It is a multi-million dollar centre based both in Singapore at SUTD, and in Cambridge, MA, USA at MIT, with academic and industrial partners from around the world. IDC faculty, researchers and students work together to design devices, products, systems, services and the built environment that address strategic needs of Singapore, the greater Asian region, the US, and the global community. At the s
ame time, the IDC studies and advances the design process and design science, seeking to develop new tools and methods for design practice and education. The IDC is organised and concentrates its efforts on three Grand Challenges:
-Sustainable Built Environment
-Design with the Developing World
-ICT-enabled Devices for Better Living
in conjunction with six Design Research Thrusts:
-Experimental Design
-Fostering Creativity
-Visualisation and Prototyping
-Design Computation
-Decision Making
-Global Collaboration
The IDC Grand Challenges inspire project-based design experiences, the development of exciting new technologies, and the deployment of designs for the needs of society. The IDC Design Research Thrusts advance the principles and foundations of design and design thinking across multi-disciplinary boundaries, including architecture, the engineering disciplines, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. As a feedback and feed-forward system, research efforts as part of the grand challenges and design research thrusts interact and couple to simultaneously advance design research, technology, and practice. The model of the IDC is based on a cardiovascular system for the academic environment, including the growth, development, and heart-beat of research initiatives, faculty scholarship, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, and curriculum. Industry partners are engaged across multiple levels, ranging from consortium members, project sponsorship, and co-located laboratories to student internships, course and capstone design projects, and co-curricular activities. The outputs of this environment and partnerships are a talent pool for the next generation of technically-based leaders, world-class scholarship in a variety of research fields, and entrepreneurship as part of an innovation ecosystem.
