I’d like to share recent social media posts by my colleagues/past students/friends — their perspectives on transcontinental collaboration are unique and valuable! Thanks to Mia Dukuly, Violet Maufuwe, Tarrah Beebee, and Shinya Takehara for taking the time to reflect, document, and publicly share your experiences.
Tanzania
The first three of these — Mia, Violet, and Tarrah — participated as students in a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad that I led to Tanzania in 2005.
We spent five weeks in Dar es Salaam, studying alongside Tanzanian architecture students and teachers. Several of the students forged lifelong friendships (and some even marriages) with other members of our 63-person study group (25 students and teachers from the USA, 38 students and teachers from Tanzania).
I didn’t establish this blog (IrelandByChance.com) until 2012 (seven years after that trip, when I went on my own Fulbright fellowship to Ireland). Nevertheless, several of my past posts have mentioned aspects of that 2005 study abroad program:
Also of interest is the post Trend Shifters and Hip Young Urbanites, featuring Donald Roman, a student of mine from Hampton University who participated in the 2005 Fulbright-Hays trip as well.
Mia and Tara are two USA-based Fulbright alumnae who keep returning to East Africa — and sharing their adventures with others.
Here’s a taste of what Mia and her architect friend Violet Mafuwe have gotten up to recently:
A post shared by Mia Dukuly this past autumn.
Violet was one of the Tanzanian students participating in the 2005 study abroad program, and the only female among dozens of males.
The sisterly bond between these architects, Mia and Violet, is truly heartwarming.
Tarrah, Mia, and Violet are all actively engaged in social missions, continually reaching out and helping others, particularly vulnerable people in East Africa.
In this screenshot, Tara describes how she connects her teaching, architectural design, and outreach activities.
In fact, it was Tarrah’s February 3rd blog post that inspired me to share the treasure trove below. Tara is an architect living in Los Angeles.
Tarrah mentioned me at the top of the blog, and it means a lot to me that I helped enable and inspire her to stay involved in Tanzania. She’s been helping build an educational complex for many years.
In this screenshot, Tara provides information on the educational facility.
Which brings me to the other recent post I’d like to share. Shinya Takehara isn’t a Fulbright fellow (yet!), but I feel I wouldn’t have met him without the entry I got into engineering education research as a Fulbright Fellow in Ireland.
I am deeply indebted to each of these wonderful people — Shinya, Tarrah, Mia, and Violet — for making my life brighter and more meaningful, and for always reaching out to help others and spread the ethics of care.
I also thank Shinya, Tarrah, and Mia for giving me permission to share their posts here. Sending that request brought more good news, as Mia has recently secured a new job and will be relocating with her family to Germany soon. She reports good progress with her Architecture Registration Examination — a grueling multi-part test that takes most of us years to complete. I am so excited to learn of her progress!
I had the immense honor of visiting Japan as a guest of the Japanese Society of Engineering Education, 6-16 January 2026.
This trip focused on engineering ethics, how it is conceptualized and taught, and how this differs between Eastern and Western cultures.
The purpose of the trip was to advance collaboration between Japan and Europe, expand professional networks, and better understand and ultimately improve how engineering ethics is described and taught to students.
The trip was significant because language differences, travel distances, and past cultural isolation mean there is still much to learn from each other.
This was a collaboration between JSEE and SEFI, our European Society for Engineering Education. Practical info sent to JSEE members calling for participation at the conference.
For this ten-day trip around Japan, I represented the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) — to help build bridges connecting Japan, Europe, and the global engineering ethics education and engineering education research communities.
This blog post contains loads of detail and possibly a hundred photos. I felt it was important to document the activities for posterity and to help build greater cultural understanding.
This was only my second ever trip to Asia (the first being a 1999 conference in Seoul, South Korea).
On this trip, I met so many amazing people.
I want a chance to thank each of them and let them know how much the time together meant to me. Many of them are pictured below (from the main conference, which I’ll tell you more about below).
I have summarized the profound set of cultural and professional experiences as best I can.
The participants of the main conference on engineering ethics education in Japan, from JSEE, with Sarah Junaid and Shannon Chance from SEFI.
I traveled alongside Dr. Sarah Junaid, a Reader in Biomedical Engineering at Aston University (Birmingham, UK). Sarah has travelled to Japan several times before, most recently as a Churchill Fellow, collecting data on engineering ethics education.
Sarah has cultivated a transcontinental team of academics who are researching the words used to describe ethics in engineering accreditation documents worldwide. This project has captivated me since I attended a paper presentation Sarah gave at the SEFI conference in Barcelona in September 2022.
Sarah’s efforts mirrored the focus on collaborative transcontinental capacity-building that I also cultivated as Chair of the global Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN).
Sarah served as a positive role model for me as I worked with the ethics handbook’s editorial team. When I explained this at the JSEE conference, I choked up; I don’t think I’d ever told Sarah how central she is to my worldview today.
I made this map to show where the authors of our handbook have lived and/or worked. You can see we had some representation from Japan (Kenichi Natsumi and Fumihiko Tochinai), but could benefit from more collaboration in Asia and also across the global south.
In all. the presentations I delivered in Japan all emphasized the power of collaboration in enhancing the delivery of engineering education and our collective approaches to understanding, defining, learning, assessing, regulating, and expanding ethics.
I define engineering ethics as professional codes, laws, theories, and frameworks, as well as social and environmental sustainability, including equity, diversity, and inclusion, that underpin engineering practice and guide what we are and want to become.
It’s about making the best better, a motto I bring with me from my formative years in 4-H, empowered by life-long, hands-on, self-directed learning. I first dreamed of travelling to Japan through 4-H, but that never came to pass. Today, my work as an academic in engineering education research finally brought me to this exotic land.
With 105 authors including 6 editors, our ethics handbook had impressive transcontinental representation.My keynote highlighted trancontinental aspects of the handbook and the need for collective action among engineers to reflexively define ethics and how to improve the way we deliver ethics education.
This team hosted us on behalf of the Committee for Investigation and Research of Engineering Ethics of JSEE; they were exceptional hosts during our visit.
A grant from the Kansai University Fund for Supporting the Formation of Strategic Research Centers, which Atsushi holds, funded our travel.
We hope to work together in the future, also collaborating with Mary Nolan from ATU Sligo, on educational games and the ethics of care.
Shinya Takehara at the SEFI Ethics Symposium, March 2025, alongside SEFI Ethics co-chairs Mircea Tobosaru and Diana Adela Martin.Shinya Takehara setting up, surrounded by close colleagues from Japan.
Atsushi works in the College of Engineering Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Shibaura Institute of Technology and runs a laboratory where “students can deepen their consideration of ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) associated with the development of science and technology, mainly from the humanities and social sciences, such as applied ethics, philosophy of technology, and social theories of science and technology.”
A publication we found in the University bookstore that featured Atsushi’s project.Atsushi is a social scientist.Atsushi was an amazing host. Here we see me, Shinya Takehara, Shinya Oie, Atsushi Fujiki, Stefané and Sarah.
Arriving in Japan
Flying into Japan from Europe, Sarah and I landed in Osaka.
We met Shinya and Atsushi at the airport for a brief orientation, then took the train into Osaka for two nights, and onward via bullet train to Tokyo. Atsushi made sure we understood our way around and how to get food.
We used the first day to adjust to the dramatic time zone change and to explore Osaka a bit.
It was a long flight, and we changed nine time zones!In Osaka, we find sites like this shrine beside our hotel, which had traditoinal building forms,and statues,a cemetery, … and an unexpected architectural form. We took a bullet train to Tokyo. This shows only the back half of a bullet train!
Headline Event at the Cocoon Tower
We got oriented for our first major activity of the week, an international workshop at Cocoon Tower, where Tokyo Online University operates. Our host, Tamami, teaches there.
Headed to Cocoon Tower with Tamami.Stefané, Sarah and Tamami on the way.Lovely to view at night.With a quick stop at Tokoyo’s LOVE sign.
As an architect, I immediately recognized this building. It is quite famous and boy is it architecturally striking.
Tamami met us and gave us a tour of the building the night before the workshop.
Tamami explaining the building’s organization. our event was to be held. These three-story high atriums offer sweeping views.But the best views are from teh top of the Cocoon Tower.A busy Tokoyo intersection. Buildings as far as the eye can see — the world’s biggest megalopolis!More buildings prinnign up that will block the views of and from the Cocoon Tower.
Following the tour, I enjoyed a lovely pre-conference dinner at a Turkish restaurant alongside Tamami, Dr. Asami Ogura (of the National Institute of Technology, KOSEN, branch in Hiroshima), Shinya, STefané, Sarah, Dr. Jun Fudano (whom I met last February in Virginia at the Association for Practical and Applied Ethics conference, as he helps lead APPE), and Misaki (a graduate of University College London’s Institute of Education, who helped translate several of our sessions) who took the photo below.
Preconference dinner with Tamami, Asami, Shinya, Stefané, Sarah, me, and Jun.
Sarah and I arrived at Cocoon Tower plenty early the next day and had breakfast near the venue. Eating so much for breakfast was a mistake with a big lunch on the horizon, but I didn’t want to risk being underprepared.
Sarah and me, headed to the venue the next day.The building is also lovely to view in the sunshine.
This was a spectacular event! So engaging. So well organized and translated.
The event included many interesting speakers and was well attended, with roughly two dozen colleagues travelling from all corners of Japan to participate.
The event opened with a welcome from Shinya, followed by a keynote I delivered and a Memorial Lecture delivered by Sarah.
Atsushi’s grant paid for two professional translators, which made a world of difference in the quality and comfort of our day. We each had a headset so we could hear in real time what anyone in the other language was saying.
Translators hard at work!
This was an enormous support for effective communication — it represented a substantial investment but was essential to helping us understand and engage with each other in deeply meaningful ways.
Particpants ready to start the day!Shinya Takehara opening the event.
First up was my own keynote, a half-hour presentation summarizing topics that Tom Børsen and I presented at the SEFI conference last September. I helped the audience understand what SEFI is doing in engineering ethics education and invited our Japanese colleagues to join our SEFI Ethics projects and activities.
In the talk, I advocated for a shift from individual rule-following toward collective global responsibility and an “Ethics of Care” for the planet and future generations. I introduced some useful frameworks for navigating complex, high-stakes socio-technical challenges, including humble, reflexive dialogue and inclusive, culturally appropriate assessment models.
Discussing ways forward.Introducing the handbook.
I also honored the legacy of Japanese scholar Prof. Kenichi Natsume, calling on the international community to collaboratively integrate ethics into teaching to shape a more socially responsible future.
The next talk, the Memorial Lecture, presented by Sarah Junaid, paid tribute to Kenichi. He was a co-author on Sarah’s chapter of the engineering ethics handbook. The editors of the handbook dedicated it to Kenichi, in honor of the groundbreaking work he did bridging eastern and western perspectives on engineering ethics.
The table of contents of Kenichi’s book.The cover of Kenichi’s book and our co-authored handbook.
Sarah summarized Japan’s context as steeped in collective consciousness, a duty to others, and an embedded morality. The education system there has historically focused on ethics and morality in an intrinsic, embedded way, with a strong awareness and regard for others and loyalty to the group. There have been recent shifts to increase the focus on individual responsibility.
In contrast, Sarah described Western cultures as emphasizing individuality, liberalization, and challenges of social responsibility. Education has typically focused on capitalism and free markets, economies built on growth, individuality, and liberalization. Recently, there has been increased focus on social and collective responsibility, which was a major theme of my keynote as well.
“Global collaboration is needed,” Sarah asserted, “for shaping ethical engineers and global citizens.” During Sarah’s presentation, we learned that Kenichi was central in helping Sarah collect data at KOSEN institutes across Japan during her Churchill Fellowship, and the slides in her talk showed the two of them actively collaborating. Sarah and Kenichi exemplified the type of collaboration that is desperately needed.
Shinya noted that “together, we shared our commitment to carrying forward [Kenichi’s] legacy and reaffirmed the importance of sustained dialogue between JSEE and SEFI on engineering ethics education.”
Participants posing questions to Sarah and me.Discussing questions posed.Atsushi summarizing the day’s discussions.
Following our talks, the first featured speaker from JSEE, Dr. Muraran Yasui (Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Osaka University), discussed how engineering ethics is taught in Japan and how it aligns with global accreditation standards.
His group studies how this is done at many postsecondary institutions in Japan. He described Japanese efforts to foster “aspirational ethics” rather than just preventive ethics among future engineers. This concerns what engineers ought to do, not just what they are legally and professionally obligated to do.
Next, Dr. Asami Ogura told us about KOSEN (the National Institute of Technology, with 51 colleges across Japan that teach students aged 15-20). Asami discussed how ethics is taught currently at KOSEN and how she believes that technology transfer can foster peace.
Dr. Asami Ogura
She also explained that KOSEN established a model core curriculum for ethics in 2018, identifying minimum competencies and learning outcomes, and providing guidance to teachers.
Asami’s work focuses on the overlap between environmental conservation, international understanding, and peacebuilding.
Third among the JSEE experts, Dr. Naoki Taoka discussed corporate engineering ethics. He is a leader in the Institution of Professional Engineers in Japan and a visiting professor at Hiroshima University.
Dr. Naoki Taoka
Naoki explained that the Institute’s main business is “to raise awareness of ethics among professional engineers and engineers,” as well as to improve their qualifications, promote and spread awareness of the professionalization system, develop technical talent, and contribute socially through activities.
Following the three JSEE presentations, Dr. Yukito (Happyman) Kobayasi and Atsushi also provided overview comments and insights.
Sarah and I were listening attentively to it all and making detailed notes, as we’d been asked to respond to Tamami’s questions from our European perspective.
We also provided feedback on the other speakers’ presentations, and then addressed questions from the very engaged audience.
Social Side of Events at Cocoon Tower
Overall, this was a very exciting day. Participants came from all over Japan, the event was held at the architecturally famous “Cocoon Tower”, and before the event, Sarah and I got to meet and enjoy lunch with the late Professor Kenichi Natsumi’s wife, Misaki Natsume, and son. We enjoyed a delicious ramen-type lunch with Misaki, Shinya, Atsushi, and some of the experts named above.
Invited speakers at lunch before the main event.A really yummy chicken soup.The Natsumis agree!
We also got to exchange gifts with Misaki and her son. She gave us the most sincere, heartwarming, handwritten notes describing, among other things, how much being part of the handbook project had meant to her husband.
We exchanged gifts with Misaki just before the main event.It’s not easy to find toddler-friendly gifts.But it looks like this t-short from Dublin will fit fine.
Dr. Fumihiko Tochinai also attended the event. He co-authored Chapter 30 of the ethics handbook, titled “Two criticisms of engineering ethics assessment,” with Rockwell Clancy, Xin Luo, and Chunping Fan.
Dr. Fumihiko Tochinai, co-author of handbook chapter 30, “Two criticisms of engineering ethics assessment,” attended the conference.
At the end of the event, we got a “family picture” and then headed off for a traditional Japanese meal together. It was a very special experience, and I learned some important cultural aspects (when and where to wear slippers versus socks only inside, how to pour beer for each other, and the like). One of the day’s attendees, Jeffrey S. Cross, an expat from the USA like me, helped me translate and explain nuances.
Headed out for a traditional Japanese dinner after the conference!Goodbye Cocoon!Dr. Yukito (Happyman) Kobayasi leading a toast at dinner after the event.Learning Japanese traditions.And about Japanese foods.A culminating toast by Jun.
Cultural Explorations
Following this big day of activity, Sarah and I, along with Sarah’s lovely newlywed husband, Stefané, who joined her for the trip, had a bit of time to explore Tokyo. We enjoyed exploring a huge electronics store together.
Getting to Tokyo…We explored an electronics store filled with all kinds of interesting gadgets, like these clothes washers. We had a special dinner, Sarah, her husband Stefané, and me.Sarah knew the ins and outs of getting around.In this arcade, we found delicious crepes and mochi balls.
On our last morning in Tokyo, I visited the Shinjuku Goyen National Garden, where at the tea house, I bumped into Asami and a friend of hers.
The Japanese garden.A few cherry blossoms left in the cold of winter.My favorite views are into the boughs.Enormous fish!A chance meet up with Asami at the tea house.The greenhouse.Views from the garden of Cocoon Tower.Colorful plants in the greenhouse.
Small-Scale Working Session
After I explored the greenhouses at the Garden, Sarah, Stefané, and I headed back to Osaka, where the following day we participated in a small-scale workshop to plan engineering ethics education activities for the future. The workshop was held at Kansai University’s Umeda Campus.
Mari Ito joined us as a language expert to help translate ideas between English and Japanese. She had also translated many of the written materials and slides for the full sequence of events during our trip.
The whole group at the end of our working session.
I really enjoyed the presentation that Dr. Shinya Oya delivered and the discussion of projects underway or envisioned in Japan where Sarah and I might be able to connect, ourselves and/or alongside our colleagues from Europe. “In this intimate setting,” Shinya explained, “we were able to deepen discussions on how future joint research might be shaped, building on insights from the Tokyo workshop.”
I enjoyed a (very popular) French crepe o the way to the workshop. KansaiThe opening of our Joint Seminar workshop. It was a small but hardworking group.Connecting Shinya Oie’s research to ours. He’s quite an energetic and demonstrative scholar! We had great discussion about his reserach.We discussed upcoming events and ideas for future projects together.
We all went out for Italian tapas together after the workshop. We each selected a couple of items from the menu and got a chance to taste a wide variety of foods. The presentation was beautiful!
Tapas dinner with Shinya Takehara, Shinya Oie, Atsushi Fujiki, Stefané and Sarah.Such beautiful presentation!We each selected a couple of items from the menu.Still full of life after an intense day!
Visiting KOSAN Nara Campus
Leaving Osaka the next day, we headed to Nara to visit a branch of the Institute of Technology (KOSEN), where Shinya teaches. Sarah and I travelled with Shinya to his campus.
The walk from the train station to the campus was really beautiful. The town where the campus sits is a ‘castle town,’ still organized around the canal that looped the site and still with a castle on the hill.
Arriving on campus.A WWII airplane, which Shinya said was from the Allies.Entering the KOSAN Nara campus with Shinya.
We had the immense honor of meeting Dr. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh, a medical doctor and currently the Principal (president) of Nara National College of Technology.
She is also the Vice President of the Japan Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (JNWES).
Shinya Takehara with his university leader.
Shinae is a Japanese researcher, professor, and administrator known for her work in molecular imaging and tumor hypoxia, as well as her advocacy for women in STEM. She has published research on the challenges and solutions regarding the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in Japan.
Tea with Dr. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh
Shinae, Sarah, and I delivered talks to a class of about 40 Chemical Engineering students at KOSEN. The class is taught by Ryoko Uda. Chiyako Araya also spoke; she has done interesting research to quantitatively evaluate generic skills in active learning. She was also an important contributor to the event at the Cocoon Tower.
Dr. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh and Chiyako Araya each presented their research.
During the class, we discussed gender and diversity related to engineering ethics and engineering education research.
Sarah presented research on gender aspects developed by a student she supervised.
Students, spellbound by Sarah.It was a big audience of Chemical Engineering students. They loved the discussion questions that Sarah gave them.The students sat gender segregated, initially at the back fo the room. They willingly moved to the front when asked.
At the end of the class session, I had the opportunity to speak about the broader role of engineering education research. I also shared some of the research that Sandra Cruz Moreno and I have done together.
I presented our work in engineering education research to understand students’ experiences and assess how effectively students learn various engineering topics depending on how the content is delivered.
I spoke about the role of engineering education research more broadly. And I shared some of the research that Sandra Cruz Moreno and I have done together.
Touring Tanpopo, A Community of Disabled Artists
Leaving KOSAN, we (Shinya, Sarah, and I) stopped in at Tanpopo, a community center where disabled artists work and live.
Artists there produced Shinya’s engineering ethics card game, which we hope to translate into English soon.
Shinya at the SEFI Ethics Symposium,showing us his ethics card game.
At Tanpopo, staff members Gian Miki and Masashi Yamano showed us around and explained how things work.
I bought two lovely scarves woven by members of the community. Proceeds go to the artists themselves, and the artist of one of the scarves I bought was there at the time. She expressed such pride and joy!
An artist’s workspace. The formal exhibition gallery.A tour from the director.Each person’s tools are customized to meet their own unique needs.Here’s the artist I bought a scarf from.She’s so vivacious and was happy to have her picture taken with me.There’s so much lovely artwork here. This artist’s work was some of my favorite. We also visited the community cafe and some residential spaces (some artists live here, others come for the day).
Visiting Yakushiji Temple
Then, Sarah and I had the chance to visit Yakushiji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This temple is of Chinese design, and artisans from China helped construct it. It was eye-opening to me how much exchange my colleagues described having with other Asian countries. Their politicians may not seem to collaborate, but their academics certainly do!
Earlier on this day, at KOSAN, I met a student who won an international competition in Chemical Engineering. The competition was held in the Middle East, but he said Vietnam and (I think) India were major competitors.
Yakushiji Temple
Dinner and Accomodations Celebraitng Japanese Traditions
The evening after this event, we joined with Shinae, Chiyako, Mari Ito, Ryoko Una, Atsushi, Shinya, and his wife and daughters for a very special meal at ‘bird bird.’ The owner/head chef is an architect, and he runs this restaurant in addition to having restored the accommodation where we stayed.
Overall, bird bird (@birdbird_nara), operates as a community space offering coworking, a shared office, dining, and a rooftop sauna. It was created by architect Shunpei Fujioka and is located on the same block as the housing complex or ‘hotel’ where we stayed. We booked the place on Booking.com at Tamami and Shinya’s recommendation.
The chefs use the middle part, and serve each person directly from the kitchen.This is Shinya’s family. All the speakers from the day attended the meal, plus our hosts and translator.This. is one of the five courses we enjoyed.Here’s a photo of the whole dinner group.The chef/architect, Shunpei Fujioka, presented the reovation project. It was intriguing to hear the story of the reonvation and see before and after photos.The set of homes had been vacant for years before this architect renovated them.
The dinner group made lovely cards for Sarah and me without us even suspecting. It was a project led by Shinya’s daughters, who also made many origami gifts for us. I saw the architect/chef, Shunpei Fujioka, helping with that!
A lovely card to memorialize our time together.
A major highlight of our visit to Japan was staying for three nights in a traditional Japanese house, part of a set of five adjacent homes that this architect has lovingly restored.
I have read about traditional Japanese houses and visited similar (Korean) ones in folk museums, but living in one for three days was an immense honor.
The set of restored houses at night.The alleyway where my house was.My house (the “Presidential Suite”).The house’s gorgeous private courtyard.Japanese “half-light” in the interiors.The dining area.They sit on the floor, and roll out futons when it’s time to sleep.The corridor between the living spaces and courtyard.The kitchen,with steps down from the seating area to the work space.The kitchen workspace. YOu can see renovation work (light wood) distinguished from the original (dark) wood. The covered (outside) walkway from the house to the bathroom. There’s a separate room with toilet and washbasin.View from the bathing space to the courtyard.The tub and shower.Hygiene is very important in Japanese culture.The plan of my house.
Overall, the bathing rituals were a highlight of my private time in Japan. The hotel in Tokyo had a public bath in the basement, which was an experience like no other. I love Turkish hammams (and even visited one in Malta over the Christmas holiday).
The traditional Japanese house also offered a unique and exquisite bathing experience.
But the most unexpected pleasure was that all but one of the toilet seats I used in Japan were heated and had a bidet function. The joy of a warm bum cannot be overstated.
Cultural Immersion with Collegial Friends
It was a privilege to get deeply acquainted with Shinya, Atsushi, Tamami, and all their colleagues.
For me, it was also a unique honor to travel with Sarah and Stefané; they treated me as family and never let me feel like a third wheel. Sarah skillfully guided Stefané and me through complex networks of trains, streets, alleyways, shops, and restaurants.
A halal ramen place.With dramatic effect.An official photoshoot — must be famous sicne security shooed me away.Aongus’ favorite, sweet potatoes!Lego of a famous paintitng (our colleague Inês’ favorite, so I had to take pictures!)View from my second hotel window in Osaka. Most hotels dont’ offere such a sweeping view — or any view at all!Refelctions seen from my hotel window.One of many shires I passed walking along the streets.I learned more about Islam from my travel companions and enjoyed several halal meals. I also got to explore Japanese culture and daily life alongside these lovely colleagues.
We visited a mosque at the Turkish Cultural Center in Tokyo, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. We even had a meal at the mosque, prepared by the community for the worshippers.
Visiting the mosque.Inside the mosque. Views from the balcony.I learned more about Islam from my travel companions and enjoyed several halal meals. I also got to explore Japanese culture and daily life alongside these lovely colleagues.
We also visited a museum with Japanese artifacts, located in a shopping center, presented in collaboration with a university, and located right beside the main train station in Tokyo.
Entering the shopping mall with my friends.The grand artium.Artifacts from the museum.A collection of Thomas Edison’s phonographs. Japanese pottery.Japanese pottery.Japanese birds.Fun selfies.Reflections on the statues.Shopping mall with a cultural museum.
Heading Home
Our visit to Japan was full of unique and deeply meaningful experiences. I was sad to leave and, unfortunately, brought home a chest infection (travel sometimes has its challenges, but I’m now 95% recovered). Nevertheless, I also left Japan a treasure trove of new connections, memories that I will never forget, and opportunities to follow up on. My sincere gratitude goes to Atsushi, Shinya, Tamami, and all the wonderful colleagues who shared their time, talents, resources, and insights while we were in Japan.
I look forward to seeing you again soon and to working together to deliver workshops, translate games, test them with Western audiences, and collaborate on projects and research articles.
Last views of Japan.Flying over the Arctic Circle. We flew around the world on this trip!Leaving Japan, our plane flew east. We flew between Alaska and Russia, over Greenland, over Iceland, and to Charles de Gaulle airport. From there, I connected back to Dublin.
What an amazing week at Riga Technical University (RTU) in the charming capital city of Latvia!
I designed and co-delivered an intensive “Education Forum”, as part of the European University of Technology (EUt+) “Riga Week,” held December 1-5, 2025.
Here’s our Forum group on the final day!
This teacher training Forum brought experts from the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) and TU Dublin to help educators from EUt+ member universities experience and apply new pedagogical approaches.
We utilized innovative teaching methodologies—case studies, problems and challenges, service-learning, and arts-based, dialogical and reflexive approaches as well as games-based and flipped classroom formats—to integrate ethics topics into the courses we teach. And of course, we also practiced interdisciplinarity.
Designing it, I drew from knowledge and experience gained at the Symposium. For Riga, I used a similar format—a fun and immersive three-day series of hands-on workshops and mini-keynote presentations. I am grateful to the SEFI experts who helped me design the SEFI symposium format, Drs. Diana Martin and Mircea Tobosaru. (Diana was also scheduled to help facilitate the Forum in Riga, but a winter flu kept her from joining us.)
Learning together — actively and fully engaged
Ultimately, 21 educators travelled to Riga from Cluj-Napoca, Sofia, Cassino, Darmstadt, Cartagena, Dublin, Troyes, along with Sarah from the UK. We assembled for the first ever SEFI/EUt+ Engineering and Technology Education Forum. Dr. Sarah Hitt (of SEFI), Miriam Delaney (of TU Dublin), and Edmund Nevin (of both) helped me facilitate the Forum.
Before the Forum got underway, Sarah Hitt and I delivered the opening address for the larger event. We used the same delivery format that Dr. Tom Børsen and I developed for our keynote at the recent SEFI conference, which you can watch here. Sarah is such a great collaborator. We worked really well together preparing and delivering the General Seminar address, debriefing between Forum sessions and passing the baton back and forth across the three workshop days.
Preparations Riga Week audience Catching up beforehand Presenting……a topic we love…to an engaged audience!And loving every minute!
In total, about 80 people came to the “Riga Week.” They arrived from all around EUt+, an alliance of nine technological universities across Europe. They came to work on projects, refine approaches, and align systems. Many who attended this particular EUt+ Week are involved in disciplinary clusters (like biomedical or electrical and electronics engineering).
EUt Riga Week familyTimothèe Toury in actionChristmas market Exploring with SarahSharing stories with Mariam
And what a lovely place to hold a conference. Riga has stunning architecture and a lively Christmas market.
Riga design and culture — you might even glimpse Santa!
This alliance is one of the many funded via the European Commission to enable partnerships, collaboration, and some degree of standardization across European institutions. It is part of Erasmus, the teaching arm of the European Union’s development of higher education. (Up until now, I’ve been involved in programs funded under the parallel research arm.)
EUt+ is the brainchild of Dr. Timothèe Toury, the “Secrétaire général de l’Alliance Université de technologie européenne” (Secretary General of EUt+). He has played a central role in shaping the vision, leading it at global level, and advocating externally for what we do and how transformative we aim to be.
Timothèe providing historical context Shannon sharing a teacher development model
I think it was Timothèe who conceived the idea of combining our campuses into one streamlined university where students can (someday?) flow uninterrupted, taking modules on any campus that contribute toward their degree. That said, EUt+ can be seen as a genuinely collective effort. This includes the wider Secretariat General team (Drs. Rafael Toledo, Karine Lan, and others), as well as representatives from the member institutions, including rectors and colleagues, who have actively designed and contributed to substantial parts of the proposal and its development.
Although there are many university alliances funded by Europe, ours is unique in its vision for the members to unite into one single university. One organization—in multiple, extremely diverse, locations—with aligned curricula and a powerful and unique teaching approach that sets EUt+ apart. We want to foster an exemplary student experience and to advance engineering and technology knowledge-how across Europe, empowering our graduates with transferable skills like teamwork/collaboration, critical thinking, and project management. And, I hope, well-integrated arts, social sciences, and humanities approaches to boot!
This can’t happen without updating and enhancing the way engineering and technology are taught in our member campuses. Lecture-based approaches simply won’t suffice to equip the engineers of tomorrow.
Deeply meaningful learning experiences are required.
And that’s what our facilitation team aimed to deliver at the SEFI/EUt+ Forum.
Helping us organize behind the scenes was the EUt+ staff, particularly Timothèe, Rafael, and Karine but also Dr. Santiago Perez, Ms. Eleanor Asprey, and Dr. Emilija Sarma and a host of others helping on the ground, once we arrived in Riga. (Karine couldn’t attend but sent helpful hints throughout Riga Week by WhatsApp… an angel in my shoulder!)
At the SEFI Education Forum, teachers got the chance to experience the student side of the equation.
Forum participants each brought their own unique skills and ideas to the event, and shared them with each other. It was like a pot-luck dinner where everyone contributed!
For example, every participant (and facilitator) read several chapter of the Handbook prior to the Forum, so we could discuss these in groups. I designed these discussions like “book clubs.” The various book-club groups each designed an activity for all the other participants on some aspect of their assigned chapters. On the third day, each group facilitated their activity for the rest of us.
At the start of each of the nine working sessions that comprised the Forum, one participant delivered a 15-minute “mini-keynote” on a topic of particular relevance to the group.
Catching them in full action below:
Dr./Prof. Matthias Veit shared frameworks he and his colleagues in Darmstadt are using to facilitate curricular change.Dr. Kalina Belcheva described learners as digital content creators in educational settings.Dr. Sarah Hitt showed us how to use the Sustainability and Ethics Toolkits she developed for the Engineering Professors Council.Dr. José Luis Serrano presented on using film excerpts to teach (test and challenge) physics concepts as presented in popular movies. He calls this activity “Bloopbusters”!Ms. “soon-to-be-Dr.” Miriam Delaney showcased Building Change, a curriculum change initiate across all the schools of architecture in Ireland to support sustainability, housing, and climate resilience.Mr. Edmund Nevin described an Erasmus project he’s part of, focused on supporting students in their transition from second to third-level education.
The Forum also included interactive workshops.
I started the Forum off with a mini-keynote on the Handbook followed by a workshop on applying targeted teaching methods to integrate ethics content into the subjects our participants teach.
Santi’s Revolt game
Dr. Santiago Perez delivered an ethics game he developed, called Revolt.
We all learned so much, as described on the whiteboards.
At the very beginning of the Forum, following introductions, Sarah Hitt and I helped the group identify learning goals for the week. Together, we co-designed a strategy that used the pot-luck “dishes” we’d each brought with us (readings, keynotes, workshop outlines, prior experience and innovative spirit). At the end of the week, Sarah helped us assess how well we’d succeeded in covering the topics we’d defined.
I have to say, Sarah was an absolute superstar! She’s a natural leader and event facilitator. I invited her because she was an author on our handbook and she teaches at NMITE, the New Model Institute for Technology & Engineering, based in the UK. They teach using all the featured pedagogies, so I figured she’d have the necessary skills—but wow! Was I impressed beyond expectations!
Sarah Jayne was a Hitt!
Miriam and Edmund also did a fabulous job facilitating. Their (book club / workshop design) group discussions were lively and engaging.
I was also extremely pleased with the contributions my other TU Dublin colleagues, Mr. Keith Colton and Dr. Mayank Parmar, made to the Forum.
The Forum succeeded overall, though, due to the wholehearted engagement of the EUt+ educators who travelled from near and far! The 21 of us attending put in our all, and as a result we all left with new ideas and experiences and inspiration to evolve our teaching.
Some of us are already working on follow-up conference session and grant proposals together, and hopefully we’ll have more successes to report to you in the coming semester!
Thanks, EUt+, Timothèe, Rafa, and Karine, for working so hard to include use and showcase what SEFI engagement can give the EUt+ community!
This past Friday, I had the distinct pleasure of reviewing studio work and giving architecture students feedback on prototypes they have been developing to reuse scrap materials from the woodworking shops at the School of Architecture, Building and Environment (SABE) at TU Dublin.
A cool transformer-type system that can be moved and easily set-up.
The students are helping support the circular economy, and learning to work together.
This is a vertical architecture studio, comprised of second and third year students.
A corbelled system that can be reconfigured dozens of ways.
Each team as allocated a collection of cast-off wood sheets or wood planks to use to make a small structure. The structure needed to be at least 3 meters in at least one direction.
From the reminders of CNC routing
This architecture studio is led by Marcin Wojcik and Kevin Donovan. The project is also tied to a grant from Ireland’s Housing Authority to study how to modularize materials brought to construction sites, but never used to allow them to be reused elsewhere. Marcin and Kevin are doing the grant-funded project with Noel Brady.
And I am an enthusiastic observer, doing what I can to help my colleagues get more involved in research.
Reviewing the proposal by Group 4.
Overall, the work I saw presented and the level of attentiveness and collegiality among the students were all highly impressive! They have done all this in just three weeks. 
A pavilion for bird watching; intriguing lessons in tension and compression.
I was excited enough about the work I saw to convince Marcin to draft a short conference paper, which he accomplished over the weekend. It’s about the outcomes of this three-week assignment, how it has evolved over the years, and the implications of Friday’s presentations for the grant-funded project.
Kevin and I are editing Marcin’s draft today, so I’d better get to it!
Hope you have enjoyed seeing the students’ collaborative work! I was thrilled they agreed to let me post photos of them and what they designed and constructed.
NewGiza University (NGU), located on the outskirts of Cairo, just released a video of me discussing the Architectural Engineering curriculum that I co-designed with Professor Emanuela Tilley, starting back in 2020: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMVKR4HvVQ0/?igsh=MWo1dDE3cTB4Y2cxeQ== (opens in Instagram):
Because of the pandemic, I did not have a chance to visit NGU before we started designing the curriculum. In fact, I didn’t get to visit until this past February, 2025, when I travelled over with two staff from UCL to provide feedback on the quality of the program’s delivery.
It was a whirlwind tour, considering that I arrived a day later than expected due to a British Airline delay.
In my two working days there, I got to observe the program the public relations folks at NGU captured the footage on this video.
Designing this curriculum, via a contract between Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) and University College London Consultants (UCLC) which pays for hours out of my timetable each semester, has been a real joy. It has required me to stretch, been , and develop new communication skills to explain complex concepts to people from a culture and language much different from my own.
Visiting the program and meeting the people who are delivering the content and the amazingly dedicated studentswho are forging the way by implementing a brand new curriculum has definitely been a highlight of 2025.
Many tanks to Dean Aly and the programme staff for welcoming us and helping us feel at home!
We three visitors also got a chance to tour the brand new Egyptian museum, lead by NGU’s architectural history, teacher. The experience was truly eye-opening and full of intrigue.
I look forward to a chance to visit NGU and Egypt again soon!
I have to say, none of this would’ve been possible without the Marie Curie fellowship I got to spend 2018 and 2019 working at UCL. The bonds I made with the folks at UCL in the Centre for Engineering Education have made such a difference in my and personal and professional life.
Being part of UCL has been so incredibly good for me, and good also for my employer, TU Dublin.
I am so honored to have had the chance to build an architecture program in Egypt and work with the people there who seek to build a stronger community of architects in Egypt. Thank you so much John Mitchell and Emanuela Tilley, for including me in this incredible project!
Last week, I presented the Routledge Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education at a World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development conference in Krakow.
Presenting at WED in Krakow
Today, I get to share it via a presentation to the All-Ireland Architectural Research Group (AIARG).
Leaving Dublin on the train this morning from Heuston Station headed to the AIARG conference
Below is a synopsis of what I’ll say in my 15-minute presentation to the architecture educators today.
Presenting the handbook at the Association for Practical and Applied Ethics (APPE) in February
This handbook is a product of the global engineering education research community and the ethics special interest group within the European Society for Engineering Education, known as SEFI.
The engineering education research community considers architecture to be a field of engineering and welcomes participation of architects. They are highly engaged in pedagogical research and in implementing innovation active learning methods. That said, engineering education has historically been more compartmentalized and positivist than architecture education.
I identify first and foremost as an architect and teacher of architecture students and I have been welcomed warmly by this community since I moved to Ireland in 2012. I welcome you to join us!
Today, I’m here to tell you about a new handbook our ethics group has developed that can serve as a resource for you. I hope it will inspire you to draw some new ideas into the education you deliver.
The handbook cover
The book was a community effort, with six editors and 99 other authors from all around the world. This map shows where our authors have lived and worked.
We’re working hard to hear and learn from voices outside the areas most active in engineering education research—here you can see the concentrations of activity in engineering ethics education.
So what’s in the book of relevance to an architecture educator? What can you learn? What opportunities do you see for applying or adding to the content? Would you want to create a parallel text for architects? Would you want to join this community of education researchers?
This comprehensive compendium of the state-of-the-art of literature on engineering ethics education is divided into six sections. Most of these have something of interest to architects.
At the Krakow sustainable development conference
The first section discusses foundations such as ethical theories and the role of professional organization and their codes in helping define and uphold ethics. How we do this as individuals and communities is discussed. Environment and AI are also covered here in the first section.
Section two delves into interdisciplinary perspective that inform ethics and how we think about ethics in engineering and built environment. We discuss philosophy, sociology, decolonization, and critical theory, psychology and moral development, engineering design, law, and the like.
Section three touches on five overarching fields of engineering, with the first chapter on civil engineering holding the most relevance for architects. The areas of focus vary quite widely across the disciplines. Even as an architect, I found reading the entire set fascinating.
Section four on teaching methods can be extremely helpful for any educator wanting to integrate ethics into the modules they teach. We look at case studies, problem- and challenge-based learning, value-sensitive design, humanitarian engineering, arts-based, reflective and dialogical approaches. These aren’t mutually exclusive and as an architecture teacher, I combine these methods daily.
Still from video of me discussing the handbook at the end of February at NewGiza University
Assessment is perhaps the most challenging topic in the book. What are we seeking to assess in students with regard to ethics? How can we gauge students’ ethical competencies? What is the role of values, of culture?
The final section, on accreditation, is not as confined to engineering as you might expect. It critiques the increasingly globalized approach to education promoted by engineering accreditation bodies and global accords seeking to align engineering practices globally. The section questions whose voices get heard, whose have been ignored, and what we might be overlooking. We look at the history of ethics accreditation, how various cultures define what students should be able to demonstrate (social justice appeared in only Columbia’s documents of 12 countries studied). We end the book with a fascinating critical feminist standpoint analysis and a critique of how to personalize entities education to fit the local context.
Just arrived at AIARG!
Our engineering ethics education community welcomes you to get involved with us in applying and extending the contents of this book.
On behalf of TU Dublin, on March 24-26, I’m hosting an Ethics Spring Symposium about the book in Dun Loaghaire. You’re welcome to join us for a day or more. Just ask me for more info.
Colleagues including TU Dublin’s Emma Geoghegan and Noel Brady kicking off AIARG by presenting the Building Change project.
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?
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!
Ireland by Chance 