The Department of Applied Mechanics & Biomedical Engineering has existed ever since the inception of IIT Madras in 1959. Earlier it was known as the Department of Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, and then subsequently as just the Department of Applied Mechanics after Aerospace became a separate department. Traditionally, the department had three main groups: (a) Solid Mechanics, (b) Fluid Mechanics & (c) Biomedical Engineering. The department was rechristened as “Department of Applied Mechanics & Biomedical Engineering” in 2023 to ensure greater visibility of the group working on the biomedical, biomechanics and bioscience aspects of engineering.
Our department offers the following three MTech course-based programs:
(a) MTech in Computational & Experimental Mechanics, (b) MTech in Biomedical Engineering and, (c) MTech in Clinical Engineering. The first program focuses on areas related to Solid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Dynamics and Mechanics of Materials and has students whose undergraduate degrees are in Mechanical, Civil, Aerospace, Naval, Chemical etc, while the other two programs have students with degrees from Electrical, Biomedical, Applied Physics, and allied areas. Our department also offers four Interdisciplinary dual degree programs on (a) Computational Engineering, (b) Complex Systems & Dynamics (c) Biomedical Engineering and (d) Energy studies.
Our major strength is the strong research program with more than 220 PhD students, 80 MS scholars and tens of postdocs. Our faculty members have their undergraduate degrees from 12 disciplines encompassing almost all areas of engineering and science and this is reflected in the strong interdisciplinary focus in our research. As one of the most active departments in the institute, our faculty collaborates with universities, government research labs and industry partners in India and outside. These collaborations have resulted in publications in leading peer-reviewed journals and have garnered various recognitions in the form of awards & memberships in professional societies. Some of the government partners include DST, DBT, ISRO, ARDB, DRDO, DMRL, ICMR, National Supercomputing Mission, and the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. On the corporate front, the department’s expertise has been leveraged by companies such as Kotak Mahindra, APA Engineering, Vertiv Energy, Johnson Controls, Aspire, GE, Mahindra, MTAR Technologies, Pmanifold, Facebook, Caterpillar, Novartis, Viking, Shell India, and Pfizer. With a vibrant student community and a spirited Scholars Association, the department is on a steadfast trajectory.
