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

Reference: Magee, Christopher L. et al. "Beyond R&D: What Design adds to a Modern Research University." International Journal of Engineering Education, 28:2 (2012)

Abstract: 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.

Notes: This paper provides a nice overview of the origins of SUTD, here is a collection of key ideas:

1. "Thus some in academia questionwhether design can be taught and even whether it has value in the curriculum. These debates can be extremely heated –possibly reflecting the almost negligible amount of solid evidence that can be mounted in support of eitherposition"
2. "There is evidence that the design process is enhanced by processes that are not highly structured -but have just enough structure-[24] rather than being analytically or logically over-constrained"
3. "Developing common terminology and utilizing similar experimental approaches across  design of software, electromechanical hardware, architecture, manufacturing, logistics and complex socio-technical systems is expected to force consideration of fundamentals of design as opposed to context"
4. "We expect to contribute not only the idea but to make the designed system or object have an intended positive impact on society. We believe this will have educational as well as research benefits"
5. "[We] hypothesize that research intensity coupled with design-centric education is a further enabler of cultural change"
6. "The sub-title to this paper (What Design adds to a modern research university) appears to be answered by “a stronger basis for research and for translation of research results to human use (essentially translating knowledge to culture)”"
7. "The answer argued for in this paper is that research on design can lead to deeper understanding of the fundamental process of design-beyond how to teach but instead whatto teach and mentor in order to effectively teach design and what it enables -innovation. Demonstration of the synergy of the Art and Science of design is therefore the most persistent theme of this paper"