SINGAPORE - A $1 million makerspace set to benefit 13,000 tertiary and secondary school students over the next five years was officially opened on Friday at the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD).

The 6,200 sq ft space is sponsored by the James Dyson Foundation, technology company Dyson’s global charitable foundation, as part of its $3 million plan to support Singapore’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) education.

The Dyson-SUTD Innovation Studios was opened by company founder James Dyson and SUTD president Chong Tow Chong, with Dr Beh Swan Gin, chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board, as witness. 

The facility will be led by Dyson engineers.

It is set to host activities such as a James Dyson Foundation prototyping workshop that exposes secondary school students to design thinking. 

The space will also facilitate Stem activities for students in general education – such as the 3D printing challenge and the Stem workshop for scholars under the Ministry of Education Engineering and Tech Programme. 

Guest lectures, innovation forums and workshops related to engineering design innovation, intelligent robotics, smart manufacturing and 3D printing, and machine learning may also be held at the studios.

Students from SUTD’s Engineering Product Development and Information Systems Technology & Design pillars will get to consult Dyson engineer mentors in the space, as they work in teams to develop solutions.

Professor Chong said: “We are very pleased to work alongside such bold and pioneering minds at Dyson to better the world by design.

“We believe this partnership will continue to inspire future generations of design innovators and provide many opportunities to both the SUTD family and the wider community, to bring ideas out of the academic environment into the real world.”