SUTD is developed in collaboration with MIT to nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs.
The collaboration with MIT will be multifaceted – the development and offering of curriculum, establishment of a major co-located research center, and recruitment and professional development of SUTD’s university leadership team and faculty.
The collaboration with MIT will focus on the development, collaborative offering and transfer of key areas and subjects to be taught in the curriculum. MIT faculty will play a significant role in developing a blueprint for the curriculum, including a structure for the curriculum and the degrees to be offered. Once the curriculum is in place, MIT will initially co-teach and then play an advisory role to permanent faculty recruited by SUTD.
MIT and SUTD will also develop a major collaborative research center, an International Design Center intended to be a hub of innovation in the field of design. It will fuel a long-term collaboration, and be strongly linked to the educational programmes at MIT and SUTD. SUTD’s aspiration is for this center to become the best place in the world to conduct breakthrough research to address the grand challenges facing the world today.
Harvesting the MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem
MIT is also an entire entrepreneurial ecosystem.
According to a 2009 study, “25,800 currently active companies founded by MIT alumni employ about 3.3 million people and generate annual world revenues of $2 trillion, equivalent to the 11th-largest economy in the world.”
The MIT spirit of education that consists of research and social network with various industry institutions and community, contributes to this outstanding and growing entrepreneurial output.
In Singapore, SUTD seeks to replicate this spirit of entrepreneurship and cutting edge technology with a novel education pedagogy. SUTD students will experience the full value chain from conception through development, prototyping, manufacturing, operations and maintenance. An education at SUTD will provide students with the skills to bring their innovations to the marketplace or assist a company to transform an idea into a commercial enterprise.
As SUTD Founding President Professor Thomas Magnanti expresses, “SUTD aspires to establish an inspiring attitude and tone – the type of vibrant academic and research environment that exists at the world’s leading universities. Having ‘MIT within’ will help ensure that SUTD achieves the highest quality.”
Forging ahead, together
While MIT seeks to encourage in SUTD the same spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that helped propel it to its internationally recognised top-ranking position, SUTD isn’t alone in looking forward to this collaboration.
MIT does too.
According to the President of MIT, Dr Susan Hockfield, “Building on MIT’s enduring relationship with Singapore, this agreement represents MIT’s most extensive collaboration with an overseas educational institution to date. The collaboration will not only help Singapore launch a new university, it will give MIT new opportunities to push the boundaries of design research. MIT is fully committed to helping SUTD achieve its distinctive vision.”
With MIT and its rich global experiences on board, SUTD’s future is filled with promise.