Dr. Purushothama Chippar earned his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 from Karnataka Polytechnic, Mangalore. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 from Malnad College of Engineering, Hassan, Karnataka (affiliated with Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi). He obtained his Master of Engineering degree from Inha University, South Korea, and completed his PhD with a thesis titled ‘Theoretical Study of Electrochemical and Transport Phenomena in Fuel Cells’ under the supervision of Dr. Hyunchul Ju, Inha University, South Korea.
Dr. Chippar has about four years of industrial experience with Solectron EMS India Ltd. (now Centum Electronics) and Honeywell Technology Solutions Laboratory in Bengaluru. At Solectron EMS India Ltd., he worked as a New Product Implementation Engineer, conducting design reviews, managing new product design and development, performing FMEAs, developing NPI procedures, and introducing new manufacturing techniques to improve process speed and repeatability. At Honeywell, he worked as a Senior Analyst in the Intellectual Property (IP) department, where he honed his skills in innovation and intellectual property rights.
He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SJEC as a professor in August 2015 and served as Head of the Department from July 2021. Since October 2022, he has been serving as Vice-Principal and Dean of R&D at SJEC. Dr. Chippar has been pivotal in fostering research, innovation, and start-up culture on campus. He was instrumental in securing the prestigious New Age Innovation Network (NAIN) grant from the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) and the AICTE-IDEA Lab grant. Additionally, he has received research grants from the Vision Group on Science and Technology, Govt. of Karnataka, and the Institute for Plasma Research (Department of Atomic Energy), Govt. of India. He played a key role in establishing the Karnataka State Council for Science & Technology (KSCST)-IPR cell, Ministry of Education-IIC, National Innovation and Start-up Policy (NISP), and the Incubation Centre at SJEC.
Dr. Chippar's research interests include CFD modeling, heat transfer, fuel cells, electrolyzers, and hydrogen storage. He has published several journal articles and book chapters and is the inventor of US Patent US9568912B2. As of July 2024, he has 30 international journal publications and several conference publications. His organizational strength and people- centric approach have endowed him with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Dr. Chippar established the 'Applied Engineering and Computational Analysis Lab' with a focus on research on fuel cells, electrolyzers, and hydrogen storage.
