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/