Gutgsell Endowed Professor:
Debasish (Deba) Dutta

Professor Debasish (Deba) Dutta received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University in Calcutta, India in 1978, a MS in Engineering Management from the University of Evansville in 1983 and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University in 1989. A respected and renowned engineer, Professor Dutta's work has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Lockheed Martin, General Motors and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.  He has also been a leader in the national discussion regarding the role of graduate education and served at the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation from 2004 to 2007 in several administrative positions including as Acting Director of the Division of Graduate Education, IGERT Program Director and as Advisor in the Office of Assistant Director, Education and Human Resources.

Professor Dutta’s research deals with computational geometric methods for programmable automation in mechanical design and manufacturing. He has worked in geometric modeling, heterogeneous solid modeling and manufacturing process planning. His current research is in global product development and lifecycle management, focusing on the semantic interoperability of product data.  He serves on the editorial boards of five journals and has chaired American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Design Automation Conference (1997), two Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Solid Modeling Symposia (1999 and 2001), and is the co-founder of the International Productive Lifecycle Management Conference series. He has received several awards including the ASME Design Automation award and the NSF Director's Award for Collaborative Excellence.

Professor Dutta holds an appointment in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and is Dean of the Graduate College.