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01/2021

SEFI NEWSLETTER

Monthly news feed about engineering education in Europe and overseas

Dear members of SEFI, dear SEFI friends,



2020 was a challenging year for all of us. We have had to adapt to a greatly changed reality. Our resilience has been and continues to be tested. In this new world, our connection with each other is more important than ever.



Despite the difficult circumstances, we have continued to work in and for SEFI. We have not been able to physically meet at the conference, or during another meeting. We had to make do with faces on a screen.



Still, SEFI is doing well, excellent even. Many new initiatives show how vibrant SEFI is. This thanks to the work of many of you! As president, I thank you for your commitment and your support.



More than ever, wishes for good health are appropriate for the New Year.

Therefore, for you and everyone dear to you: have a happy and above all a healthy and hopeful 2021!



Yolande Berbers

President of SEFI

CALL FOR PAPERS

Blended Learning in Engineering Education: challenging, enlightening – and lasting?
13-16 September 2021 - TU Berlin

The year 2020 has challenged universities worldwide in an unprecedented way. On short notice, universities had to switch from on-site classroom teaching to online teaching formats. We all realize that this extensive online teaching will have a sustainable impact on the way we teach and learn. The conference will focus on the implications of this very special experience on Engineering Education in Europe and worldwide. More information will be shared soon!

NEW SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

SEFI develops activities in Capacity Building

We invite you to join our new special interest group on Capacity Building. This SIG aims to empower the process of developing and strengthening the competencies that trainers (faculty staff, student tutors,..) in engineering Higher Education need to thrive in a fast-changing world. The SIG chair is Prof Greet Langie (KU Leuven).
The group members should preferably be active in the field and willing to actively contribute to the realization of the special interest group’s objectives. As such, members should participate at least once every year at an activity of the SIG.

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INVITATION

4 February 2021, 16-18:00 CET  - Register here
Engineering ethics has increasingly become a significant part of engineering education frameworks worldwide. While accreditation and policy play a major part in the construction and design of engineering programmes, the weight of ethics at this level is variable. Please join us in the debate, this online seminar will explore accreditation and its role in engineering ethics education with an international panel of speakers. 

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For further information you may contact the organiser, Dr Sarah Junaid (Aston University) [email protected]

INVITATION

Experiencing Engineering Ethics Education: Reflections, evidence and perspectives on engineering ethics education in practice

25 and 26 March 2021 - register here

The SEFI Ethics Spring School 2021 will offer one and a half days of interactive workshops, papers, and discussions on new ideas and practices in teaching and researching engineering ethics.The audience for the Spring School is teachers and programme leaders who address or would like to address engineering ethics in their teaching, researchers who are working on understanding or advancing the field, and students who study or care about ethics in the engineering professions.

The full timetable will be available in early February. For further information contact [email protected]

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ETHICS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Laura Nolan (Ireland)

Disclosures made by practitioners about wrongdoing are one of our last lines of defence against illegal or unethical behaviour by companies or institutions. Recent prominent examples in technology and engineering include Edward Snowden, Ed Pierson at Boeing, and Christopher Wylie of Cambridge Analytica. In a much smaller way, I’m a whistleblower as well – I’ve spoken publicly about why I left Google in 2018 over Project Maven.

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ETHICS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Patrice Chazerand (Digital Europe, Belgium)

My work at DIGITALEUROPE and with the Global Digital Foundation, also as a member of the scientific committee of AI4People, keeps honing a strong interest in how engineers have been shaping our lives since software started “eating the world”, in the words of Marc Andreessen.Being no philosopher, I nonetheless have a feeling that their inclination to fit wide-angle lenses to take the long view complements engineers’ passion for drilling a path, however narrow and challenging, towards problem-solving.

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FROM SEFI MEMBERS

MEMBER PROJECTS

Students from the engineering schools around the world often find Control Theory very challenging compared to other engineering courses. Therefore, teachers and researchers from University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), University of Pisa (Italy), and University of Rijeka (Croatia) joined forces on developing an interactive online course based on the active learning concept on Control Theory within the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union that would enhance the learning experience of the students. The project also copes with the emerging needs for distance learning and digital content creation due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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RECORDED WEBINAR 

Institution of Civil Engineers, UK, 29 October 2020 - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in infrastructure projects as a subject matter has been in existence for many years, but has gained traction in the last few years. This is likely due to department clients requiring to demonstrate their Public Sector Equality Duty and to demonstrate adherence to Equality Act, 2010 in general. Whatever the driver is, true inclusion occurs only when EDI considerations run through every stage of a project. In this session, we shall explore through example projects ideas, tools and techniques to incorporate EDI consideration at key stages of a project.

SEFI CALENDAR 2021

04 February 

16-18:00 CET

SEFI SIG Ethics seminar: Ethics in the context of accreditation

info and registration

19 February 

10-12:00 and 14-16:00 CET

SEFI Board of Directors meeting


04 March

15-17:00 CET

SEFI Ethics Seminar: Using case studies in engineering ethics education
info and registration

25-26 March

1.5-day event

SEFI Ethics Spring School: Experiencing Engineering Ethics Education: Reflections, evidence and perspectives on engineering ethics education in practice

info and registration

22 April

10-12:00 CET

SEFI Ethics Seminar: Film and fiction in engineering (ethics) education
info and registration

27 May

SEFI Capacity Building SIG meeting and brainstorming

12 September

SEFI Doctoral Symposium in Engineering Education Research

more info

13-16 September

SEFI Annual Conference 2021: Blended Learning in Engineering Education: challenging, enlightening – and lasting?

call for papers (deadline 16 March)

FROM PARTNERS

EVENT INVITATION

7 - 9 July 2021 - Braga, Portugal.  The conference is organized into three main sections: onsite, hybrid, and online. Online participants will attend the conference via Zoom Meetings. The access to the sessions on each day will be sent one day in advance to your registered emails. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Development of Competences for Engineers within a Global Context”, which is an excellent opportunity to discuss research and current practice under this challenging theme.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

7-8 October 2021 - Porto, Portugal. 2nd International Conference on Science and Technology Education STE 2021 The focus is on education in science and technology. The conference will provide an international forum for the sharing, dissemination and discussion of research, experience and perspectives across a wide range of teaching and learning issues. The deadline for abstract submission is 30 April 2021.

CALL FOR PAPERS

21-23 June - Lisbon. CISPEE 2021 is a unique opportunity of attending and be involved in the ultimate research on Shaping Engineering Education for the 21st Century. Abstract submission is 30 April 2021.

INVITATION

25 February 2021 - online. In this virtual event, some of Australia’s thought leaders and doers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) will be represented. The expert panel will explore the following themes and provide practical strategies you can use immediately in your workplace, or in your entrepreneurial endeavours.

INVITATION

24-28 May 2021 - online. International Association for Continuing Engineering Education invites you to the 2021 World Conference. The keynote speaker array features: Dr. Carol O’Donnell (Smithsonian Science Education Center) at Sustainability plenary; Berit Svendsen (Vipps) at the Innovation plenary; and Michael Fors (Boeing) at the

Inclusion plenary. 

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INVITATION

18-19 February 2021 - online. The European Learning & Teaching Forum is an EUA event that provides an opportunity for participants to meet and discuss developments in learning and teaching at European universities.

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INVITATION

16 February 2021, 18-19:00 CET - online. International Association for Continuing Engineering Education invites you to their webinar. 
Innovation is more important than ever and yet, with high unemployment and an uncertain future, it is more difficult than ever to sustain. Hear from three professionals who can share about how innovation is happening now and how you can sustain an innovative culture in the future.

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INVITATION

December 12 – 15, 2021 in Athens Greece. The conference will be held under the auspices of the President of the Hellenic Republic and the Hellenic Parliament, in cooperation with Universities and Ministries, international organizations and associations [NGS, WMF, ICOMOS, CIPA, OWHC, et al], as well as international and Greek networks in the field of cultural heritage preservation. Prof Berbers, SEFI President, is a member of the steering committee of this conference.

FROM EUROPEAN UNION

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The European Commission’s plan to establish an Athena SWAN-style initiative to address gender inequality in academia has been welcomed by sector leaders, who predicted that taking action to improve diversity will become a requirement for obtaining research funding from Brussels.

PUBLICATIONS

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Digitally enhanced learning and teaching in European higher education institutions

Michael Gaebel, Thérèse Zhang, Henriette Stoeber and Alison Morrisroe

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READINGS: DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Team-based learning: an ethnicity-focused study on the perceptions of teamwork abilities of engineering students.
Beneroso, D., & Erans, M. (2020)
European Journal of Engineering Education https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2020.1865879 

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Toward an antiracist engineering classroom for 2020 and beyond: A starter kit. 

Long, L.L., III (2020).
Journal of Engineering Education, 109, 636-639. https://doi-org.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/10.1002/jee.20363

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The correlation between undergraduate student diversity and the representation of women of color faculty in engineering
Main, J.B., Tan, L., Cox, M.F., McGee, E.O., Katz, A. (2020).
Journal of Engineering Education, 109, 843– 864. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20361


SEFI thanks its corporate partners for their support:

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