Nidhi Mudgala

About

From dynamic stall flutter to design research.

The short version: I'm an engineer who fell in love with the human side of the systems I was building. The long version is below.

01 · Origin

Engineer by training.

I studied Mechanical Engineering at Shiv Nadar University, with a specialization in Energy Technology. I led design teams in SAE BAJA and ASME SDC competitions, where I learned how to think about systems — how the choice of a single bearing could ripple through an entire vehicle.

02 · Research

Then I fell in love with the why.

During my final year I worked on dynamic stall flutter — modeling aerodynamic instability with recurrence network analysis. The paper won Best Paper at NCWE 2024. But the question that stayed with me was a different one: why are we still designing for machines instead of the people moving them?

03 · Pivot

Design research at NIFT.

I am pursuing a Master of Design at NIFT Bengaluru. My work has spanned ethnographic research of the Banjara Lambani community, service design for Aadhar Seva Kendras, and most recently a 2027 trend report mapping the cultural collision between technology and human identity.

04 · Now

Where I'm headed.

I'm looking for roles in UX research, design research, and service design — places where rigour and empathy can sit at the same table. I bring engineering's structure and design's curiosity.