The 1st Forum of Directors of Associated Institutions of SPEE (SPEEDI) took place at the Eurostars Hotel in Figueira do Foz, on Saturday, October 26, 2019.

The theme of the meeting was the Ruth Graham’s report, “The Global State of the Art in Engineering Education”, published by MIT in 2018 [1].

The guest speaker was the Director of the Integrated Engineering Program (IEP) at University College London (UCL), Professor John Mitchell (https://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/~jmitchel/), responsible for reorganizing the curriculum. from all engineering departments at UCL and the creation of the current integrated program. For about an hour and a half, John Mitchell shared his experience, challenges, difficulties and successes with this program and answered the various questions posed by the audience.

After a short break, three working groups were formed. Each group received a successful case study referred to in the MIT report, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Charles Sturt University (CSU), and TU Delft, for analysis and study of the feasibility of its implementation in Portuguese educational institutions. At the end, the spokesperson for each group presented the result of the discussion.

At about 1 pm the session ended, followed by lunch and return home.

The sum of the discussions at group level will form the basis of a contribution to be submitted to CISPEE2020.

[1] http://neet.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MIT_NEET_GlobalStateEngineeringEducation2018.pdf

Other webinars in the 2019 cycle included keynote presentations on the global engineering education landscape such as Michael Milligan, Executive Director of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Norman Fortenberry, Executive Director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). , and Matthias Gölke from Altair Software. Recordings of the various presentations can be found on the IFEES websit.(http://www.ifees.net/webinars/).

The eBook, recently published, is focused on a group of 32 pioneering women in the management of Engineering Schools. The ebook is available in open format through the link indicated at the end of the news. Printed versions (hardcover and flexible cover) will be available shortly from links posted on the IFEES portal. In the description of this work one can read:

“While engineering is often seen as a male-dominated field, more women than ever are pursuing engineering careers and the gender gap is shrinking globally. Engineers are changemakers who play a critical role in solving the grand challenges facing humanity—and it’s a role that will be even more important in the coming decades. For innovations to continue to evolve, it’s necessary to balance gender representation in the field and ensure engineering advancements include all members of society. Rising to the Top provides an intimate and inspiring look into the experiences that have shaped the lives and careers of women engineering leaders from around the world, from Sudan to Chile to Malaysia, and many points in between. By openly sharing their personal journeys in these pages, the authors hope to not only inspire the next generation of engineering leaders, but also provide valuable insight into the challenges facing women engineers around the world, and the opportunities that are theirs for the taking. Rising to the Top makes it clear that women engineering leaders are not only essential for the advancement of all societies—they are here to stay.”

http://www.ifees.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Rising-to-the-Top.pdf

José Carlos Quadrado (Chairman of the SPEE General Assembly 2014-2016 and 2016-2018) was awarded the SEFI Fellowship Award during the 47th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), Budapest, Hungary, 16-19 September 2019.

In https://www.sefi.be/2019/09/30/sefi-fellows-2019/ : “Current Vice-President of the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE), he has been actively supporting the development of new accreditation agencies in Central Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. He is also a Kazakhstan Society of Engineering Education (KazSEE) accreditation board member.”

SPEE attended the annual SEFI meeting.

On behalf of SPEE, Bill Williams participated in a number of working meetings, including with the next ASEE President Sherlyl Sorby, Mike Murphy (the outgoing SEFI President) and the EJEE and JEE editors.

In order to disseminate the best results of CISPEE 2016, the special edition of CISPEE 2016 has just been published.

European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE), (Re)Thinking of Higher Engineering Education.

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ceee20/44/4

In its plan, SPEE Board has defined a set of activities outlined according to 3 operational plans: one internal; one external at national level; and an external at international level.

In particular, with regard to the second axis related to the involvement with individual and institutional partners, visits have already been made to all higher education institutions, founding members of society. During these visits, the SPEE Board had the opportunity to interact with the individual associates and the managers of each institution. In this context, one of the activities initially planned is still to be fulfilled: the National Forum of Engineering Education Managers. We consider relevant the existence of an informal sharing space where the heads of higher education institutions can exchange ideas , knowledge and insight about Engineering Education.

Thus, the 1st Forum of Directors of Engineering Education Institutions (SPEEDI) will take place at the Eurostars Hotel, Figueira do Foz, on Saturday, October 26, 2019.

Bearing in mind the relevance of this sharing space, it became necessary to set the tone for the meeting. This need was met in the report “The Global State of the Art in Engineering Education,” published by MIT in 2018, which highlights the University College London (UCL) Integrated Engineering Program (IEP) as one of four emerging leaders in education. The IEP Director is Professor John Mitchell who was responsible for reorganizing the curriculum of all engineering departments at UCL and creating the current integrated program. It recently received the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) from the Higher Education Academy. John Mitchell is still the current Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Education.

Noting that no Portuguese engineering schools were mentioned in the report, SPEE found it interesting to invite Professor John Mitchell to share his experience at the meeting of Portuguese leaders.

John Mitchell

Professor of Communications Systems Engineering

Vice Dean Education, UCL Engineering

Co-Director, Centre for Engineering Education

https://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/~jmitchel/

In order to anticipate some moments of the 4th SPEE International Conference (CISPEE2020), we share the following invited lectures, already confirmed.

Tentative Title:          The Ethical Challenge of Engineering in the 21st Century

By:                             Arlindo Oliveira, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), PT

Arlindo Oliveira obtained his BSc and MSc degree from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and his PhD degree from the University of California at Berkeley, in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a professor at the computer science and engineering department of IST and a researcher at INESC-ID. His interests include machine learning, bioinformatics, algorithms, neurosciences and complexity. He is the author of two books and of more than 100 articles.

Tentative Title:          Engaging or Disengaging: Mechanisms for involving engineering teaching staff in continuous curriculum improvement

By:                             Isabel Hilliger, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile), CL

Isabel Hilliger is Associate Director for Assessment and Evaluation at the School of Engineering in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile). Isabel received a BEng from PUC-Chile and a MA in Policies, Organization and Leadership Studies from Stanford Graduate School of Education in U.S.A. Between 2011 and 2013, Isabel led the developmenf of indicators to evaluate school support programs in Chile as the Associate Coordinator for Pedagogical Technical Assistance in the Ministry for Education. Since then, she has involved in diverse research projects on educational policy and technology enhanced learning from different countries. During 2018, she was a research fellow of the university innovation program at Laspau, a Harvard-affiliated organization. She is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science at PUC-Chile and her research focuses on the development of processes and learning analytics tools for continuous improvement of higher education in Latin America.