Dr. Patnaik currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the National Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (formerly NIFFT), a centrally funded institute under the Government of India, located in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. He earned his Doctorate and Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Silchar in 2023 and 2011, respectively, and his Master’s degree from University College of Engineering (Osmania University, Hyderabad) in 2015. His teaching interests encompass Materials Science, Design, Production Technology, Additive Manufacturing, Mechanical Systems, and related subjects. He brings three years of industry experience in design and manufacturing to his academic role. He has also obtained an NPTEL certification in 'Product Design & Development' from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. During his full-time doctoral studies, Dr. Patnaik contributed to a multidisciplinary project that investigated the physio-mechanical and antibacterial properties of Silver-Silicon doped amorphous carbon film and AlCr(Si)N for implant applications. He has published over 40 papers indexed in Web of Science, as well as more than 20 conference proceedings and book chapters indexed in Scopus. Driven by his passion for designing and developing new machines, he has been granted more than 10 patents.