WORKSHOP FOR US ENGINEERING EDUCATORS AT SEFI ANNUAL MEETING – COPENHAGEN 2001
World Expertise LLC organized a pre-conference workshop at
the annual meeting of the Société européenne pour la formation des ingénieurs
(SEFI) at Copenhagen on 12-14 September 2001. SEFI is the European
Society for Engineering Education, a parallel organization to the American
Society for Engineering Education in the US. The pre-conference was designed to
introduce US engineering educators to issues and opportunities in European
engineering education, while increasing the participation of US educators in the
SEFI annual meeting. US participants were engineering faculty and
administrators who want to bring greater familiarity with international issues
to their teaching and service responsibilities at their home institutions.
The short, concentrated workshop took place in the day
and a half preceding the SEFI conference – on Monday evening, 10 September
2001, and all day Tuesday, 11 September 2001. Participants attended
presentations and discussions providing a comprehensive overview of current
trends and issues in European engineering education. Particular attention was paid to explaining the relevance of these topics to US higher education at
both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, selected sessions of
the SEFI conference were coordinated with the workshop in order to draw the
US educators into dialogue with colleagues on broader themes on international
engineering education.
Monday evening: Evening reception
Overview of the workshop
Introduction of speakers
Dinner
Keynote presentation by President
of SEFI, Torbjorn Hedberg of
Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, on status of European engineering
education
Tuesday:
Presentations:
Curriculum developments –
Ingemar Ingemarsson, Linkoping University, Sweden
Continuing education – Patricio Montesinos, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain
Accreditation/quality assurance – Giuiano Augusti, Universita de Roma, Italy
Mobility of engineering students and of engineers – Hans Peter Jensen, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark; and Gaston Wolf, Swiss Technical Association, Switzerland
Industry perspectives – Kruno Hernaut, Siemens AG, Germany
Lunch talk:
European Union/Commission
End of day: SEFI annual meeting
introduction; SEFI opening reception
Wednesday through Friday
Participation in regular SEFI program
Particular emphasis on participation in an electronic conference session, as a model for future international conferences on engineering education. The electronic conference ran for several weeks prior to the SEFI session, involving a worldwide poster session of engineering educators from developing countries. The final electronic conference wrap-up panel session, to be distributed back to participants in the poster session worldwide, was conducted during the SEFI conference.
Outcomes
Outcomes of this workshop included:
Greater participation in SEFI
annual meetings by US engineering educators
Increased transatlantic dialogue
Infusion of international issues
into curriculum at participants’ home institutions
Increased collaborative teaching, research, and service activities between US and European engineering educators