Art is the purest form of expression. And it is quite safe to say that art is in everything that one can ever imagine. It is not only a pleasant sight to the eyes but also invokes the genius in the creator and the viewer. The best thing about art is it does not like to stay in a place. It moves with the flow and time, adapting to every change and involving all aspects.
In the technical world, art has found its place in some of the complex technologies which have led to the formation of various forms of design courses.
Today, numerous schools teach design, and one of these schools stands out as RV University’s School of Design and Innovation (SDI). One of the best places to graduate from, it evolves one as a leader and excels at education for design, teaching its students the value of art.
Curious to know more about the institution?
Let’s dive deep into the instrumental story of RV University and learn more about the institution.
SDI’s Design Venture
RV University’s esteemed faculty includes passionate minds from across the world who inspire, educate, motivate, and encourage young students to go and change the world. Backed by the 80-year rich legacy of RV Educational Institutions, it commenced operations in 2021 as a new-age, tech-driven, global university that imparts high-quality, liberal education with an interdisciplinary curriculum.
The university, and the school, are a part of the Rashtreeya Vidyalaya Educational Institutions (RVEI). The organization took root in 1940 and is a world of educational Institutions with a mission to ‘Go, change the world.’ It has 21 institutions and educates more than 20000 students, and the institution focuses on creating and spreading knowledge.
The School of Design and Innovation (SDI) is one of the core schools established along with the establishment of RV University in the year 2021, driven by a vision to become ‘The Go-To Design School’ for aspiring design students in India. Its mission is to create designers of the future who are creative problem solvers with not just humans at the centre but life systems of the world as the central theme.
Blazing New Trails
While RV University’s mission is to strive for excellence in teaching, research, capacity building, and community engagement, and build a reputation in the academic world as a thought leader in various disciplines and benchmark against top universities of the world.
It aims to create a vibrant and diverse community with faculty members and students hailing from different parts of the country and the world. It exposes students to the best of theory and practice and evolves a diverse talent pool of informed, self-driven, empathetic, and inclusive problem solvers.
It also enables people from all sections of society to access affordable and quality education in all spheres of knowledge, including Arts, Humanities, Basic Sciences, Technology and Management, Teacher Education, Health Sciences and Legal Studies.
Translating this vision into reality for SDI: Prof. Vinay Mundada, The Dean of the School of Design and Innovation, Prof. Vinay Mundada, has been associated with SDI since its beginning as Professor and Founding Dean. He has over 35 years of extensive, varied academic and professional experience in the fields of electronic product design and development, product ergonomics, human interface design, and prototype development. He served as the previous dean of FLAME University’s School of Design in Pune. For 11 years, he served as the Director of the Symbiosis Institute of Design Pune. He worked at Symbiosis to launch the nation’s first undergraduate design program (B. Des – Bachelor of Design), which the UGC accredited.
Shortly after beginning his professional career, he worked as a freelance designer. He then spent the next 16 years in various positions with the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology (CEDT), Aurangabad (now National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology – NIELIT), an organization that specializes in the design and development of electronic products.
He was instrumental in launching the M. Tech program in Electronic Design and Technology at CEDT and contributed to Electronic Product Design and Development and Corporate Training activities.
Prof. Mundada received his Master of Design (M. Des) in industrial design (Product Design) from the IDC School of Design, IIT-Bombay. He is a production engineer from VJTI Mumbai. User-centered design, human-computer interaction, product interface design, design for manufacturing, design for end-of-life, and crafts are some areas in which he is particularly interested in researching. He provides experience in developing and designing goods and systems.
He is a professional member of the Association of Designers (ADI) of India, Bengaluru Chapter.
Offering Excellence
The university offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programs in six academic disciplines, namely, the School of Liberal Arts and Science, School of Design and Innovation, School of Business, School of Economics, and School of Computer Science and Engineering, and the recently launched, School of Law. It has partnerships and collaborations with over 50 reputed foreign and national universities, institutions, and companies.
The School of Design and Innovation offers a Master of Design program in User Experience Design (UXD) and Bachelor of Design programs in User Experience Design (UXD), Product Design (PD), Communication Design (CD), and Spatial and Interior Design (SD). The school has plans to expand and offer more master’s programs, modular certificate programs, and industry consulting as it grows and expands.
E-learning and Enhancement
Design education has come a long way in India. And yet, it has a long way to go. It offers great synergy, as the India Design Policy and the New Education Policy set the stage for a new wave of Design education and contribute to satisfying the voracious appetite for young new designers in the Indian industry.
SDI strikes to create a mark in the design education ecosystem and intellectual quality. It has a strong founding team of faculty members drawn both from industry and academia, bringing together a synergy of knowledge and application. This reflects how the courses are designed and delivered. The school draws from the best methodologies from various models and is creating an environment where knowledge creation, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge application will co-exist and inspire each other.
The pedagogy is based on a combination of theory and practice, with a conspicuous leaning towards practice. All learning is demonstrated through application in an assignment, guided by faculty. A culture of doing rather than just stating is adopted in the institution. A demonstration of this could be seen through the academic year – exhibitions and presentations of work done.
Collaboration and co-creation are focus areas, with continuous teamwork encouraged. The minors and electives are designed to encourage interdisciplinary synergy—not just within SDI but also within other schools of RVU—the School of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Business, and School of Economics are some of the school the schools collaborated with.
With deliberate intent, themes like the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals or Digital Platforms as projects are chosen to ensure that the students get experience in real-world problem-solving. The school brings in industry leaders and thought leaders for guest lectures and jury panellists to ensure students get insights and perspectives from practising leaders.
Nurturing Careers
‘Metamorph 2022’ was the first student exhibition to be launched in the university, which has been an eye-opener and trendsetter. It has given the students a platform to showcase their work and gain valuable confidence. It is one of the first events that will become an ongoing series and part of the SDI culture.
SDI is also guided by a set of attributes that they want to develop in their students apart from academic knowledge. These attributes will help the students to navigate the world with confidence and clarity. This includes ethical, lifelong learning, reflective thinking, creative confidence, self-disciplined and driven, entrepreneurial, environmentally sensitive, and world view. Every aspect of academic life is interwoven with these attributes and endeavours to create individuals with those.
The institution, along with this, provides transport, hostel, cafeteria, medical facilities, wi-fi, and clean surroundings, multimedia projectors, high-speed broadband internet-equipped classrooms, reprographic facilities, with an enviable infrastructure encouraging sports.
Envisaging the Future
SDI is in the process of establishing academic tie-ups with universities abroad that will open a world of opportunities for higher education, research, and career opportunities. SDI is also creating an ecosystem of collaboration with several corporates that will enable both internships during the academic programs and career opportunities after the programs. The collaboration will also create a consulting avenue to keep the faculty in touch with industry trends.
All this, eventually, focuses on the mission of creating designers who are creative problem solvers. Careful structuring of the courses ensures that they can be effective designers both in a corporate environment and in entrepreneurial pursuits. The course design ensures the students build a body of work that will help them position themselves as designers in a corporate environment or will help them have the confidence to go out in the world and create a solution on their own.
