Professional development short courses
Professional development courses for graduate students
At SUTD, we are committed to providing opportunities for graduate students to learn skills/knowledge that are complementary to their specialisations, so as to enable them to respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Supporting SUTD’s vision of nurturing technically-grounded leaders, the suite of professional development courses enables students to be adaptable to the environment and uncover their abilities as individuals, better preparing their transition from University to career by enhancing the necessary skills for success.
These professional development courses* will be supplementary in nature, providing breadth beyond engineering and technology modules. Course structure and credits will be construed accordingly to the requirements of different programmes.
*These courses are subject to change. Please refer to more details during each enrolment exercise.
Course offerings
- Professional Communication
- This course is designed to empower students to communicate accurately and concisely to achieve desired positive outcomes in the global workplace.
- It aims to equip students with practical techniques to build confidence in choosing appropriate responses with consideration to the audience in specific contexts.
- Skills & Tools for Conducting Literature Review and Research
- Students will be trained in various tools and skills needed for conducting literature review and research.
- Exploring Artificial Intelligence: From Basics to Real-World Applications
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is now a significant part of our everyday life and is revolutionising how industries traditionally operate. To succeed in this evolving landscape, businesses and individuals require new technological skills as well as a clear understanding of the big picture of AI in terms of its capabilities and limitations.
- This course will provide an overview of AI and the different types of AI systems, including generative AI technologies.
- We will focus on how AI is being used across a wide spectrum of industries. We will also explore various use cases and applications of AI and its potential for improving our daily lives.
- This course is designed to introduce the general concepts of AI to anyone, regardless of their computing background. At the end of this course, participants will be able to describe the different types of AI systems, identify potential applications of AI in different domains/industries, and utilise basic AI techniques, including best practices for prompt engineering.
- Innovating with Design & AI for Leaders (IDeAL)
- This course is an intensive, studio-based 3-day programme for students seeking advanced fluency in Design Thinking, AI-augmented creativity, multi-agent workflows, and rapid prototyping using artificial intelligence.
- Grounded in the iDeA framework and SUTD’s Double Diamond pedagogy, this course introduces participants to the Design·AI Double-8 Model, advanced AI prompting strategies, multi-modal AI workflows, custom LLM agent building, and human-AI co-creation for high-impact problem-solving.
- Participants will work hands-on in a team with real-world challenges, using AI to accelerate:
- user research and insight mining
- system mapping
- opportunity framing
- ideation and multi-modal concept generation
- rapid evaluation using AI scoring frameworks
- storytelling, communication, and visualisation
- Each team will create a Design·AI Concept Pack that demonstrates mastery of human-centred and AI-augmented design.
For enquiries, please contact pdcourses@sutd.edu.sg.