The global EDUCON conference, organized by IEEE (the institution for electrical and electronics engineers) is underway on Kos island, just off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey.
Great to convene with Dr Homero Murzi of Virginia Tech and current Chair of REEN!We didn’t have time to see the sites of Kos, but WOW, this island has archeology, architecture, and medical history galore!
I’m here this week with my colleagues Inês Direito (University of Aveiro and UCL), John Mitchell and Diana Martin (UCL). Across the four of us, we’re facilitating 5 of the 16 workshops scheduled for this conference.
Pics from our engineering ethics education handbook workshop — the first session of EDUCON 2024.
We’ve been having a great time connecting with colleagues from the University of Monterey (Mexico), EPFL (Switzerland), India, Singapore, across Europe and the Americas.
Dr Rucha Joshi, who I met in Hubli in January, and her fabulous momma! Just look at our dazzling smiles!
I had great fun interacting with participants at my grants and fellowships workshop, the systematic literature review session I delivered with Inês, the ethics handbook session I delivered with Diana, and supporting the publications and research design workshops spearheaded by John.
Snipet of the workshop on literature reviews with Dr Inês Direito.Prof John Mitchell’s session on designing an education experiment was hugely popular!A very helpful image on different ways of engaging with research to enable effective teaching, presented by John.
I’ve never attended EDUCON before and there’s a more technical bent to it than the more education research focused conferences I typically attend, so I met many new people in addition to reconnecting with friends I mead recently at REES (in India) and SEFI (locations across Europe).
One of our papers (that I co-authored with Inês and John and our colleague Dr Rob Lawlor) hit 10,000 downloads from the publisher’s website during EDUCON. Participants in the breakout group I facilitated for John’s workshop on IEEE publications were super enthusiastic about celebrating this achievement with me! They asked to take my picture—here’s our reenactment of that moment.😊😊😊😊😊
I’m headed home shortly, for end-of-academic-year wrap up and catching up on loads of tasks that have piled up while I was networking and collaboratively generating new knowledge. I’m full of inspiration and optimism!
I even met colleagues organizing the LACCEI conference I’ll attend in Costa Rica this summer, and coordinated to provide a couple extra workshops there, in addition to the papers my PhD student Sandra Cruz and I are delivering.
The grants and fellowships workshop was a ball—we all had good laughs.Bumping into Dr Jorge Torres Gomez (from Cuba and TU Berlin) during post-conference walk on the beach — a chance to further our discussion about bibliometrics forecasting and survey design. Farewell for now, Greece!
Portugal has vibrant networks of academics engaged in engineering education research. This week, I got to be part of that community, thanks to the generous support of the American Corner, on a four-night visit funded by the US Embassy in Portugal.
In and around the fabulous hotel, located on a canal in Aveiro’s historic center.
Flying into Portugal on Saturday morning, I settled in and toured the area over the weekend with my dear colleague (formerly of UCL) Inês Direito and her partner Gonçalo. Inês and I continually collaborate on research — and our bond grows stronger with each project and every passing year.
Snapshots of our explorations in Aveiro… Inês and Shannon always having a ball!
On Monday morning, I delivered a keynote address on “Boosting Engineering Education: How Research Can Make Engineering Education Better” and then facilitated a hands-on workshop on “Integrating Ethics, Sustainability, and Inclusion in Your Teaching.” In all this, I was the guest of honor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Aveiro (UA).
I was impressed that 25 teachers and students participated in these morning events, as they happened during a week without classes at UA. Despite having the flexibility to work from home this week, people traveled to campus from all across the engineering disciplines at UA — and visitors traveled in from Lisbon, Porto, and Setúbal to partake as well.
Images from campus, the keynote and workshop.
After lunch Monday, the Engineering Education Research team at UA and I headed to the administration building to meet with the university’s Vice-Rector for Research and an expert from UA’s Research Support Office. We discussed grant proposals and laid the foundation for upcoming initiatives that we plan to launch at UA.
Wrapping up that exciting meeting, we skipped across campus to the sleek, modern library, designed by Alvaro Siza, where the American Corner has a recording studio. In a session moderated by Inês, a few of us (Inês, Pedro Fonseca, Anikó Costa, and I) discussed what engineering education is, and why it is crucial for solving societal challenges in the 21st century. We also considered what role interdisciplinary collaboration plays in engineering education, and how can we, in higher education institutions, can facilitate it more effectively. Finally, we chatted about how interested people can get involved in engineering education research.
On air from the American Corner with Inês Direito.
On Tuesday, the EER team and I set to work refining our plans to secure funding for our projects. We had the treat of bumping into a pair of scholars who currently hold the type of grant we aim to secure, and they agreed to share their experience and insight with us. I’m looking forward to meeting them at the end of the summer to learn more!
Reflecting on the visit from the boarding gate at Porto airport, I realized that I’d had the most marvelous time in Aveiro. Every single person I met helped make the trip special—from the driver Casimiro, to Inês and Gonçalo, the hotel staff, Sandra the librarian in charge of the American Corner, to UA’s engineering education research team, the energetic and ever-smiling Robertt, Barbara, Inês, and Carla. Colleagues Bill and Val, and Val’s spouse Frank, all traveled from the Lisbon area for research meetings while I was there, helping make the experience that much more special!
Always learning, with Val, Inês, and Bill!
I am bursting with energy for our upcoming projects, and hopeful what the future might hold for our team.
Ireland by Chance 