Deepa Butoliya is a designer, researcher, and educator whose work celebrates human ingenuity and creativity in the face of constraint. Born and raised in India and now based in the United States, she explores how design practices from around the world—especially those rooted in improvisation, resilience, and care—can expand how we think about innovation.

Her ongoing research centers on Jugaad, a Hindi term meaning “making do with what you have.” More than a practice, Jugaad represents a mindset of resourcefulness and adaptability. Deepa’s work traces this spirit of everyday creativity across cultures and connects it to movements of resistance and repair. In Detroit, she co-curated Jugaad in the D: Ingenuity and Resistance in Detroit and Motown Masala, exhibitions that highlight the city’s vibrant culture of grassroots innovation and collective resilience.

Trained as both an architect and industrial designer, Butoliya holds degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has worked with organizations including the Development Lab at MIT and GE Healthcare. Her research and workshops have been presented at international conferences such as IDSA, Making Futures, EPIC, CHI, IASDR, and Speculative Futures.

This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.
Series presenting partners: Detroit PBS, ALL ARTS, and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Public.