Singapore’s fourth public-funded university, which is scheduled to open its doors in 2011, has been named the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SU).
Its founding president is Thomas Magnanti, who is an institute professor with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was also the former dean of the Engineering School there.
Prof Magnanti’s appointment was announced by the new university’s Board of Trustees on Thursday.
During his three-year term of appointment, Prof Magnanti will be on leave from the MIT faculty and will devote his time fully to the new Singapore university.
The board said Prof Magnanti’s appointment as president also reflects the close relationship that SU is expected to have with MIT.
The new university will admit its first intake of up to 500 students in two years and students will have four degree programmes to choose from.
These will be in the areas of Architecture & Sustainable Design, Engineering Product Design, Engineering Systems & System Design, and Information Engineering & Design.
First-year students will be exposed to foundation studies in the areas of mathematics, science, introductory humanities and social sciences – all in the context of design.
They will also get to learn about entrepreneurship and management during each of the four-year degree programme.
Prof Magnanti said the university will be well-poised to serve Singapore, the region and the world.
“We’ll focus on trying to create what we call technical grounded leaders – people who have technology in their hearts and their soul and who will go out to the marketplace with a well-grounded education, and be able to lead all of us, economically and socially, to the future,” he said.
The Board of Trustees said details on the admission process and school fees will be finalised at a later date. More details about the location of both the interim and permanent campuses will be announced by early next year.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 29 Oct 2009