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07/2026

SEFI NEWSLETTER

Monthly news feed about engineering education in Europe and overseas

SEFI 2026

Prepare for SEFI 2026

📅 7-10 September 2026

📍 Prague, Czech Republic

Get ready for SEFI 2026 at the Czech Technical University in Prague! The preliminary programme is now available, along with a variety of activities designed to enrich your conference experience. Explore what awaits you below:

We look forward to welcoming you to Prague!

Register here

SEFI 2026

Envisioning the Future of Lifelong Learning in Engineering: Models, Partnerships, Risks, and Opportunities

📅 6 September 2026

🕐13:00 - 17:00

📍 Prague, Czech Republic

The SEFI Continuing Engineering Education and Lifelong Learning (CEE/LLL) Special Interest Group invites you to join an interactive symposium exploring the future of lifelong learning in engineering. Building on the ideas and recommendations presented in the SEFI Position Paper on Lifelong Learning (2025), the event will bring together academics, industry professionals, professional associations, and policymakers to discuss emerging challenges, opportunities, and future directions for lifelong learning in engineering.

Read the programme so far and find out more here.

Register here

SEFI 2026

Special Session: Community building around research career challenges - Reminder

📅 6 September 2026

🕐 17:00 - 19:00

📍 Prague, Czech Republic

This event, organised on the sidelines of the SEFI 2026 Annual Conference, will focus on community building for you who have experienced challenges around your chosen research career in recent years. This might be connected to opportunities connected to external factors including but not limited to changes in funding, changes in institutional or organisational priorities, or having to relocate due to personal reasons.

More information here.

Register here

SEFI PODCAST

New episode! Upskilling Graduate Teaching Assistants

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are an essential part of engineering education, particularly as student numbers continue to grow. However, it’s not often that we stop to consider what teaching is like from their perspective and think about how we can support them as developing educators whose contributions matter.

Hear from Harry Day, Sarah Plumb, Matteo Di Benedetti and Lucy Farquhar from the University of Sheffield about their work to transform the GTA experience. Drawing on research and practical experience, they explore how a more supportive, structured approach can benefit GTAs, academic staff and students alike.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn more about the how we can support GTAs in engineering education.

Read more here.

Listen here

SEFI JEEA

Become Reviewer for the SEFI Journal of Engineering Education Advancement

The SEFI Journal of Engineering Education Advancement is expanding and invites new reviewers to join its growing community. As SEFI's official peer-reviewed, open-access journal, it provides a platform for sharing ideas, emerging research, innovative practices, and educational advancements in engineering education.

The journal is dedicated to supporting and advancing engineering education by welcoming contributions that inspire innovation, foster excellence, and drive meaningful change across the field.

Apply here

SEFI JEEA

Engineering Student Positionality and Alignment with The Culture of Disengagement

How do engineering students' gender, ethnicity, and lived experiences shape their views on social justice and the culture of disengagement in engineering? In their new paper, Qurat-ul-ain Dar, Julie Vale, and Andrea Bradford (University of Guelph) examine how students' positionality influences their alignment with key elements of the culture of disengagement, including meritocracy, depoliticization, and technical/social dualism.

Drawing on survey data from engineering design students, the authors identify important differences in how students engage with social justice issues and provide recommendations for more inclusive and effective educational interventions.

Read here

ETHICS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Cultivating Empathy Through Emotionally Engaged Pedagogies

On 29 June, the Department for Teacher Training and Social Sciences (National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest) hosted the workshop "Cultivating Empathy Through Emotionally Engaged Pedagogies" led by Diana Bairaktarova (Virginia Tech). Participants also had the opportunity for smaller-group discussions with Diana Bairaktarova before and after the session.

The workshop was organised in partnership with SEFI and is part of the Ethics Special Interest Group's ongoing effort to extend the visibility of its community and build capacity in Eastern Europe.

The National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest is a SEFI institutional member, and this event reflects the SIG's broader goal of strengthening ties with engineering education communities in the region.

SEFI 2026

Call for SEFI 2026 Session Chairs (for SEFI members)

With the number of accepted papers, SEFI 2026 will have approximately 100 sessions, each one requiring a session chair. As many sessions will run in parallel, we are seeking help to fill these important roles. If you are available to serve as a session chair, please complete the following form:

SEFI 2026: Session Chairs registration

Thank you for your support. Brief instructions are already posted on SEFI 2026 webpage, more detailed guidelines for session chairs will soon follow.

Guidelines for presenters

FROM MEMBERS

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

Annual Report on Engineering Education Development

The Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) at the University of Sheffield has released its latest annual report, highlighting key achievements and activities from the past year. The report showcases the Centre's work in advancing engineering education scholarship, fostering communities of practice, developing cross-institutional collaborations, and creating opportunities for educators to engage with educational innovation and research.

The report offers valuable insights for institutions seeking to strengthen support for engineering education and provides a basis for further collaboration and knowledge exchange across the European engineering education community.

Download the report here.

SIEMENS

Siemens crowns the winners of the 2026 Immersive Design Challenge

Siemens were delighted to welcome Professor Emanuela Tilley, SEFI President, to join the international Jury for the global online final of the 2026 Siemens Immersive Design Challenge. More than 1,900 students from 380+ universities across 50+ countries took part in the challenge which asked teams of 3 to 8 students to make a product or process more sustainable with Immersive Engineering

Team 210 Robotics from The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA were the Jury’s choice, with teams from University of Bath, UK and Higher Technological Institute of Ciudad Serdán, Mexico also making the final.

Read here reflections from Dora Smith, Senior Director, Future Workforce & Academic Strategy at Siemens Digital Industries Software, on how immersive learning, industry mentoring and digital credentials are helping prepare the next generation of engineers. The presentations will be available after 30 July here.

Sign up to find out when the next challenge opens.

MATHWORKS

MathWorks: AI and Innovation in Engineering Education

Discover the latest opportunities, success stories, and learning resources from MathWorks that support innovation in engineering education and help educators prepare students for an AI-driven future.

Webinar | Teaching and Learning with Agentic AI (28 August 2026)

News | Transforming Engineering Education with Blended Learning at Università Politecnica delle Marche.

Resources | Interactive Courseware: Learning Engineering with GenAI.

FROM PARTNERS

EU STEM COALITION

New Position Paper: Strengthening the STEM Teaching Workforce

The EU STEM Coalition has published a new position paper: Strengthening the STEM Teaching Workforce: Recommendations for the EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda, addressing the growing shortage of qualified STEM teachers across Europe.

Drawing on evidence and expertise from across the STEM ecosystem, the paper calls for measures such as new pathways into teaching, stronger professional development opportunities, greater teacher mobility, closer links between education and industry, and more teacher involvement in policymaking.

As the European Commission develops its EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda, the paper offers timely recommendations to help attract, support, and retain the STEM educators needed for Europe's future.

Read the full position paper here.

IN-4-STEM

IN-4-STEM reaches the midway point: Research insights and SEFI 2026 dissemination

The IN-4-STEM Erasmus+ project has reached its halfway mark, with partners across Europe working to better understand and support the social and academic integration of first-year STEM students, particularly women, first-generation students, and apprenticeship students.

Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and survey research, the project is now developing and testing evidence-informed interventions designed to enhance students' transition into higher education. These interventions will be implemented and evaluated by partner institutions in the coming academic year.

IN-4-STEM will also feature prominently at SEFI 2026, with an interactive workshop and presentations sharing insights on inclusive first-year interventions, women engineering students' experiences, and the integration of higher-degree apprenticeship students.

Read more here.

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

Engineering Education Research Spring School 2026: Building Research Capacity for Engineering Education Futures

The Engineering Education Research Spring School will take place from 27-30 October 2026 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Hosted by the Centre for Research in Engineering Education (CREE) at the University of Cape Town in collaboration with KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), the Intra-Africa Mobility Consortium, and international partners, the programme offers an immersive research development experience for doctoral candidates, early-career researchers, and academics interested in engineering education research.