Professor Shannon Chance
PhD, SFHEA (UK), BArch, MArch, PG Cert (BIM)
Registered Architect (Virginia), NCARB, LEED-AP
Lecturer and Programme Chair at TU Dublin
Visiting Professor at UCL
Education Blog: www.IrelandByChance.com
Over the past two years, I have edited this book in collaboration with five outstanding ethics scholars. Seeing it through to completion is one of the proudest achievements of my professional life.
The project involved 105 authors from around the globe. I led it alongside Tom Børsen, who immediately embraced the idea of a handbook.
We paid the publication fee so that you can read it for free! We wanted to give everyone with a digital device an equal chance, regardless of where they live.
Of course, you are also welcome to order a hard-back print copy of the book from the link above. A discount is currently available. Moreover, a paperback version will be available in 18 months.
The book has six sections:
SECTION 1: Foundations of engineering ethics education (7 chapters)
SECTION 2: Interdisciplinary contributions to engineering ethics education (6 chapters)
SECTION 3: Ethical issues in different engineering disciplines (5 chapters)
SECTION 4: Teaching methods in engineering ethics education (7 chapters)
SECTION 5: Assessment in engineering ethics education (6 chapters)
SECTION 6: Accreditation and engineering ethics education (5 chapters)
The editorial team is pictured below (left to right): Gunter Bombaert, Roland Tormey, Shannon Chance, Tom Børsen, Diana Adela Martin, and Thomas Taro Lennerfors. It’s been a dream team!
This handbook was a project of the Ethics Special Interest Group (SIG) of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). SEFI members made it possible by contributing to their transcontinental networks of colleagues.
We editors started by sending out a survey, as far and wide as possible, to find out who was working in the field and might be interested in authoring a chapter. We held online workshops to identify what topics should be included and structured them into chapters. We invited a lead author for each chapter and asked the lead to invite three others to co-write the chapter. We asked that the chapter team have people from different places on it, and we aimed for transcontinental teams where feasible. We also asked the lead to consider specific people who had expressed interest in the topic. Our team ultimately included people of diverse levels and fields of experience and good geographical distribution. The people on many of the teams had not worked together before. Many lead authors served as mentors for early career researchers. We held numerous meetings online with the led authors of each section to cross-check, coordinate, and challenge our own thinking. The editorial team met weekly throughout most of the process, and the final result reflects the strong and knowledgeable engagement of many leaders in the field. Our team conducted a rigorous internal peer review, and the publisher conducted its own peer review twice during the process. Here’s what the reviewers said about our proposal:
“I believe this is a state-of-the-art milestone.”
“The lead authors are the key people in this vibrant community, and they have recruited a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of international authors for the handbook. This is the right time and the right people. It’s the dream team.”
“This would become the resource in this field.”
The final result is a true masterpiece, and I hope you’ll read at least some of it because the content is quite fascinating!
The Ethics SIG also hosts a Spring School around Easter every year, and this year, the theme of the Spring Symposium is “Growing the Field of Engineering Ethics Education and Research as a Community.” I am the local host for this March 2025 event, and we will spend the three days celebrating, applying, and extending the handbook’s content. Learn more about the Symposium and submit your interest in attending at this link: https://forms.gle/WngZ3DMi97FLtQaZ8
Date: 24-26 March 2025 (9:00-17:30 each day)
Location: Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland
Whether or not you can join us in Dún Laoghaire, I hope you’ll peruse the content of this outstanding new resource and reach out to the editors and authors if you’d like more information or to get involved in what we do!
I am confident that this handbook will make a significant global contribution to engineering education. I therefore urge all engineering and architecture educators to become more explicitly involved in learning and teaching about ethics.
The European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) announced the results of recent voting. I’ve been elected to serve on this prestigious organization’s Board of Directors for three years! Many thanks to Mike Murphy, former SEFI President and TU Dublin Dean, for prompting me to run, and to Una Beagon (TU Dublin), Inês Direito (UCL), and Tom Børsen (Aalborg University) for formally endorsing my candidacy. This post gives you a peek into my:
I met several other candidates at an August orientation meeting organized by the SEFI Director General, Klara Ferdova, including incoming Board members Stefan Krusche (who created a really inspiring candidate video!) and Annoesjka Cabo.
Darren Carthy, from Engineers Ireland, who earned his PhD at TU Dublin and has been part of TU Dublin’s CREATE research group with me, was also elected.
Helena Kovacs, an author of a chapter in the handbook I recently edited, was too.
I’ll serve under the leadership of the effervescent Nagy Balázs (President) and the energetic and accomplished Emanuela Tilley and Greet Langie (Vice Presidents). Sitting SEFI Board members who I look forward to collaborating with include Inês Direito and Roland Tormey.
Shannon Chance facilitating a workshop at SEFI 2024
Motivation to Serve
I first joined this community in 2012 at the SEFI conference in Thessaloniki, where I enjoyed a welcome so warm and enthusiastic that I decided to stay in Europe and embrace engineering education research (EER). I left behind a tenured professorship in the United States to join this vibrant community dedicated to enhancing learning and teaching engineering across Europe, and indeed influencing how engineering is taught far beyond Europe’s borders.
Group photo of participants (mentors and mentees) at the 2024 SEFi Doctoral Symposium, organized by Jonte Bernhard, Kristina Edström, Tinne de Laet, and Shannon Chance.
In my letter of motivation for this role, I highlighted three recent experiences that helped me prepare for the Board:
Chairing REEN – as part of the Research in Engineering Education Network’s Governing Board and its Chair for multiple years, I grew new skills and made positive contributions by significantly expanding REEN’s geographic representation, leading capacity-development initiatives (spawning EERN-Africa and organizing a series of capacity-building workshops for the nascent organization), supporting the delivery of REES (our bi-annual Symposium), and co-organizing events like the Big-EER Meet Up at the outset of the pandemic.
Cultivating our community’s publication skills by serving SEFI’s European Journal of Engineering Education as Deputy Editor, organizing and delivering workshops and doctoral symposia to the SEFI community to support newcomers to EER, guest editing special issues of IEEE Transactions on Education and the Australasian Journal of Engineeirng Educaiton (AJEE), and mentoring emerging scholars (as an individual and via SEFI and JEE).
Engaging with SEFI as a participant and leader – serving on the steering boards of the special interest groups for Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion, and Research Methods, helping organize the SEFI 2024 conference at TU Dublin, attending and presenting at Spring Schools, and – most recently – serving as co-editor of the forthcoming RoutledgeInternational Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education.
I sought to join the Board to:
Nurture collaboration and facilitate more mentoring and capacity-building programmes for teachers and researchers in engineering education.
Help educators infuse ethics and sustainability across engineering curricula.
Enhance diversity and inclusion in SEFI – for instance by developing additional channels for bringing people from Eastern European countries into SEFI and supporting SEFI members from low-income countries in participating fully in SEFI activities.
With my collaborative, can-do spirit — and my keen passion for supporting students’ design, epistemological, and identity development — I will use the EER projects I have underway on these topics to inform and enhance my work with the SEFI Board.
Candidacy Video
You can view my candidacy video, which I recorded between conferences in Mexico during summer 2024:
With a team of experts from four continents, I led the development of a newly published special issue of IEEE Transactions onEducation on the “Conceptual Learning of Mathematics-Intensive Concepts in Engineering.” The issue has nine articles covering three categories: assessment, instruction, and learning.
If you teach mathematics concepts to engineering students, you’ll definitely want to check it out!
I served as the organizational lead, and endeavored to support my team in learning journal-editing skills. Dr Farrah Fayyaz (working from Canada) served as the project’s conceptual lead. Dr Anita Campbell (South Africa), Dr Nicole Pitterson (USA), and Dr Sadia Nawaz (Australia) were also instrumental in producing such a high quality compilation.
As described in our guest editorial for this special issue, our leadership team implemented a range of innovative, collaborative models for capacity- and community-building while shepherding this project from conception to completion. My own focus was on cultivating these models, as mathematics education is not a primary focus of mine (although it is for the other four editors). The capacity-building model, and the recommendations for IEEE and other editors of special issues that are included in the guest editorial, were my primary contributions with this project, and a source of pride and joy for me.
I look forward to the future compilations that Farrah, Anita, Nicole, and Sadia will curate. Together, the editorial team hopes to read many more articles in this cutting-edge realm of research, and watch the ongoing success of the authors who participated in our capacity- and community-building activities.
My colleague Emma Geoghegan and I spent the most magical three days in Mexico City with the family of my PhD student, Sandra Ireri Cruz Moreno.
On Sunday morning, following the ASCA conference, a short night’s sleep, and a tasty “petite dejune” at a French cafe in Querétaro — and with organizational assistance from Sandra — Emma and I boarded a bus headed to north Mexico City.
petite dejunemaking friends on the bus
Sandra and her family met us at the bus station. Sandra’s lovely dad, Jose, brought a second car to the station so our luggage could go directly to their home while we went sightseeing in the other family automobile.
That was both very thoughtful and exceptionally fortunate, because I had bumped into a colleague from the ACSA conference, Ayad from Washington State, at the bus station. I asked Sandra by text if we could invite him along with us for the day. Ayad wanted to see the pyramids and was having trouble arranging transportation. We managed to squeeze six people into the family car!
We arrived at Teotihuacán with two hours explore. The State of Mexico explains, “Teotihuacan is a vast Mexican archaeological complex northeast of Mexico City. Running down the middle of the site, which was once a flourishing pre-Columbian city, is the Avenue of the Dead. It links the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun, the latter two with panoramic views from their summits.” (Although we didn’t make it to the Museum of Teotihuacan Culture in time to see the artifacts that “include pottery and bones,” I was able to see these type of artifacts later in my trip.)
Carlos, Nicholas and Sandra at the Sun Pyramid The Moon Pyramid Visiting Teotihuacan
As the pyramids closed for the day, our merry little band headed for a nearby cave restaurant, applauding Sandra’s magnificent planning skills. Our meals arrived in clay pots. These and the guacamole were tasty and delicious! The restaurant staff explained the spiritual beliefs surrounding the place and we lit candles in honor of our ancestors.
A memorable meal in a cave.
Dropping Ayad at his hotel, we proceeded to Sandra’s parents’ home in a neighborhood of Coyoacán, where Emma and I spent three nights. It was lots of fun getting to know Sandra’s family and learning about Mexican culture!
Everyone in the family is vivacious and full of joy. They enjoy sharing food and conversation and learning about other people. We had many meals at home with (papa) Jose and (mama) Vice (ve-say). Staying in their home and getting to know them was a rare treat!
On the second day, Sandra and Jose brought us to tour Luis Barragan’s home and studio. We thank our TU Dublin colleagues for insisting that we visit some Barragan projects! His home and studio are stunning and so well connected to the landscape. Immensely peaceful and beautifully furnished. The spaces and threshold conditions are truly breathtaking. This ranks at the top of all houses I’ve visited, an assessment shared by Emma.
Luis Barragan’s home and studio
The garden across from the Barragan house was also stunning. We visited it before the house tour, after a brief walk around the neighborhood.
Following the house visit, we toured the central city by car, enjoyed lunch at a vegetarian restaurant with Jose and Sandra, drove past the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and visited the Plaza of Three Cultures with ruins of Aztec pyramids and a colonial church built from stones taken (stolen) from it.
Palacio de Bellas ArtesPlaza of Three Cultures
After resting and catching up on work a bit at the family home, we went for a meal out in the center of Coyoacán, the “Coyote place,” where Frida Kahlo lived her early and late life. The town has lovely, spacious, bench-filled, and festively illuminated public plazas and we enjoyed tacos and mariachi. Sandra even danced for us! Being surrounded and serenaded by seven musicians and a dancing sociologist was a truly remarkable experience!
Mariachi in Coyoacán.
At every step, Sandra navigated the way and cheerfully achieved her ambitious plans to make our visit seamless and deeply meaningful. She has a charming way of convincing people to help find a way where needed, and that proved immensely valuable.
For each morning of our stay, breakfast was an elaborate family affair, with all members of the family cooking and chipping in to (1) care for baby Nicholas (who turned 20 months old on our final day here) and (2) feed two curious foreigners with a wide array of Mexican food types.
The meals and the camaraderie were remarkable. Sandra, her husband Carlos, and her parents all have such passion for learning and sharing. Emma and I absorbed many valuable lessons about the diverse language and cultural groups in Mexico, and about pre-Colonial Mexico, Spanish colonialism, and the blending overtime with Mexico’s indigenous peoples. (Querétaro where we’d been for our conference, has many spectacular colonial buildings, for instance, but also benefits from local culture pre-dating the area’s invasion by Spain.)
Painting by Vice’s sister of a revolutionary. Painting by Vice’s sister of a favorite town. Learning at the family home in Coyoacán.
In the cracks and crevices of our stay, Emma and I managed to keep our work on track, too. I had a meeting with colleagues at University College London and Newgiza University online Tuesday morning. I also managed to submit a couple peer reviews that I’d completed while flying to Mexico.
On our final day in Mexico City, we headed with Carlos, Nicholas, and Sandra to the UNAM university campus (where our colleague Dino from the ACSA conference is Dean of Architecture). Both Sandra and Carlos studied on this campus.
UNAM has 300,000 students—just imagine that! They have a famous library building by an Irish-Mexican architect, Juan O’Gorman. There were many tourists and tour groups visiting the exterior of Gorman’s library building while we were. And although the campus buildings were closed for break, there was plenty to enjoy with the lively facades, architectural forms, mosaics, and well-kept grounds. These were lovely to behold.
The largest faculty at UNAM is philosophy and all the students seem socially motivated. The art on campus reinforces this theme of social activism. And it resonates with Sandra’s dad, a retired sociologist, as well. Incidentally, Sandra’s mum is a retired doctor and their house is above her former clinic. Their home and neighborhood were very interesting to see!
A construction by architecture students. UNAM architecture building. UNAM campus with Juan O’Gorman’s library design.
After touring campus, we visited the San Angel neighborhood to see three houses designed by Juan O’Gorman. One was for himself, and the other two (joined by a bridge) for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The two artists lived in separate houses, joined only by the roof-level bridge, three stories in the air. This pair sits on a lot beside O’Gorman’s own home. The three make a nice assembly. They’re in an upscale neighborhood and fenced off with an aesthetically pleasing row of cacti.
Homes of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Juan O’Gorman.
Next, our hosts brought us to a former-courtyard house designed by Luis Baragan that has been turned into a restaurant. The most dramatic feature was the glass floor, providing views into the volcanic terrain below the house. There’s also a large yoga room in the complex that I’d love to give a try!
Another Luis Baragan design.
We wrapped up the day with a visit to Xochimilco Ecological Park next to Coyoacán, near the home of Vice and Jose. In the park, we took a ride in a colorful flat-bottomed boat.
Boat ride at Xochimilco Ecological Park.
Then we walked around and visited a demonstration garden that uses pre-Spanish technology for growing produce and flowers. Mexico City is on land reclaimed (infilled) from lakes. Xochimilco still has its lake, whereas the other lakes are entirely gone—which has created havoc for the water table and aquifers of the area.
In order to farm on water, ancient inhabitants developed floating gardens atop mat-raft foundations covered with soil. Early examples of this construction type were rectangle-shaped floating gardens separated by canals for transporting goods to market, although this demonstration garden is fixed in place and circular in form. Nearby are thousands of booths of flower sellers who still cultivate the land and water.
Ecological Park of Xochimilco and agricultural exhibition garden.
Because the park closed, we headed home and had light dinner with the family.
The next morning we enjoyed one final, magnificent breakfast with our hosts. Then Carlos, Sandra, and Nicholas drove us onto our next adventures.
Vice and Carlos did all the cooking!
They saw me off from the Mexico South bus terminal and Emma from the international airport where she flew home to join friends and family for a trip to one of Ireland’s Aran islands.
What spectacular and heartfelt memories Emma and I now bring with us — these experiences will enrich our work as architectural educators, researchers, program leads, and curriculum developers. We are grateful to Sandra, Carlos, Vice, Jose, and Nicholas for sharing their lives with us!
I spent last week exploring architectural topics and sites in Mexico, alongside my TU Dublin colleague and Head of Architecture, Emma Geoghegan.
Early morning walk to the conference venue. My first ACSA International conference!
Emma and I met up in Mexico, to attend a three-day conference in Querétaro, a UNECSO world heritage city and one with a population similar in size to our home base of Dublin, Ireland.
The conference was hosted by the Technológico de Monterrey and the US-based Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). I was a member of ACSA from 1999-2014, when I taught architecture in the States. I have represented ACSA with the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and am still invited to serve annually, though the trip to the USA is prohibitively long.
Yet, this summer, I wanted to attend the organization’s conference to reconnect with ACSA, brush up on my architectural vocabulary and earn continuing education credits to support my Virginia-based architecture license, extend my professional network into Latin America, and learn more about the homeland of my PhD student, Sandra Cruz.
I asked Emma to join me for the trip, and she submit a paper to ACSA that was successful and, subsequently, very well received! Based on her submission, she was also invited to serve on an international panel of architectural education leaders (administrators and deans). She presented her ideas to the entire assembly of this ACSA International conference!
Dean’s panelfeaturing my colleague, Emma Geoghegan.
Emma’s work and her engaging delivery were a hit in both sessions. Her paper presentation garnered a packed, standing-room only, no-more-space-to-enter-the-room crowd. This was likely due to the popularity of both her engaging panel discussion and her paper topic (educational transformation for resilience and long-term sustainability, with a focus on housing and environment).
But before all the sessions got rolling, on Thursday morning, Emma and I started our conference experience with an Open House tour. Architects and developers from Querétaro taught us about the architectural and urban design history of the city and brought us to visit several contemporary architectural projects. We got to tour a mixed-use housing project, an environmentally sensitive adaptive reuse project, and a courtyard house turned into an art museum that was chock full of artistic treasures that combine painterly style with contemporary themes!
Mixed-use residential building tour delivered by the developer. Commercial re-use projectfrom old shopping mall. Visit to a convent and then walking through town together. Enticing courtyards leftand right!I could do a pub crawl here! The art museumin a former courtyard house. Learning about the artand the architecture.
The Open House tour was followed by an opening reception and keynote address in Querétaro’s very famous and protected Teatro de la Republica where (at least part of) the country’s constitution was signed. The keynote by Tatiana Bilbao was thought-provoking, with the architect advocating liberation from named or pre-determined programmatic elements, to produce evocative enclosures for inhabitants to mold and adapt. The open reception was at another architectural heritage site, the Museo Regional de Querétaro.
The historic theater where the Constitution of Mexico was signed.packed with architecture teachers and students. Tatiana Bilbao’s presentation…Walking between venues. The opening reception. Making new friends!
The second day started with the Deans’ panel on “tradition and radical innovation” that included Emma, followed by paper sessions. I attended the sessions on “Future + Post-Industrial Cities.” These two sessions were held at the university’s modern campus on the outskirts Querétaro. We travelled there and back by bus.
Campus outside of town. Dean’s panel. An intriguing presentation……I WhatsApped Diana Anda’s slide to Sandra Cruz and Emma, who hurried over to join the session.
After a relaxing lunch break, we enjoyed afternoon paper sessions in a magnificent former cloister now used as the Mueso de Arte de Querétaro. I attended “Spatial Decoding: Beyond Measurement” and “Experiments for Urban Futures.”
Lunch on my own to catch my breath! Afternoon sessions surrounded by magnificent art. Another spectacular conventwith notable stairs and arcades. And presentations!
The entire time, Emma and I were meeting lovely and passionate architecture educators from Mexico, the US, and Canada, as well as graduate students from around the world. We also got to know and admire the host for the next iteration of this ASCA International conference that will be held in Brisbane, Liz Brogden.
The center of Querétaro low rise with greenery and color and plazas galore! And sun! Liz Brogden was ready for sun though!
Liz, Emma, and I were guests of the conference organizers for tapas and drinks Friday night at Hercules, a former textile factory converted into an entertainment venue. We had the pleasure to sit between Michael Monti, the executive director of ACSA, and Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez, Dean of Architecture at Iowa State, who brought this conference to his hometown of Querétaro. Luis carefully assembled a conference program with cultural, social, urban, and critical feminist underpinnings.
ACSA Director, Michael Monti, who has a doctorate in philosophy and expertise in Heideggerian phenomenology!
Bravo to these leaders for pulling off such a magnificent event in collaboration with the local organizers, including Roberto Íñiguez Flores, and the DC-based ACSA team!
Programming for the third day ran 9 AM to 10 PM. We attended paper sessions, including Emma’s, at the Centro de las Artes de Querétaro Santa Risa de Viterbo. We started off with “New Imaginaries, Speculations, Machinations” where Emma spoke. Then I attended “Housing, Dwelling and Domesticities.”
After lunch I attended “DESIGNING DISSENT: Feminist Counternarratives in the City.” This critical feminist urbanism panel session was particularly insightful. It was held with one presentation in English and two in Spanish. There were AI-generated English subtitles at the second of these, but for the one without subtitles, I put my Duolingo to work.
Designing Dissent panel
I have been studying Spanish using Duolingo for 254 days now, in preparation for this trip. I understand reasonably well, although I can’t yet speak in Spanish. My elementary knowledge of Italian interferes with my ability to start sentences in Spanish, but I persevere. The helpful slide images helped me deduce more complex meanings.
I also attended “Co-creation with AI.” Then, this third and final day wrapped up with an all-conference panel on contemporary issues in Mexican design at the outdoor amphitheater at the cloistered museum. The title was “ILLUMINATING THE OVERLOOKED: Unconventional Practices for Responsible Futures.”
The AI session included a presentation on utopias. The closing panel with Querétaro native, Luisat the convent’s outdoor amphitheater.
The closing reception was held at the Museo de Arte de Querétaro courtyard. After it, Emma, Liz and I headed for a last supper together that didn’t end until after midnight. We’re learning Spanish ways!
Closing reception with friendsDino, Liz, and Emma — I can’t wait to see them all again!
As a side note, I always try to stay central and conserve my budgets when I select hotels regardless of who is paying. This was no exception and I picked a cheap and cheery courtyard hotel in the city’s historic core. It is nestled among the cultural heritage conference venues. Thankfully Emma is the best of sports and appreciated the authenticity as it was, as you’ll recall, cheap and cheery. It is surrounded by nice eateries which we enjoyed.
Courtyard of Kuku Ruku with cool decor butno window, for two nights. Got windows to the sidewalk for the last two nights! ❤️Oops—was a delicious breakfast but I got our bus’s departure time wrong!
Thanks a million to everyone who contributed to the organization of this conference — including Luis, Roberto, and ACSA’s Michael, Michelle, Eric, and Danielle — and to the local students, architects, teachers, and residents who came out in force. Their enthusiasm and collective effort made our visit to Querétaro extraordinary special.
Emma and I look forward to seeing all our new ASCA colleagues — Sharon, Dino, Liz, Luis, Mariam, Diana, Ifioma, Faye, Tania, Jori, Erandi, and many others — at the ACSA International meeting in Brisbane in 2026!
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.
Oregon marketing is catchy!
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.
Dramatic scenery off the tip of my Alaska Air wing. Saturday-Sunday market in Portland. City hall. Dramatic plaza with (breakfast!) food trucks. Lovely parks……with canopies of trees and twinkling lights. Visited Portland’s art museum……for sneakers……and French modernists. Cezanne!
With the extra day, I got to explore the city a bit before ASEE kicked off.
My hotel, right at the gate to Chinatown. What a luxurious room!The hip lobby……with books galore……a ground floor bar……but teensy, weensy breakfast. The plant was a nice touch. Plenty of space to work!Design touches in the corridors……and elevators……as well as in the room. Nice little touches from Aongus, too!The restaurant on the roof has a fabulous view……even though I missed the nights the hotel’s speakeasy was open. A view toward Mt. Hood.Some tasty food.
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.
With friends from SEFI Summer School, Xiaoqi Feng and Hanna Aarnio, and Michael Loui, former chief editor of JEE.With Nicole Pitterson, my co-editor for a forthcoming special issue of IEEE Transactions on Education.A colleague I met at REES in India in January. A lecture by Cindy Atman. Colleagues I met at ASEE last year (Lazlo), EERN in Belfast (Bridget), REES in Hubli and Summer School in Windsor (Sid and Zach).Ashish, who I first met at REES in Cape Town win a major award!
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
Our ethics handbook panel……was highly informative.And here are all our panelists!
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.
Steel Bridge has a vertical lift. We got to see a test lift of this vertical lift bridge. Here it’s coming back down into place. Here’s the walking group. A view across the river. Portland’s famous sign.
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?
I’m part of a truly amazing team of journal editors leading the European Journal of Engineering Education.
I’ve been serving for the past couple years as Deputy Editor of EJEE, alongside Professor/Dr Jonte Bernhard and our fabulous Editor-in-Chief, Dr Kristina Edström.
Under Kristina’s lead, the journal has truly excelled. The latest Scopus data show EJEE’s ranking increasing from 150/1469 (89th percentile) to 115/1543 (92nd percentile) in the past year. The journal’s Citescore increased in this period from 5.8 to 7.3 due to a couple of very insightful and popular articles. It will be a challenge to maintain these ranking—but, as we’re firmly about supporting authors and providing useful, scholarly publications for our community, high rankings are icing on the cake, but not our central focus.
In my time as Deputy, I have helped bring several valuable members to the editorial team, one being Dr Diana Adela Martin (who was just named one of seven star reviewers for the US-based Journal of Engineering Education for 2023) and, more recently, Dr Matheus Oliveira De Andrade. Both of these early-career scholars currently work at UCL, although Diana accepted the role of Associate Editor prior to joining UCL.
The work these two have been doing as Associate Editors for EJEE is exceptional!
Shannon, Mat (right behind me) and friends at SEFI Ethics Spring School 2024, in Berlin this past March.
Mat leads the maths education at UCL Engineering, teaching over 800 entering engineering students *at once* each year! At EJEE (and on special projects I’ve led for other journals) Mat provides extremely relevant, accurate, helpful, and high quality feedback as a peer reviewer. He’s knowledgeable about qualitative ressearch methods but he’s been absolutely crucial to moving EJEE’s quantitative (statistical) work forward. In this realm he knows many things the rest of the community needs to learn. He has insight, vision, and a passion for helping people and nurturing their success.
Yesterday, Kristina and I met with Mat to discuss training events and support materials geared toward aspiring authors, as well as editors and peer reviewers.
Three happy EJEE editors after yesterday’s meeting!
His ideas, experience, and knowledge wowed Kristian and me—again!
And as a result, Matheus Oliveira De Andrade has just been appointed Deputy Editor of EJEE!
I am elated that Mat accepted this role! I can’t wait to support the roll-out of his initiatives. (His enthusiasm is contagious, as is his smile!)
In November 2024, we will launch the online training for authors—stay tuned for details. This is an opportunity no one in engineering education research will want to miss!
Believe it or not, I’ve never visited Belfast. Well, I did once tour the Titanic Museum and the dry dock where the Titanic was constructed—was engineered. But I’ve never come to the city itself, and my subtle avoidance has stemmed from my Irish Republic ideals. For the sane reasons, Aongus has also never visited the city, despite living in this tiny island most of his life.
City Hall. Dumpling Library. Ulster University’s brand new building where we conveniened. Glimpses of Belfast.
Now, engineering has brought me to Belfast. The past couple of days, I’ve been part of the 2024 symposium of the Engineering Education Research Network (EERN) for the UK and Ireland.
Hats off to EERN bringing these countries together to celebrate and enhance engineering through meaningful education! EERN UK welcomed their Irish cousins in formally around a decade ago, updating their name to include both “sides” of Ireland.
Kicking off the event with organizers Alan and Roger. Sandra en route by train. Sandra Cruz presenting… …a data collection technique she’s used……and parts of her theoretical framework. This presentation by Jennifer S. Thompson and colleagues was fascinating!
Ulster University’s Alan Brown hosted us downtown—for two days of conversation “Beyond Boundaries: Inclusive, Sustainable and Outward Looking Engineering Education”. What a fabulous theme! Alan did a phenomenal job organizing and shepherding this event.
Prof Abel Nyamapfene from UCL……presenting research underway with Dr Nikita Hari and Prof John Mitchell. Dinner friends Shannon, Diana, Neil, Bridget, and Claudia. Visiting a pub together. A very sparkly place! My third visit to Dumpling Library. An unwelcome 4:20 AM surprise. I can’t recommend The Quarter by Warren. Took too long to resolve this false alarm.
During EERN, my PhD student Sandra Cruz presented a thread of her research, and Diana Martin and I facilitated a workshop/panel discussion on the forthcoming Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education withauthorsDr Sarah Hitt and Dr Natalie Wint.
The handbook panel facilitated by Diana Martin and myself, with author panelists Sarah Hitt and Nat Wint.
I caught up with dozens of people I’ve collaborated with in the past, and made new friends and colleagues who I’ll complete projects with in coming years.
I also discovered the beauty of Belfast. I immediately phoned Aongus when I arrived and discussed traveling here together in the fall.
The train journey here provided spectacular scenery and the city is lively and architecturally significant. There are also many lovely public spaces.
It’s nice to find new nooks and crannies to explore on this isle, and I have many adventures and collaborations to anticipate.
Learning about the Ethics and Sustainability Toolkit with Sarah Hitt and Emma Crichton. Birmingham’s Dr Holly Foss……discussing EDI……in staff recruitment.
Thanks Alan, Roger, Becky, Jane, EERN, and Ulster University for a top-notch platform for engaging discussion!
Four days of learning and laughing at Cumberland Lodge at the UK’s Great Windsor Park—the hallmarks of a great event!
The UCL Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) hosted the 2024 doctoral Summer School on engineering education research (EER). It was second doctoral Summer School delivered via SEFI, the European Society for Engineering Education. The first Summer School, held in 2022, was organized by SEFI Vice President Greet Langie, and conducted at the Irish College of KU Leuven in Belgium.
The UCL team organizing the 2024 event sought to provide a collaborative learning environment similar to 2022’s event. We selected Cumberland Lodge, a former royal residence dating back to the 17th century that is used today for educational programs for young people. The Lodge promotes discussions around ethics and social justice.
Cumberland Lodge is surrounded by the vast Windsor Great Park. Windsor Castle is located at one end of the Great Park, beside the village of Windsor. It is a spectacular place — a real joy to experience and a tranquil sanctuary just outside the borders of London.
Outside Cumberland LodgeKicking off the Summer SchoolInside Cumberland LodgeCumberland Lodge is glorious!
To facilitate the 2024 School, John Mitchell of UCL brought together current and past UCL staff. He also welcomed guest experts from the US and Australia who volunteered to help. Together, our team provided structured training for this year’s 29 PhD student-participants. The students are all working on research degrees in engineering education, and they travelled to Windsor from across Europe and indeed across the globe.
In addition to representing perspectives from various corners of Europe, participants also brought experiences living and studying in South Africa, Mexico, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Iran, the USA, and elsewhere!
Sid and our gang at the end of the week. Shannon, Sid, Diana M, and YashLuis gave me a truly lovely shirt (I’m wearing it while writing this blog post from a train in Ireland today!)Lots of break out discussion. A breakout with Diana B and Anne Gardner.
Overall, the UCL team hosting, organizing, and facilitating the 2024 Summer School included exemplars Prof. John Mitchell, Dr. Diana Adela Martin, Prof. David Guile, Dr. Natalie Wint, and our centre manager Helen Bhandri. UCL honorary appointees Dr. Inês Direito and I (Prof. Shannon Chance) also pitched in wholeheartedly, facilitating several sessions each and supporting sessions conducted by others by, for example, facilitating discussion in breakout groups. Inês is now employed at the University of Aveiro and I at TU Dublin, yet we are always treated as full member of the CEE team. John Mitchell is an incredible leader who enables us, helps keep us officially recognized as honorary (researcher and professor, respectively) and helps achieve cohesion across our team.
From beyond UCL, Prof. Greet Langie (SEFI Vice President) and Dr. Jan Peters, MBE (a consultant with Katalytick in the UK) provided informative and engaging sessions. Prof. Anne Gardner (an Associate Dean who is involved with the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, AAEE) and Dr. Diana Bairaktarova (Associate Professor at Virginia Tech) participated fully as well, and helped facilitate breakout groups throughout the week.
Diana M and Nat on ethics. Jan on finding your strengths.Shannon on research basics. Ethics activity with Cumberland Lodge staff. John Mitchell on EER publications. John on his career journey. Most all the 2024 Summer School participants.
Since finishing the event, the CEE team has received thank you notes from many of the participants. One came from Sid and another from Yash. They are studying at Purdue University, and I met them both at REES in India this past January.
Yash wrote to say that “As a first-year Ph.D. student and new entrant into the field, I felt warmly welcomed into the European Society of Engineering Educators and thoroughly absorbed in the program and its activities.” He praised “the design of the activities and the schedule,” which he said “offered a great balance of information and a chance to reflect and discuss with other members during the afternoon walks or even during the evening free time.”
Yash also loved the evening quiz that Diana Martin facilitated. She had contacted EER superstars and requested photos from their grad school days. Guessing their identities was a hoot, and Yash said the activity “was very creative and personally valuable because it gave me an opportunity to see [these well-known scholars] when they were my age or starting their careers in research.” He praised the way Diana, “filled the room with … energy and enthusiasm made the activity come to life” and I couldn’t agree more!
Yash described the value of elements from the workshops Inês and I conducted on literature reviews and positionality statements, as well, and also the sessions on ethics by Diana Martin, Nat Wint, and Cumberland Lodge staff.
During the week, I also delivered session on the structure of dissertations, differences in the way PhD education is structured around the Western world, conceptual and theoretical frameworks, and research paradigms — and another on incorporating gender considerations in your research and teaching. The first of these two sessions included small group discussions and a debate comparing the merits of qualitative and quantitative research.
John Mitchell and the UCL team provided guidance on selecting journals to publish in, preparing articles for publication, and conducting peer reviews. David Guille delivered a highly provocative session on “assembling your theoretical lens.” Earlier in the week, Greet provided the opening welcome to the school and a brief orientation to SEFI. Jan taught us about CliftonStrengths and facilitated a race-car-building competition.
David Guile on assembling theoretical lenses. Inês on positionality. Inês on literature review. Inês on literature review.The students brought home lots of notes!Grand stair at Cumberland Lodge.Another stair at Cumberland Lodge.Dining hall at Cumberland Lodge.Example accomodations at Cumberland Lodge.Example accomodations at Cumberland Lodge.Jan Peter’s presentation.Greet Langie’s welcoming address.Shannon and Diana aside the amazing Helen B. Welcoming participants with name tags and facilities orientation, our very own Helen B.
Near the end of the week, we provided a session where “all the organizers shared their journeys into the field of engineering education,” which Yash described as “very powerful. … Such exchanges are rare and provide a chance to view the person, the human being behind the researcher. It made me feel that I belong in this field of engineering education because I, too, share similarities and seeing someone who has become successful by overcoming similar challenges is very encouraging.”
I wish we had recorded these stories because they were so rich and heartfelt. A dozen participants came to me on the day following this journey session with thanks for our openness, collegial spirit, and willingness to share what they described as valuable insight.
An example was emailed to us by Alison from the University of Cape Town: “Thank you for a magnificent four days. I so appreciated being part of a community and learning from each of you…. I am inspired and excited to consolidate what I can contribute in South African engineering education…. I also SO appreciated each one of your stories and the way in which you demonstrated a complementary and accepting team – working to one another’s strengths – with space for others to contribute. It makes for an inviting and exhilarating ecosystem for us all to grow in.” High praise, indeed, and accurate!
Yash, Sid, and Alison have attended prior engineering education events, but some newcomers to our global EER community were part of this cohort, too — like Somayeh, who is currently studying at Umeå University. You may know that I have a distinct interest in supporting women from the Middle East who study engineering in Europe because I’ve come to know many at TU Dublin.
Somayeh is from Iran, although studying in Sweden today. She wrote “It was an honor for me to have a talk with you and be in your energetic class. I have learned a lot and [the experience] made me challenge myself and rethink about different aspects of my research.”
Following the event, I was delighted to hear from Somayeh’s PhD supervisors, Johanna and Maria. They emailed thanks to our team for taking great “care of our PhD student Somayeh during the summer school. She returned home with a lot of new knowledge, but also greater self-confidence, sense of belonging to the field, and sense of legitimacy as a PhD student. We knew she’d be in the best of hands, and we’d like you to know that your hard work has made a big difference for her (and us as supervisors)!” This I feel is the highest praise possible, and written by a scholar I admire immensely.
I loved my conversations with so many of the students — Luis, Julia, Hannah — the list goes on and on. So many fabulous memories!
It was a huge honor to be part of these emerging scholars’ education and to be so well received and appreciated. It was an invigorating week, and I learned tons myself!
It was also healthy. I enjoyed several enchanting walks through the forest with colleagues. I particularly enjoyed a long walk with Eugene, a PhD student who teaches engineering at a community college in California and studies at Purdue University, and another long walk with the whole cohort. The scenery of this park is spectacular and the conversations were deeply intriguing.
A walk and talk with Eugene. Twin smiles and shared passion for serving ‘non-traditional’ college students.Windsor Great Park. Diana, Diana, and Shannon at Windsor Great Park.Windsor Great Park.Facilitators with Somayeh.Windsor Castle in the distance. An impressive monument with astounding views.Pre-class dinner at Cumberland Lodge……with another impressive view!
The peaceful setting with fresh air, healthy food, and collegial banter brought out the best in us all. I will seek to return to this special place.
During the week, I had so much to do. I actually taught two online night classes for BIM students at TU Dublin — as part of my Research Methods module. I’m fortunate to have a knowledgeable colleague, Claire Simpson, helping me deliver the module (particularly since a storm dropped the Thursday night connection several times).
Cumberland Lodge took great care of me, preparing dinner plates Tuesday and Thursday, since my three-hour class overlapped dinner time in the Harry-Potteresque dining room.
Wrapping up the School with Inês and Diana B. Leaving Windsor village. Striking a pose on our way into the Windsor train station.Diana B’s first night ever in London! Hamming it up in Soho with Inês and Diana B.Neal’s Yard with my pals.Aongus found us at the Anchor! Nothing like a double-decker — see my friends up top.Working breakfast with Lelanie and Nicky.My South African colleagues.Brushing up on LEED for retrofit at the Building Centre with Aongus. Introducing Aongus to Jeremy Bentham when leaving UCL’s campus.
It’s been nine days since the Summer School ended, and honestly, I’m still a bit worn out! I did spend some time exploring London with Inês and Diana B after the School — after all, it was Diana’s first time in London!
And my fabulous partner, Aongus Coughlan join us and also came to meet my colleagues, Dr. Lelanie Smith and Dr. Nicky Wolmarans from South Africa down near the Engineers Professors Council on Savoy Street (before their two-day symposium on integrated engineering curriculum design, also organized by UCL’s CEE). Looking forward to seeing Lelanie and Nicky in South Africa in November 2025 (yes, we plan ahead!)!
In all, the School will go down in my memory as a highlight of 2024 and I couldn’t be happier that John Mitchell included me and that I got to work with this incredible cohort and facilitation team.
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!
Ireland by Chance 