Milind Chitale, the Associate Professor and Director, Makerspace, has extensive knowledge of Mechanical Engineering, Product Design, Materials and Processes and Design for Manufacturing and allied fields including Robotic Assembly. Being an involved tinkerer, he has also gained expertise in Mechatronics and Electronic Device Experiments. He takes great care to ensure budding designers under his wings do not shy away from experimenting with technologies and continue to create groundbreaking innovations throughout their time at Anant.
At Anant, Milind ensures that the Makerspace is used as a creative space and not seen as a mundane workshop. He encourages students to share their ideas despite their complexities and seeming impossibilities. He also teaches students in areas like Design for Manufacturing and Materials and Manufacturing Processes, apart from other Product Design topics. Milind is also involved as a mentor for students undertaking Capstone Projects and Internships with industry, helping them make the most of the opportunity.
A Mechanical Engineer from NIT Jamshedpur with a Post-Graduation in Industrial Design from the IIT Bombay, Milind also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Plastics Engineering from Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Chennai, an Executive Diploma in Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a Certificate course in Mechatronics from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan.
Professionally, Milind has more than 30 years of experience, of which more than 20 years have been with various large and small industries from India and abroad. His industrial experience is in Research and Development and New Product Development and Introduction (NPD). He has worked in the Heavy Industry, Electronic Instrumentation and Packaging and Medical Devices industries, gaining a tremendous wealth of knowledge and understanding of the diverse range of technologies and production processes.
Along with an industry background, Milind also has a solid 15 years of teaching experience, of which 13 years have been in India and 3 years abroad.
Beyond academia, Milind is a fitness enthusiast who completed a full marathon in the Standard Chartered Marathon, Singapore in 2012. He also completed a cycling tour of Gujarat, covering 700 km in 7 days. That apart, Milind loves to travel and visit new places around the country with family during vacations.