Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University

The government of Singapore is launching a new university, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), that is scheduled to take in its first freshman class in April, 2012. SUTD, in collaboration with MIT and Zhejiang University, is striving to establish a 21st century innovation pa...

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Main Authors: Magee, Christopher L., Leong, Pey Kin, Jin, Chen, Luo, Jianxi, Frey, Daniel
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: TEMPUS Publications 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70853
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9886-7512
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5316-8358
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author Magee, Christopher L.
Leong, Pey Kin
Jin, Chen
Luo, Jianxi
Frey, Daniel
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Magee, Christopher L.
Leong, Pey Kin
Jin, Chen
Luo, Jianxi
Frey, Daniel
author_sort Magee, Christopher L.
collection MIT
description The government of Singapore is launching a new university, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), that is scheduled to take in its first freshman class in April, 2012. SUTD, in collaboration with MIT and Zhejiang University, is striving to establish a 21st century innovation paradigm that recognizes the synergy between innovation and design. Many aspects of such an exciting development are of interest to engineering educators and particularly to design educators and two are covered in this paper. One challenge addressed in this paper is the possibility for conflicting agendas between design‐centric education and the goal of becoming a leading research‐intensive university. An overview of research intended to address this conflict –that of the International Design Center that is jointly part of MIT and SUTD‐ is given. It is argued that, rather than conflicting, design‐centric education and research‐intensity are synergistic for a 21st century university. The second challenge discussed in some depth is the setting of “culture” for the new institution that encourages bold attempts to improve the world through technical innovation (“innovation culture”) with breadth in national cultures (“global culture”) bridging from Western to Asian perspectives. Relative to the latter item, a central feature are the “Eastern Cultural” curriculum items being developed by a second SUTD partner university ‐ Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China). The breadth of national cultures and a wide academic disciplinary base as part of the education process are postulated to be enablers for developing a strong 21st century innovation‐leadership‐culture for the modern research university.
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spelling mit-1721.1/708532022-09-23T13:27:33Z Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University Magee, Christopher L. Leong, Pey Kin Jin, Chen Luo, Jianxi Frey, Daniel Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division Magee, Christopher L. Magee, Christopher L. Luo, Jianxi Frey, Daniel The government of Singapore is launching a new university, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), that is scheduled to take in its first freshman class in April, 2012. SUTD, in collaboration with MIT and Zhejiang University, is striving to establish a 21st century innovation paradigm that recognizes the synergy between innovation and design. Many aspects of such an exciting development are of interest to engineering educators and particularly to design educators and two are covered in this paper. One challenge addressed in this paper is the possibility for conflicting agendas between design‐centric education and the goal of becoming a leading research‐intensive university. An overview of research intended to address this conflict –that of the International Design Center that is jointly part of MIT and SUTD‐ is given. It is argued that, rather than conflicting, design‐centric education and research‐intensity are synergistic for a 21st century university. The second challenge discussed in some depth is the setting of “culture” for the new institution that encourages bold attempts to improve the world through technical innovation (“innovation culture”) with breadth in national cultures (“global culture”) bridging from Western to Asian perspectives. Relative to the latter item, a central feature are the “Eastern Cultural” curriculum items being developed by a second SUTD partner university ‐ Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China). The breadth of national cultures and a wide academic disciplinary base as part of the education process are postulated to be enablers for developing a strong 21st century innovation‐leadership‐culture for the modern research university. 2012-05-16T20:44:24Z 2012-05-16T20:44:24Z 2012-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0949-149X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70853 Magee, Christopher L. et al. "Beyond R&D: What Design adds to a Modern Research University." International Journal of Engineering Education, 28:2 (2012) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9886-7512 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5316-8358 en_US International Journal of Engineering Education Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf TEMPUS Publications MIT web domain
spellingShingle Magee, Christopher L.
Leong, Pey Kin
Jin, Chen
Luo, Jianxi
Frey, Daniel
Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University
title Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University
title_full Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University
title_fullStr Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University
title_full_unstemmed Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University
title_short Beyond R&D: What Design Adds to a Modern Research University
title_sort beyond r d what design adds to a modern research university
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70853
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9886-7512
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5316-8358
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