Design AI – Innovation beyond human imagination

SUTD is the world’s first Design AI university.

With our strong foundation in cohort-based learning and interdisciplinary pedagogy, our pivot to artificial intelligence (AI) centres on the notion that AI is not just a tool, but a partner and that AI, just like technology and design, is an integral part of SUTD’s education and research.

By going beyond its traditional role as a technological tool, AI in SUTD is viewed as an invaluable part of the team, working hand-in-hand with its human counterparts, leveraging on each other’s strengths, to exchange ideas to develop innovative solutions that are several notches higher compared to if AI was merely acting based on instructions from humans.

This concept of “innovation beyond human imagination” is based on research at SUTD’s Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities that found that mastery in the AI/digital age is grounded in knowing how to work with many people and machines.

Contrary to the “Turing Test”, which pushed the frontiers of AI but inadvertently ended up pitting AI against humans, putting them in competition, and hence dislocating humans in work, SUTD’s research concluded that the future must be “Not Turing”.

SUTD’s Design AI principle puts the human back at the centre and leverages human and AI imagination on the very real-world concept of teamwork. It seeks to understand where humans do better than AI; where AI does better than humans; and where one of the team players is an AI model, ensures that the resultant outputs are far beyond anything either AI or humans can conceive.

When and when not to deploy AI

The ability to know when and when not to use AI is another critical part of Design AI. SUTD’s strong emphasis on the humanities, arts, and social sciences, in tandem with a grounding in design and technology, ensures that students strengthen their sensibilities about bias, privacy and accountability – all key considerations when working with intelligent tech.

“When we design solutions to make people’s lives better, we have to figure out where AI fits and doesn’t fit. This is where SUTD’s core in design and collaborative team-based learning gives us the deep foundations to develop this new skill with the new possibilities of Gen AI. Our unique interdisciplinary pedagogy, which focuses almost exclusively on team-based learning, is also the perfect backdrop for Design AI because AI is now a fellow team-mate. You interact with it, debate with it, agree and disagree to find better solutions. Importantly, it allows for proper checks and balances that is increasingly important in this age of AI. These skills cannot be replaced by AI so it is important to know when AI can do the job and do it better, and when using it will result in a poorer outcome.”

SUTD Leap

SUTD’s pivot to AI is part of the University’s new mid-term growth strategy called SUTD Leap, which was launched in March 2024 to propel the University to the forefront of the Design, AI and Technology education and research.

SUTD Leap, a multi-year, multi-pronged strategic plan, aims to create an environment that promotes design and creative co-solutioning with industry partners by bringing the real world into campus and vice versa through an unusual “cross-pollination” of academia and enterprise. It will build upon SUTD’s strong ties with the private sector, with top industry executives expected to join the University to co-create curriculum and serve as inspirational role models for students. Similarly, SUTD academics and researchers will be placed in industry to lend support to key projects. By blurring the lines between academia and enterprise, students will be able to grow and innovate in a connected environment – and get a true sense of what real-world demands are like and to manifest the power and value of design in the real world.

Key to the success of SUTD Leap is the pivot to AI and the adoption of Design AI as a cornerstone of SUTD’s development for the foreseeable future.

Human-centred design

SUTD was the first university to incorporate design thinking and design innovation into its entire curriculum over a decade ago. Human-centred design or designing solutions for people and that better the world, remains as one of the University’s key focus and strengths.

SUTD offers a truly unconventional education with an interdisciplinary pedagogy. All students, regardless of majors, are exposed to integrating knowledge from all disciplines throughout all levels of study as part of their training. Our curriculum provides students with a strong foundation in science, mathematics and technology to build foundational literacy for future careers and endeavours. We also foster creativity and entrepreneurship and emphasise the importance of broad perspectives informed by the humanities, arts and social sciences.

SUTD also facilitates a global Design Alliance that aims to push the frontier and adoption of design, especially in education.

Seeing the compelling need to find like-minded partners to achieve greater impact expediently, we sought institutes and universities with the same ambition and outlook as alliance partners. Facilitated by SUTD, the Design Alliance seeks to support each other in the promotion of design as a driver of change, with design poised to play a critical role in supporting a sustainable future life through leveraging emerging technologies such as AI. The Alliance collaborates in the areas of R&D, faculty and student exchange, publication of books, etc.

To date, we count the following as our global Design Alliance members:

Asia

• LASALLE (Singapore)
• NAFA (Singapore)
• Zhejiang University (China)
• Tsinghua University (China)
• Tokyo University of Science (Japan)
• Kyoto Institute of Technology (Japan)

USA

• MIT (Morningside Academy for Design)
• Olin College of Engineering
• Parsons School of Design

Europe

• Aalto University (Finland)
• Politechnico di Milano (Italy)
• TU/Delft (The Netherlands)

We are targeting to reach another 20 or so universities and firms for support.

 
Media release: SUTD Pivots Towards Artificial Intelligence With $50M Investment, Becoming World’s First Design AI University