My colleague Diana Martin wanted to attend this year’s American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference in Portland, so I submitted a proposal to organize a panel on our forthcoming Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education. The panel got accepted but Diana couldn’t travel—thus I made the trip alone.

Traveling solo forced me out of my shell (I don’t chat much with strangers when traveling).

Another benefit was that, since Diana had insisted on flying via Seattle, I saw the Pacific Northwest scenery for the first time.

I scheduled myself a day upon arrival, before the conference started, to adjust to the time zone (but it took much more than a day). I’d booked a “shoebox” room at a hip hotel in a shabby-but-central neighborhood and I had the great fortune of arriving after all the shoeboxes were occupied.

I got upgraded to a spacious and luxurious room at the Hoxton in Chinatown! Although I wouldn’t recommend the Hoxton’s location for a woman traveling solo due to the night scene on the surrounding streets, I kept my wits about me and used high levels of caution, and I cane through unscathed. I took an Uber after my division’s evening social the last night because the sun was setting, making it too late to risk walking alone.

With the extra day, I got to explore the city a bit before ASEE kicked off.

I bit the bullet and paid $16 to enter the Chinese Garden, after the $25 to visit the modern art. Expensive! But very interesting!

I also wandered the streets in the Pearl District.

I found my way to the city’s hilltop park, with its Holocaust monument and Rose Garden. My calendar alerts pulled me back to reality. Before I could enter the Japanese Garden, I had to scurry to the conference center by bus.

The best part of every ASEE, to me, is the Division Mixer, followed by Taste of the Town, on opening night. It’s the best time to find everyone in one place.

The main reason I made the trip was to meet with the authors of the ethics handbook. The conference organizers provided a very snall room in a satellite building, so the audience really had to work to locate us. But some found the way, as did our authors. About 20 (of our 105 authors) attended this 2024 ASEE conference and 15 served in our panel. It was truly delightful to meet them all—many for my first time!

I know their work though—and I have read, and copy edited, every one of their chapters. Such exceptional work they contributed!

Here’s who presented chapter number (section number and chapter topic included:

Kari Zacharias, 3(1) individual and collective

Jeff Brown, 5(1) professional organizations and codes

Shannon Chance, 6(1) environment

Julianna Gesun, 10(2) psychological foundations

Susan Lord, 16(3) electrical and electronic engineering

Dayoung Kim, 17(3) chemical engineering

Stephanie Lunn, 18(3) software engineering

Madeline Polmear, 19(4) lit review of teaching methods

Aditya Johri, 20(4) case studies

Adetoun Yeaman with Bill Oakes, 23(4) service and humanitarian

Sarah Hitt, 24(4) arts-based

Adetoun Yeaman, 27(5) attitudes and character

Sarah Junaid, 30(5)

Rockwell Clancy, 31(5) behavior and culture

Sarah Junaid with Madeline Polmear, 33(6) contextual mapping

Madeline Polmear, 34(6) licensure

Jillian Seniuk Cicek, with Robyn Mae Paul and Donna Riley, 35(6) feminist critical analysis

I attended sessions of the Ethics and Architectural Engineering divisions. I also took a walking tour with Architecture colleagues to study the bridges of Portland.

Overall, I enjoyed ASEE this year more than I had expected. It was a bit smaller than last year’s conference (when over 5000 people attended) and the smaller size was welcome. I also knew many of the PhD students who attended — far more than shown in the pics (Eugene, Luis, Siqing, Em)…. I either got carried away in the moment and neglected to take photographs, or some selfies I thought I took disappeared. (Or, maybe, my selfie thumb let me down!)

Until next time, the memories will have to do.

Here’s to a successful meet up! Maybe I’ll see you, too, next year at ASEE in Montreal?