Course + Year: SUTD Design and AI Y1
Personal Experience/Preferences
I was from ACJC and I took Physics, Chemistry, Math and Economics which I would consider pretty relevant to my course because it’s the standard science stream. Also, SUTD has one of the highest percentages of polytechnic students at 20-30%. Donât worry if you did not take physics because a lot of students also did not take physics. They struggled a bit for the first term (which is ungraded) but are pretty much okay afterwards.
At first, I was clueless. I thought of myself as a business person and decided to look up Business Analytics. SUTD turned up as the first Google Search result but they only offered business analytics modules and not a degree in Business Analytics. I never thought I would consider a degree in engineering because Physics was my worst subject. However, I realised that SUTD engineering is more on the âsoftwareâ side and not âhardwareâ and also, not entirely physics. We only had 4 major choices: archi, hardware (engineering product), software (information system, design pillar) and systems (engineering, systems and design). I chose to go on the Systems pillar but just last year when I was about to enter, the 5th pillar, Design and AI, became another option and I chose it. I havenât started the 5th pillar but it seems like it’s trying to be the jack of all trades and is more focused on the application of technology, rather than the technology itself. To put it in as few words as possible, I would say that it’s a technology-agnostic problem solving degree.
The design aspect of the school attracted me. While the scholarship was attractive, even without it, I would still have chosen SUTD because SUTD is very different. I wanted to force myself into a technical environment so I can be around technical people. The strong focus on projects and real-world application attracted me too. I expected school to be a place to learn how to apply my knowledge and this was an expectation that SUTD did not disappoint.
I take 4 modules per term but since year 1 has just ended for me, I can only share about the year 1 modules. We are on a trimester basis so our semesters are 14 weeks including exams rather than NUSâs 17 weeks. Our subjects are Physics, Math, Coding and Social Sciences/ Psychology (Humanities). 20-25% of the SUTD curriculum is on social sciences. Grading of SUTD is quite project-focusedâ30-40% are projects while 60% are exams. We normally have one mid-term exam and one final exam, and our homework contributes to our grades too. Math is more on experimenting with pedagogy and marking is done based on the effort put in. Hence, even if you canât get the answer but your work is done with a lot of effort, you can still get the marks. However, SUTD does not have a strict grading for class participation. You will get class participation points just by attending classes. Furthermore, SUTD does not have lectures for the freshmore year but our classes are 2.5h long where seminars, lectures and tutorials are combined into one class. After every 20-30 minutes, we will be given one problem to solve in groups. One difference from other universities is that SUTD is basically like JC and we have a class for the entire three terms. We also have representatives like class rep and subject rep. We also have class bonding activities. It is also compulsory for SUTD students to stay in the hostel for the first year and you stay with your classmates so I guess that’s rather unique. Staying in a hostel is not for everyone but it helps you to stay close with your class and you can better transition into university from JC.
SUTD is rumoured to have a stay-up-till-dawn culture so I decided to prove everyone wrong and not stay up. I wake up early, go to the gym, wash up and then go to class. On most days, we have 5-7 hours of class. As the freshmore representative (which I will cover later), there are days when I may have meetings with the class representatives. Occasionally I would go for late-night suppers until 2 to 3 am. I would say that the most hectic period is during project submission weeks, where you often see groups staying up till the next morning. I havenât experienced it myself though (maybe because I donât put in that much effort haha!)
It varies a lot. Iâm the first batch of the revamped curriculum. There is a module called âScience for A Sustainable Worldâ which teaches sustainability by combining Biology, Chemistry and Social Sciences. Papers usually have MCQs in the first half of the two-hour exam paper and short answer questions that are similar to that of JC chemistry papers and application questions. For Physics, it’s pretty standard. For Mathematics, exam papers usually contain short answer questions and harder questions that cannot be spotted. For example, the question will be about a real world scenario and ask how you are to go about implementing this math concept in the real-world. Furthermore, there are 1D projects and 2D projects for every subject of the term. 1D project is for every subject where the questions asked are those that you can Google but we need to solve it using a mathematical approach. 2D projects tie in all 4 subjects together and basically expect you to cover all sides of the question and consider all aspects of solving a problem. 50% of SUTD students think that it’s useless but the other 50% appreciate its value.
The average SUTD student has a lot more workload compared to other universities because of our projects and our trimesters so everything is just crammed. We also do not have a recess week so you might be staying up to do a project on a Friday night and have back to back exams the following week.
I am under the SUTD Technology Entrepreneurship Programme, a Direct Mastersâ Programme where I will graduate with a Bachelor of Science (Design and AI) and a Master of Science in Technology Entrepreneurship. I will have overseas work immersion at Silicon Valley and Zhejiang University or Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and also be able to take some courses at our partner universities, including University of California Berkeley Extension.
I will probably take a minor in Artificial Intelligence which focuses on the fundamentals of the actual AI models. There are more specialisations and minors, in healthcare and design for example.
We have 2 professors for each class of 40-45 students and I think we have the best faculty to student ratio. Most of our faculty are full-time. In terms of relationships, we have two types of professors, teaching and research. I have not really experienced other research professors yet but so far my experience with the teaching professors has been great. I think I have come to appreciate physics because of my professors. The professors are really concerned about our learning even though they donât have any Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) to hit for studentsâ grades. They are down-to-earth, friendly and will even join us on runs and do research projects together.
Since Iâm in the STEP programme, I have the option to do an entrepreneurship capstone project that involves doing a startup.
A normal SUTD student will have to do a capstone project with usually 4 students from other pillars.
My least favourite part is that SUTD tests on things they do not really teach us. They also do not set clear expectations for project work so some groups put in a crazy amount of effort and overdeliver which makes the baseline for the project very high. As a result, everyone feels the pressure of over delivering. A side effect is that there will be more people doing the project for the sake of doing and failing to appreciate the learning process. An example will be the 3.007 flagship module.
The proportion of humanities in the SUTD curriculum was something I did not expect. SUTD takes the whole âtransdisciplinaryâ thing pretty seriously. While it isnât perfect, I appreciate their effort in trying out new ways of teaching.
Not at all but I have a classmate who complains about joining SUTD everyday . If you come into SUTD not knowing what you are going to get, you will most probably be disappointed so it’s better to come in with an open mind. A lot of our pillars focus more on breadth than depth so you have to self-learn a lot of things.
Yes, there are many people in SUTD who came in thinking of something but chose to do something very different afterwards. I personally know of a few people who dropped out because of workload and the clash in expectations. A lot of people said that our marketing oversells but when they come in, they get disappointed. However, in the perspective of the industry, employers will probably think that your degree done in SUTD is very good even if it does not match up to expectations
I had some experience in design thinking so I came in a little arrogant but I realised shortly that I do not actually know much about design. I think you will need to be comfortable with uncertainty and expecting to not know how to solve a problem. In university and the field of design, the problems we are tackling do not have just one solution and every solution has their pros and cons. You will also need to be comfortable with exploring, learning how to keep your options open and trying out many different solutions instead of aiming to quickly solve it and move on.
In my opinion, career prospects in the technology industry are defined by yourself. With a degree in Design and AI, you will probably end up as a product manager, User Experience (UX) designer, product designer or an AI business analyst. These are more non-technical roles but you can also go into technical roles if you are willing to learn by yourself. Many students in SUTD already have coding experience so they will learn the âhardwareâ of designing in school and learn the âsoftwareâ outside school. The world is your oyster if you are willing to put in the hard work.
I will be graduating in 4 years so my plans will definitely change. I have a few career paths in mind but I believe career paths are not so strictly defined anymore. I will either do product design, consulting in the Big 3 or design consulting, or UX designing. I am also open to GovTech because their culture is quite cool and thus, perhaps a good place to start.
I have done a few internships before school started, during school and during my first summer break. My first internship was at KPMG Digital Village as a design consultant where I was working with designers and developers. My other self-sourced internship was at Reactor School which conducts entrepreneurship workshops for secondary schools. Our school requires us to take an internship before graduation but they also want us to take the internship only from year 2 onwards. In our first year, the school has not helped at all but SUTDâs brand name is good among employers in terms of design thinking. The industry will definitely want you to know everything, so having a broadened range of experiences will help to prepare yourself to meet these expectations.
Yes, all SUTD students have a compulsory one year stay during our freshmore year.
SUTD is stereotyped to have a lot of geeks and nerds. It is true to some extent and I like it this way. Everyone is equally quirky and deeply interested in their hobbies which is really cool. I like that there is little judgment.
I started a coffee CCA because coffee is something that Iâm very passionate about. We wanted to start a coffee cart. SUTD is generally quite supportive of students starting their own CCAs.
I also prefer joining things that give me more flexibility and options. I like to go for runs and thus, I joined the track team which is a very chill community. In my opinion, If you plan to be a competitive sports person, do not join SUTD because our cohort is very small. The sports CCA are more recreational and might not be the best environment for competition.
I am also part of the student association council as the freshmore rep where I identify areas of improvement on behalf of students in my batch, communicate with the administration and actively push for change to be made.
If you have the luxury of taking a gap year or are going to the army, please keep reapplying for the scholarships you want even if you did not receive an offer initially!
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the interviewees and do not reflect the official policy or position of any institution. They are also not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, class, individual or organisation.
The information contained in this website is intended to provide general guidance only. It should not be relied upon as professional advice and does not 100% guarantee admission into any course.
0 Comments