SUTD Broadens AI Access With Launch of University-Wide LLM Gateway

• New platform gives students and faculty access to a range of leading AI models, with an emphasis on developing judgement about when and how to use AI

Today, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is launching the SUTD Large Language Model (LLM) Gateway, giving students and faculty access to a range of leading artificial intelligence (AI) models through a common university platform.

The LLM Gateway provides access to AI models such as GPT, Claude, Gemini, Qwen and Kimi, among others. SUTD has chosen not to limit its community to one AI model or ecosystem as different models have different strengths and models available on the platform can change as the technology develops.

The LLM Gateway is part of SUTD’s Design·AI education and reflects a simple reality: students entering university today will encounter many different AI models over their working lives.

“Our students will work with many different AI models over their careers, and the models will keep changing,” said Professor Chee Yeow Meng, Provost and Chief Academic & Innovation Officer of SUTD. “The LLM Gateway will let our students test out different models, discover their strengths and the different types of tasks they may excel in.”

AI is already widely used by SUTD students. An analysis of student projects found the use of several AI platforms in Freshmore (or first-year) design projects, with more specialised applications, including retrieval-augmented generation, computer vision and multi-agent pipelines, appearing in final-year Capstone projects.

Access alone, however, does not determine whether AI contributes to learning. As AI helps students explore ideas, solve problems and create solutions, SUTD wants students to develop their own judgement about its use. They should understand the strengths and limitations of different models, critically assess what the models produce, and recognise situations where doing the work themselves is important to learning.

As a Design·AI university, SUTD also expects students to gain experience incorporating AI into what they design and build. The LLM Gateway provides them with access to different models, supporting their use in software, systems and other applications, so students can apply AI to the solutions they create, not just to learning and exploration.

Besides ensuring that the University stays at the forefront of rapidly developing AI technologies by allowing AI models to be added or changed where necessary, the LLM Gateway also provides a university-managed environment with safeguards for privacy, security and responsible use.

“AI can help students learn, but it can also short-circuit the thinking, practice and struggle through which learning takes place,” said Professor Chee. “What matters is developing the judgement to know when AI helps with learning and when it gets in the way. Giving students access to AI is easy. Developing that judgement is the harder and more important task.”