A transformative engineering and architecture education K.L. Pey Engineering Product Deevlopment Singapore University of Technology and Design Singapore peykinleong@sutd.edu.sg Lucienne Blessing Engineering Product Deevlopment Singapore University of Technology and Design Singapore blessing@sutd.edu.sg Bige Tuncer Architecture Sustainable Design Singapore University of Technology and Design Singapore bige_tuncer@sutd.edu.sg Abstract—Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in Singapore was set up in January 2010 to tackle global challenges of the 21 st century and beyond. To truly address human-centric issues and problems, a design-focused curriculum using an outside-in approach was adopted in formulating its undergraduate degree programmes in engineering and architecture. This has led to the formation of degree programmes focusing on products, services, systems and built environment which the world needs. To break down the silo mentality and promote multidisciplinary education, SUTD adopts a very forward-looking approach in its academic structure in which majors are offered by four multidisciplinary pillars, supported by two clusters. The absence of conventional colleges, faculties, departments and even divisions encourages seamless and boundaryless collaboration in education and research across all pillars and clusters. With a strong focus on Big-Design (i.e., Big-D) throughout and across courses, semesters and domain areas, undergraduate students are well equipped with skills and attitudes through 20 to 35 team-based Big-D projects during their undergraduate education to provide learning experiences beyond book knowledge, preparing them well with various soft skills such as creativity, critical thinking, teamwork and others before embarking on their career in industry. Coupled with small group-cum-active or peer-to-peer learning in a dedicated cohort classroom environment, the SUTD undergraduate programme further encourages students by having them collaborate with each other across pillars to foster teamwork and a collaborative spirit in formulating and sharing solutions beyond the team. Besides being recognized by the “Global State-of-the-Art in Engineering Education” report commissioned by the MIT School of Engineering [1] as the top of the emerging leader in engineering education recently, the response from industry for the first 5 batches of undergraduates has been very positive. Keywords—undergraduate, engineering, architecture, design, projects, pedagogy I. INTRODUCTION Based on the report by the US National Academy of Engineering [2], the grand challenges faced by the world in the 21 st century are multi-faceted. Their 14 grand challenges range from energy, healthcare, a more liveable environment, safer living, to personalized education. These grand challenges are significantly different from that of the past century and require new approaches to overcome them. Coupled with the aggressive development of new opportunities in Industry 4.0 - which is driven fundamentally by digital transformation, internet-of-things and ultra-high- speed wireless network - the challenges and problems that we face are increasingly inter-connected. Technologies on one hand have provided us with great engineering and architectural achievements and solutions but, on the other hand, have also created many more new and greater challenges for which the solutions are not clear. Thus, we need to innovate so as to provide human-centric solutions for affordable healthcare, clean water supply and energy, low-cost and abundant power source, reliable transportation systems and security in the physical and cyber worlds. Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 3D/4D printing, advanced robotics and internet-of- things are taking place at an unimaginable rapid pace to the extent that not only are traditional jobs disappearing rapidly, but new types of jobs are also appearing constantly. To address these challenges and cope with the fast-pace of technological development, we need graduates with new mindsets and skills who are capable of providing practical, sustainable, innovative and even radical solutions that cut across traditional boundaries and new domain areas. Some of these are likely to be beyond our current imagination. Hence, it is timely for institutions of higher learning to revisit the engineering and architecture education so as to equip future generations of students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to work in diverse groups and environments, harness the potential of new or untapped technologies and knowledge and find creative and previously unthought of solutions to complex problems. This has led to many new initiatives within higher engineering and architecture education to effectively develop and train our graduates in the required competencies. In January 2010, the Singapore Government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) agreed to establish a new partnership in creating a new research- intensive university called the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) with a mission to nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs through a multi-disciplinary, design-centric education and culture. Its students were to have far-reaching aspirations to create a better world by design, the confidence and courage to try new ideas and approaches, a questioning spirit fuelled by the thrill of multi-disciplinary learning and doing and life- long competencies, especially the ability and appetite to learn and innovate. Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore, in his congratulatory messages [3] at the signing ceremony marking the launch of SUTD, mentioned that “The Singapore University of Technology and Design will provide something different from the existing institutions - a very high quality education, not just an academic education, but one which is going to stimulate students to go beyond the book knowledge, to apply it to solving problems. It will teach students to be creative, not just in the technology and the design part, but also to be creative in bringing ideas out of the academic environment into the real world, into the business arena, into the real economy and make a difference to the world.”