Sir James Dyson officially open doors to the Dyson-SUTD Innovation Studios

Sir James Dyson officially opened the doors to the Dyson-SUTD Innovation Studios in November 2022. The spaces were jointly opened with Professor Chong Tow Chong, President of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). The opening was witnessed by Dr Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

The Dyson-SUTD Innovation Studios, representing a S$1m commitment, are the largest ever donation to a Singapore education institution by the James Dyson Foundation – Dyson’s global charitable foundation. It forms part of the James Dyson Foundation’s S$3m charitable donation to support Singapore’s engineering education, and are the Foundation’s first ever spaces in Singapore engineered to inspire community interest in design engineering education.

Led by Dyson engineers, the studios will play host to activities such as the James Dyson Foundation Prototyping Workshop that provides secondary school students exposure to Design Thinking. In addition, the modular spaces will facilitate STEM educational activities for students in general education – such as the 3D printing challenge and the STEM workshop for scholars in the MOE Engineering and Tech Programme. Guest lectures, innovation forums and workshops related to Engineering Design Innovation, Intelligent Robotics, Smart Manufacturing and 3D Printing, and Machine Learning may also be held there.

Meanwhile, students from SUTD’s Engineering Product Development (EPD) and Information Systems Technology & Design (ISTD) pillars will have the opportunity to consult with Dyson engineer mentors in the studios, as they work in teams to develop and contribute solutions to the world’s most pressing problems in a multidisciplinary engineering environment.

The Dyson-SUTD Innovation Studios are expected to benefit over 13,000 students across tertiary and secondary school levels over the next five years.

Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education, Singapore, said: “I congratulate the James Dyson Foundation and SUTD in your collaboration. The Ministry of Education looks forward to partnering industry to bolster our national efforts in STEM education. Partnerships like this continue to be crucial in nurturing future engineering and technology talents to take Singapore forward, as we tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Sir James Dyson, Founder and Chief Engineer at Dyson, said, "I hope the Dyson-SUTD Innovation Studios, will inspire more of Singapore’s brightest young minds to take up the challenge to solve problems, and discover the rewards of a career in engineering. Young engineers are the world's greatest problem-solvers, and the world needs more of them to bring hardware and software together, developing intelligent solutions to sustainability and the other complex problems the world faces."

Professor Chong Tow Chong, President of SUTD, said: “We are very pleased to work alongside such bold and pioneering minds at Dyson to better the world by design. We believe this partnership will continue to inspire future generations of design innovators and provide many opportunities to both the SUTD family and the wider community, to bring ideas out of the academic environment into the real world.”

Earlier this year, the James Dyson Foundation announced an investment of S$3m into supporting engineering and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in Singapore over the next five years. The investment is expected to benefit over 100,000 students aged 6 to 25 – from primary through to tertiary levels, and aims to nurture interest in engineering, and bolster national efforts in STEM learning among students in Singapore.

The investment supports a range of educational activities by the James Dyson Foundation, and collaborations with the Ministry of Education (MOE), Science Centre Singapore (SCS), and institutions such as the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).