkar’s research interests span product design, design creativity, sustainability, and design methodology. His work focuses on developing innovative methods and tools to support designers and organizations in creating novel, practical, and environmentally responsible products. He leads two research groups: the Design Research Laboratory and the Sustainable Design and Manufacturing Laboratory, where current research themes include Ecodesign, biomimicry, engineering aesthetics, sustainable machining, and rural product development.

He has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and regularly contributes to leading journals and conferences as a reviewer. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology (Emerald Publishing). Dr. Sarkar has jointly secured over ₹100 crores in research funding from various national and international agencies. He is currently a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India).

Teaching Interests

Lecture: Product design and realization, Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, Manufacturing Systems, Design Research, Computer Aided Design of Manufacturing systems (CIDMS),  and Additive Manufacturing. 

 Lab: Workshop technology, Tinkering lab, and Manufacturing labs.

Selected Publications/Patents

Selected journals

1. Sandhu, K.*, Sarkar, P., & Karupppasamy, S. (2025). Understanding entrepreneurship thinking for designers: Perspectives from entrepreneurs, academicians, product designers, and students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 56, 101728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101728. (I.F. = 3.5, Q1) 

2. Jitender Singh and Prabir Sarkar, 2025. Engineering Aesthetics generic definition, tests, factors and methods. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. (accepted) https://doi.org/10.1080/21650349.2025.2536001. (I.F.= 2.5, Q1)

3. Patidar, A.*, Sharma, M., Agrawal, R., Sangwan, K. S., & Sarkar, P. (2023). Building supply chain resilience in developing economies: A weighted Ishikawa diagram approach. Operations Management Research, 17(1), 363–386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-023-00319-3. (I.F. = 9.0, Q1)

4. Singh, P. K.*, & Sarkar, P. (2023). An artificial neural network tool to support the decision making of designers for environmentally conscious product development. Expert Systems with Applications, 212, 118679. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2022.118679. (I.F. = 8.6, Q1)

5. Kumar, R., Sandhu, K.*, Ranjan, N., Singh, S., Sarkar, P., Subburaj, K., & Ramakrishna, S. (2023). Form exploration on different fabrics using material extrusion based additive manufacturing and end users experience. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 101, 959–973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2023.06.053. (I.F. = 5.7, Q1)

6. Singh, P. K.*, & Sarkar, P. (2020). A framework based on fuzzy Delphi and DEMATEL for sustainable product development: A case of Indian automotive industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 118991. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118991. (I.F. = 11, Q1)

7. Singh, P. K.*, Singh, A. K., Siddhartha, & Sarkar, P. (2020). Optimizing the performance parameters of injection-molded polymer spur gears. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part L: Journal of Materials: Design and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464420720977561. (I.F. = 0.7, Q4)

8. Sharma, R. K., Singh, P. K., Sarkar, P., & Singh, H. (2020). A hybrid multi-criteria decision approach to analyse key factors affecting sustainability in supply chain networks of manufacturing organisations. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 22, 1871–1889. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01933-9. (I.F. = 3.6, Q2)

9. Sharma, R. K.*, Sarkar, P., & Singh, H. (2020). Assessing the sustainability of a manufacturing process using life cycle assessment technique – A case of an Indian pharmaceutical company. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 22, 1269–1284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01865-4. (I.F. = 3.6, Q2)

10. Sharma, R. K., Sodhi, G. P. S., Bhakar, V., Kaur, R., Pallakonda, S., Sarkar, P., & Singh, H. (2020). Sustainability in manufacturing processes: Finding the environmental impacts of friction stir processing of pure magnesium. CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology, 30, 25–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirpj.2020.03.007. (I.F. = 3.5, Q2)

Selected patents

Patents Granted

1.       Amaresh Chakrabarti, Prabir Sarkar, 2014. Method for Idea Generation for Creation of Product Designs, Indian patent application no.: 859/CHE/2006, patent grant no.: 258579, date of filing: 16th May 2006 .

2.       Archana Badodekar, Prabir Sarkar, Amaresh Chakrabarti, Prasad G Kamble, 2005. A manually operated aid for impaired people to ingress and egress train and method thereof, 453/CHE/2005, Indian patent grant no.: 227939, date of filing: 20th April 2005. 

3.       B.Gurumoorthy, Neeraj Pal, and Prabir Sarkar, 2000. Rupturable disposable syringe, Indian patent grant number: 198228, date of filing: 25th February 2000.

4.       Gyanendra Singh Goindi, Dr. Anshu Dhar Jayal, Dr. Prabir Sarkar, 2015. A Flexible Continuous Minimum Quantity Lubrication (FCMQL) system, Indian patent application number: 3971/DEL/2015, filing date: 07-Dec-2015. Patent grant no: 376967, dated 15/09/2021.

5.       Dr. Prabir Sarkar, Dinesh Chauhan, Duddela Sai Harish, Gaurav Gupta, Dhruv Kumar Bansal, 2016. Semi-automatic food processing device for preparing sweets and savories, Indian patent application number: 201611000957, filing date: 11-Jan-2016. Patent grant no: 384307, dated 14/12/2022.

6.       Amit R Patel, Prabir Sarkar, Himanshu Tyagi, Harpreet Singh, Sudhakar Sagi, 2018. A Method for Determining a Single Discounting Rate for the Processes Involving Emissions. Application no: 201811044462. Date of filing: 26-Nov-18

7.       US Patent Application No.   16/540,736. Inventors: Malkeet SINGH, Harpreet SINGH, Christopher Charles BERNDT, Prabir SARKAR. Date of Filing: 14/08/2019. Title: Technology and process for 3d printing using swarf particles

8.       Dr. Prabir Sarkar, Bishal Ghosh, Mahak Sarin, Alluvala Mamata, Dev Prabhaker Singh Tomar, 2015. Stapler device with multi-tier force multiplication mechanism for binding hard materials, Indian patent application number: 3961/DEL/2015, filing date: 04-Dec- 2015.

Recent externally sponsored grants (total about 104 crores INR)

2020-2025                   Approval for establishing of Sectoral Application Hubs (SAHs): Agriculture & Water under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS)

Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs)

• Funding source            Department of Science and Technology (DST), Gov. of India

• Level of support          7 crores initially, total 100 crores over 5 years

• Organizations involved            IIT Ropar

• Role                             Co-PI (Co-PIs: Dr. Pushpendra Singh, Dr. Prabir Sarkar, Dr. Mukesh Saini, Dr. Neelkant, Dr. Vijay Anand, Dr. Suman Kumar, Dr. Neeraj Goel)

2019- 2022                  Micro Green Roofing

• Funding source            IMPRINT- 2, MHRD, GOI and ELT India

• Level of support          About 75 lakhs (58 lakhs from MHRD+ 17 lakhs from ELT India)

• Organizations involved            IIT Ropar, IIT Kharagpur, ELT India, industry

• Role                             Principal Investigator

2017-2020                   Big Data Analysis: A key to understand the Dynamics of Collaborative Knowledge Building

• Funding source            Cognitive Science Research Initiative (CSRI), Department of Science and Technology (DST), India

• Level of support          INR 14,40,600

• Role                             Co-Principal Investigator

For more details please refer to the CV. 

Labs/Links

Personal website

Design Research Laboratory (DR Lab)

Design Studio laboratory (DS lab)

Older sites

Sustainable design and manufacturing laboratory (SDM lab)

Intellectual Property Rights cell (IPR cell)