BC

Balkrishna C Rao

Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Leibniz University Hannover, Purdue University

ORCID iD 0000-0002-5984-8538

About

Climate change and other natural crises of our time are prompting a rethink among various disciplines of science and engineering. Consequently, the concept of sustainability has been stressed in recent years to innovate, design and manufacture products having minimal impact on the environment. In this regard, the Sustainable Manufacturing Group of Balkrishna C. Rao is involved in conducting research activities pertaining to Sustainable Design and Manufacturing and Sustainable Innovations. In particular Rao's group is actively involved in the modeling and experimentation of additive (AM)- and traditional-manufacturing processes for the aerospace, marine and automotive industries. The emphasis is on Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) process for 3D printing of superalloys; high speed manufacturing of superalloys and severe plastic deformation (SPD) again of superalloys to generate ultrafine grained (UFG) materials.

Rao's group is also actively involved in research on frugal innovations for developing the requisite design theory leading to the fabrication of frugal products. The work on frugal innovations is rooted in science and engineering. He has also worked in the past on developing models for quantifying innovations.

Do check out his work in Frugal Engineering at:
https://frugalengineering.in/

Balkrishna C. Rao has been one of the early researchers in Frugal Engineering with having coined the term "Advanced Frugal Innovation (AFI)". He has also developed the factor-of-frugality to systematically design and also fabricate frugal products from scratch.

Balkrishna C. Rao received his masters degree from Louisiana Tech University , USA, in mechanical engineering and later obtained a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

Balkrishna C. Rao can be reached at [email protected]

Employment

  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras Professor
    2022 - Present
  • Leibniz University Hannover ICCR Visiting Chair Professor of Indian Studies (Frugal Engineering)
    2022 - 2022
  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras Associate Professor
    2017 - 2022
  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras Assistant Professor
    2010 - 2017
  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras Assistant Professor
    2008 - 2010
  • Purdue University Post Doctoral Research Associate
    ? - 2007

Education

  • Purdue University Ph.D.
    ? - 2002

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (16)