Get yourself a job in engineering education or Ph.D. fellowship in architecture pedagogy

For those of you interested in learning more about educational research or finding an academic position in engineering education research, I’m posting some exciting opportunities.

Architectural pedagogies, multiple intelligences and educational inclusion – funded PhD

shannon teaching bindings

Shannon Chance sharing examples of design portfolios and methods of book-binding with architecture students at Hampton University, a decade ago.

The first is a funded Ph.D. in the topics I love most: Architectural pedagogies, multiple intelligences and educational inclusion. This position will pay for someone to go to Northumbria, UK to get a Ph.D. in this very exciting topic.

Please bring this to the attention of potential candidates. This “Find a PhD” website is valuable for anyone wanting to find funding for doctoral studies. Most positions are open to people of all nationalities.

 

ASEE’s ERM division job posts

Next, I’m sharing an email I just received from the division of Educational Research Methods of the American Society for Engineering Education, listing jobs in engineering education that are open in the USA right now. Details and links are provided below the list, in the same order as listed. The list was compiled by Virginia Tech’s Dr. Holly M. Matusovich, who is doing excellent work through ASEE.

  1. Instructions for Submitted Announcements for the ERM Listserv
  2. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: (Updated) Faculty Search: Assistant OR Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech
  3. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Associate Professor (Tenured Position), Wake Forest University Department of Engineering
  4. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Assistant Professor (Tenure Track Position), Wake Forest University Department of Engineering
  5. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Teaching Professor or Professor of the Practice, Wake Forest University Department of Engineering
  6. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Tenure-Track and Non-Tenure Track Positions in Civil & Environmental Engineering at The Citadel
  7. ITB RoboSlam 2015-4 hotrod

    An autonomous robot designed by electrical engineering students at ITB, now the Blanchardstown campus of TU Dublin. 

    POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: First-Year Director Job Description, Old Dominion University

  8. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: U-M Post Doctoral Teaching Fellowship in Engineering Education – International Teaching Experience
  9. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:  12 lecturer positions in the Institute for Excellence in Engineering Education at the University of Florida
  10. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: University of Massachusetts Lowell, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tenure Track Assistant/Associate Professor Faculty Position
  11. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:  Two Lecturer Positions, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Engineering Fundamentals Program (EFP)
  12. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:  Tenured Faculty Position in the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State University
  13. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: : Multiple tenure-track positions at the rank of assistant or associate levels, School of Engineering Education at Purdue University
  14. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Tenure-track and visiting faculty, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
  15. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Six tenure-track faculty positions at the assistant professor level, The R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis
  16. CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Engineering Education CAREER Webinar

 

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  1. Instructions for Submitted Announcements for the ERM Listserv

 

To send an announcement to the ERM listserv, please prepare a 2-3 paragraph description including any relevant URLs and contact info as well as a subject line. Do not include any attachments. Be sure that the announcement includes the person to contact with questions.  Email all of this information to matushm@vt.edu with [ERM Announcement] in the subject line to facilitate email sorting. Announcements will be sent out on the 1st and 15th of each month.  Each set of announcements will be included in the announcements email twice. Announcements will also be recorded on the ERM website: http://erm.asee.org/

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: (Updated) Faculty Search: Assistant OR Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech

The Department of Engineering Education (EngE) at Virginia Tech invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant or associate professor rank. Candidates must hold a doctorate (by August 2019) in engineering education, engineering, education, or a related field; at least one degree (BS, MS, PhD) in engineering or a related field is desirable.

Successful candidates will demonstrate the potential to conduct research in engineering education, secure external research funding, teach in both our first-year and graduate programs, and collaborate within and beyond the department. We welcome applicants with expertise across a wide range of engineering education areas and methods. Our faculty hold degrees in diverse fields, including engineering education, higher education, educational psychology, and linguistics as well as a range of STEM disciplines. Experience in industry is also welcome.

Applications must be submitted online to http://jobs.vt.edu (posting number TR0180132).  Review of applications will begin November 26, 2018. Applications should include: (1) a curriculum vitae, (2) a two-page research statement describing current research and future plans, (3) a two-page teaching statement, and (4) names and contact information for three references. Details on how to prepare and submit all materials can found under “Posting Details” for this position on the website. Inquiries about the position should be directed to Chair, EngE Search Committee, 345 Goodwin Hall, 635 Prices Fork Rd., Blacksburg, VA 24061,engesearch18@vt.edu

A more detailed description of the position and information about the Department of Engineering Education can be found at http://www.enge.vt.edu/

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Associate Professor (Tenured Position), Wake Forest University Department of Engineering

 

Job Requisition No: R0001130  The new Department of Engineering invites applications at the rank of Associate Professor in any engineering area to begin in the fall semester of 2019. Commensurate with the level of experience, the successful candidate will be appointed to a tenured position in the Department of Engineering and will help establish the new undergraduate engineering program.  We seek a colleague who will diversify our team through their scholarly pursuits and will provide significant educational contributions in support of our students’ development as engineers. Wake Forest University (WFU), a top-30 nationally ranked university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, welcomed its inaugural class of engineering students in August 2017. As a collegiate university, WFU combines the tradition and intimacy of a small liberal arts college with the innovation and vitality of a research university.  Interested applicants should apply via the University’s career website at: http://www.wfu.careers/. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2018, and will continue until the position is filled with new applications reviewed on a regular cycle. Further information is available atcollege.wfu.edu/engineering/.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Assistant Professor (Tenure Track Position), Wake Forest University Department of Engineering

 

Job Requisition No: R0000982  The new Department of Engineering at Wake Forest University invites applications at the rank of Assistant Professor in any engineering area to begin in the fall semester of 2019. The successful candidate will be appointed to a tenure-track position in the Department of Engineering and will help establish the new undergraduate engineering program.  We seek a colleague who will diversify our team through their scholarly pursuits and will provide significant educational contributions in support of our students’ development as engineers. Wake Forest University (WFU), a top-30 nationally ranked university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, welcomed its inaugural class of engineering students in August 2017. As a collegiate university, WFU combines the tradition and intimacy of a small liberal arts college with the innovation and vitality of a research university.  Interested applicants should apply via the University’s career website at: http://www.wfu.careers/. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2018, and will continue until the position is filled with new applications reviewed on a regular cycle. Further information is available atcollege.wfu.edu/engineering/.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Teaching Professor or Professor of the Practice, Wake Forest University Department of Engineering

 

Job Requisition No: R0001129  The new Department of Engineering at Wake Forest University invites applications for a Teaching Professor or Professor of the Practice faculty position (at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor) in any engineering area to begin in the fall semester of 2019.  Faculty members with the title of Teaching Professor hold a Ph.D. or terminal degree in the discipline, while faculty members with the title of Professor of the Practice have at least a Master’s Degree in the discipline along with relevant experience different from that achieved through traditional graduate and professional study. The contributions of teaching professionals are significant and cover a broad range of areas, which include teaching, advising and service to their programs, departments, the College, and the University. The successful candidate will diversify our team through their engineering expertise and will provide significant educational contributions in support of our students’ development as engineers. Wake Forest University (WFU), a top-30 nationally ranked university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, welcomed its inaugural class of engineering students in August 2017. As a collegiate university, WFU combines the tradition and intimacy of a small liberal arts college with the innovation and vitality of a research university.  Interested applicants should apply via the University’s career website at: http://www.wfu.careers/. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2018, and will continue until the position is filled with new applications reviewed on a regular cycle. Further information is available atcollege.wfu.edu/engineering/.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Tenure-Track and Non-Tenure Track Positions in Civil & Environmental Engineering at The Citadel

 

The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level or a non-tenure track lecturer position.  The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, is a unique public institution with the mission of educating principled leaders through its Corps of Cadets and Graduate College. We are seeking applicants with in Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, or Construction Engineering.  Minimum qualifications for the tenure track faculty position includes an earned PhD in Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering, or related fields. The successful candidate will have demonstrated a potential and interest in undergraduate education as well as graduate education; undergraduate research, and a strong potential for and commitment to student advising, supporting our nationally recognized student activities, and continuous professional development in both civil or construction engineering, and engineering education.  Minimum qualifications for the non-tenure track instructor position include an earned MS in civil engineering or related field, plus five years of experience, or an earned PhD in Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering, or related fields.  The successful candidate will have demonstrated a potential and interest in undergraduate education and have design/field experience.  Professional registration/ certification or potential for and strong commitment towards obtaining it should be demonstrated for both positions. The applicant must be an effective communicator and be able to serve as a role model for students in the Corps of Cadets and to other students in our day and evening programs.  For more information and to apply:  http://careers.pageuppeople.com/743/cw/en-us/job/495551/assistant-professor-engineering.  Please contact Dr. Mary Katherine Watson (mwatson9@citadel.edu) with questions.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: First-Year Director Job Description, Old Dominion University

 

The Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University (ODU) invites applications from accomplished individuals with an earned PhD or equivalent degree in engineering to serve as the Inaugural Director of our First Year Engineering Program starting Fall 2019. The successful candidate is expected to provide leadership in shaping and coordinating our program and courses (structure, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment); promoting consistency in course contents, standards and instructional modes across different classes; supervising all first-year faculty; coordinating with faculty teaching in the program and related departments (e.g., Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry); and teaching sections of the relevant classes as appropriate. Salary and rank will be based on experience and qualifications.

 

We seek an individual with strong accomplishments in disciplinary and/or engineering education research, who has an established pedagogical track record in working with undergraduate engineering students. Also of interest is a person who can work effectively with local and regional companies in providing solutions to Engineering problems. An interest in engineering education best practices, research, and assessment are desirable attributes. Candidates must be committed to contributing to high-quality education of a diverse student body at the undergraduate level.

 

Review of applications will begin January 15, 2019 and will continue until the position is filled. Complete applications will include a cover letter, a current CV, teaching statement, pedagogical innovations, assessment of teaching (if not included in CV), diversity statement, and four references that will be contacted at a later time. The College and University are strongly committed to a diverse academic environment and places high priority on attracting female and underrepresented minority candidates. We strongly encourage candidates from these groups to apply for the position. Application materials should be submitted to:https://jobs.odu.edu/postings/8857

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: U-M Post Doctoral Teaching Fellowship in Engineering Education – International Teaching Experience

 

We are seeking one post doctoral teaching fellow for a collaboration between the University of Michigan (U-M) Department of Biomedical Engineering and Shantou University (Shantou, Guangdong Province, China).  This “train the trainer” engineering education collaboration will lead to the development of the next generation, experiential biomedical engineering curriculum to meet 21st century challenges.  Fellows are mentored by U-M instructors on the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor campus and then travel to Shantou University, where they participate in the development and launch of similar courses for the new Shantou University Biomedical Engineering Program.  The goal of this collaboration is to introduce innovative, evidence-based pedagogical practices into the Shantou classroom.

 

Applicants should submit letter of interest, vita, teaching statement, teaching evaluations, and list of three references to aileenhs@umich.edu. Applicants are encouraged, but not required, to submit some type of media that demonstrates their teaching (e.g. link to video of the applicant teaching or an example of an instructional intervention designed by the applicant). Review of applications will begin on February 1, 2019 and continue until the position is filled. The start date is negotiable between June and September 2019.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:  12 lecturer positions in the Institute for Excellence in Engineering Education at the University of Florida

 

The Institute for Excellence in Engineering Education (IE³) at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida invites applications for multiple, up to 12 full-time, nine-month, or twelve-month non-tenure track positions at the level of Lecturer, Sr. Lecturer or Master Lecturer. The anticipated hiring rank is Lecturer with most positions at twelve-month appointments.  Senior levels may be considered based upon experience or the need of the unit. The ideal candidate would have experience in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in their respective engineering field.   The University of Florida is embarking on an initiative to lead the nation in Digital Literacy by 1) Foster Digital Literacy across campus in the use of these tools, 2) Develop and apply the Platform for Life Tools to our education and research endeavors, 3) Promote Digital Responsibility – Manage the human impact of the coming transformation of society.  Several lecturer positions will be allocated to this initiative.

 

Duties and responsibilities include: teaching, revising, and developing undergraduate and graduate engineering courses, and may include both online as well as face-to-face instruction in one or more of the following areas:  Computer Science Courses, General Engineering Courses such as Freshmen Design, Non-majors Circuits, and Statics.  In addition, there may be other service and teaching activities at local, university, state, and national level, as directed by the Institute Director. IE³ is specifically looking for faculty with a passion for teaching and a desire to develop a career in pedagogy of engineering education.  Teaching assignments will be made according to background and experience and will be six to eight course sections per year (twelve-month appointment) based on mutual agreements.  To apply and for more information: https://apply.interfolio.com/58175  Questions may be directed to Hans van Oostrom, Ph.D., Institute Director, oostrom@ufl.edu (352) 392-1345

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: University of Massachusetts Lowell, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tenure Track Assistant/Associate Professor Faculty Position

 

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell seeks a full-time faculty member at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor with expertise in Biomedical Engineering. We have an emphasis on medical device development, but candidates with expertise in medical imaging, bioinstrumentation and biomechanics, as well as other biomedical engineering fields are encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will be expected to coordinate and teach courses geared towards Biomedical Engineering majors as well as perform research. The position includes service contributions to the Department and the University. Apply at: https://secure.dc4.pageuppeople.com/apply/822/gateway/?c=apply&lJobID=494699&lJobSourceTypeID=809&sLanguage=en-us Questions may be directed to Bryan Buchholz., Interim Chair of Biomedical Engineering, bryan_buchholz@uml.edu

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Two Lecturer Positions, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Engineering Fundamentals Program (EFP)

 

The Engineering Fundamentals Program (EFP) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, seeks two dynamic Lecturers to contribute to its innovative, first-year engineering program. EFP is the home of the engage program, an integrated and team-taught freshman curriculum, and is responsible for teaching nine credit hours of common freshman coursework for each of the College’s first year students (1000 per year). Subject matters taught include physics, perspective of the engineering profession, teaming, design process with projects, engineering communication and basic computer instruction. EFP also teaches a sophomore computer programming course and other classes, such as First-Year Studies classes, focused on skills for success during the transition from high school to college, and a leadership class for peer mentors who support the Engage Living and Learning Community, a 200+ student residential community for first year students in the Tickle College of Engineering.  Details of the Engineering Fundamentals Program are available at http://ef.utk.edu.

 

These positions are full-time, non-tenure-track, 9-month appointments. Candidates are expected to have an earned doctorate in engineering with an undergraduate degree in any engineering discipline; strongly preferred are candidates with a doctorate in engineering education. Candidates must possess excellent communication skills, and a solid commitment to innovative teaching methods, both traditional and technology enabled.  Demonstrated interest in engineering education programs is expected. College-level teaching experience and educational research experience evidenced by refereed conference and journal publications and participation on funded grants are strongly preferred. Professional registration is desirable.

 

Applications should include: (1) a letter of interest addressing qualifications and teaching interests, (2) a comprehensive curriculum vitae, and (3) the names and contact information (address, phone number, and e-mail address) for at least three professional references.  Please send a single electronic file (pdf) as an e-mail attachment to mcopley@utk.edu.  Questions about the position should be directed to Dr. Richard Bennett, Chair of the Search Committee, (voice: 865.974.9810; email: rmbennett@utk.edu).  Anticipated starting date is August 2019.

 

For more information, please see the full job posting at: https://webapps.utk.edu/humanresources/utjoblist/PrintJob.aspx?ID=22794

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:  Tenured Faculty Position in the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State University

 

The Ohio State University invites applications for a tenured faculty position at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor to start August 2019. We are seeking proven, innovative scholars in engineering and/or computing education who will help build the Department of Engineering Education (EED, https://eed.osu.edu/) that was formed in November 2015. Highly competitive candidates have: pioneered significant scholarly contributions to engineering and/or computing research, shown that they can collaborate with both tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty members from different disciplines, and experience in applying evidence-based pedagogical teaching techniques with attention to inclusion of multiple perspectives and demographics.  Successful candidates will be expected to continue to secure external funding to support graduate students and research, cultivate department research initiatives, and collaborate with scholars within the department, within the college, within the university, and across the engineering and/or computing research communities. In addition, they will be expected to contribute to continued improvement of our first-year engineering fundamentals courses, our engineering technical communication courses, or our multidisciplinary campus courses that includes capstone design courses. Finally, they will be expected to build our graduate program and research enterprise.

 

Interested applicants should submit an application in Academic Jobs Online:https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/12602. Please include a cover letter, curriculum vita, statements of teaching and research interests, and names and contact information of five references commensurate with the rank sought. The Ohio State University College of Engineering is strongly committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in all areas of scholarship, instruction and outreach. In the cover letter, describe experiences, current interests or activities, and/or future goals that promote a climate that values diversity and inclusion in one or more of these areas. The Ohio State University is committed to establishing a culturally and intellectually diverse environment, encouraging all members of our learning community to reach their full potential. We are responsive to dual-career families and strongly promote work-life balance to support our community members through a suite of institutionalized policies. We are an NSF Advance Institution, a member of the Ohio/Western Pennsylvania/West Virginia Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC), and have an excellent partner in The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. The Ohio State University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, or protected veteran status.  Application deadline: December 31, 2018.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Multiple tenure-track positions at the rank of assistant or associate levels, School of Engineering Education at Purdue University

 

The School of Engineering Education at Purdue University invites applications for multiple tenure-track positions at the rank of assistant or associate levels. Purdue University seeks to attract exceptional candidates with interests and expertise in engineering education research ranging from pre-kindergarten through college and into engineering practice. Commensurate with rank, new faculty will be expected to develop (or continue to develop) a nationally or internationally recognized, externally-funded research program in engineering education, advise graduate students, teach graduate and undergraduate level courses – including in first-year engineering, Multidisciplinary Engineering, or Interdisciplinary Engineering Studies programs – and perform service at the School, University, and professional society levels.

 

Please find the full position description at https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/InfoFor/Employment/JobDescriptions/171/ENE%20Ad.pdf. Review of applications began on November 1, 2018 and will continue until all positions are filled. Applications are still being accepted for full consideration. For information or questions regarding applications, contact the search committee chair, Tamara Moore at tmoore@purdue.edu.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Tenure-track and visiting faculty, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

 

The Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology invites applications for tenure track and Visiting faculty positions with an anticipated start date of August 2019. The department, which continues to experience strong enrollment growth (currently 425 students), offers B.S. degrees in computer science and software engineering.
Requirements include a doctorate or near completion in computer science, software engineering or closely related field (including engineering education with an emphasis on these fields) and evidence of or demonstrated potential for excellence in undergraduate teaching. We are looking for candidates from all areas of computer science and software engineering who embrace the mission and vision of Rose-Hulman to join our collegial team of 23 faculty.   The department and the institute place a high value on engaging students from traditionally underrepresented groups, and candidates from these groups are especially encouraged to apply. Candidates who can broaden and enhance the educational experience of our students are also encouraged to apply. Rose-Hulman also offers a multidisciplinary, project-driven engineering design major, a multidisciplinary robotics minor, an ongoing research project on human-robot collaboration, and the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges program among its vibrant interdisciplinary initiatives.

 

If you have questions and or concerns, please email Sriram Mohan at mohan@rose-hulman.edu  Applicants should submit a cover letter, a curriculum vita or resume, a statement on their teaching philosophy and practices, a statement of their professional development goals, and a statement regarding their experience or other evidence of commitment to diversity and inclusion to https://jobs.rose-hulman.edu.

 

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  1. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:  Six tenure-track faculty positions at the assistant professor level, The R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis

 

The R.B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) is seeking teacher-scholars for six tenure-track faculty positions at the assistant professor level (9-month contract) with an expected start date of August 2019.Our mission is to use interdisciplinary education to develop modern engineering leaders who create outstanding solutions. The School’s mission is accomplished through the DesignSpine,  which provides students with an interdisciplinary design experience throughout their entire academic tenure. These experiences involve projects sourced from external stakeholders, which expose students to design for Six-Sigma, project management, entrepreneurial mindset, and communication. The School has programs in computer science, industrial and systems engineering, mechanical engineering, and software engineering. We are launching programs in computer engineering, electrical engineering, and general engineering starting in the Fall of 2019. To accommodate this growth, the School has a plan to expand into new facilities on campus.

The faculty in the School are comprised of individuals from wide-ranging backgrounds and experiences where collaboration is highly encouraged and supported – including a School structure without department boundaries. The faculty’s educational backgrounds span multiple engineering, computer science, and physical science disciplines, and include those with significant industrial, consulting, entrepreneurial, and project management experience. Our diverse team is dedicated to effective and innovative teaching methodologies, which include a rigorous first-year program, project-based learning, service learning, and current topics courses. Team building and design activities begin from the first day of classes and are reinforced throughout the curriculum. Our small class sizes and experienced professors allow students to design and direct coursework based on their interests, industry trends, and internship experiences.

Review of applications begins December 1st and will continue until all positions are filled. For more information, please see our posting at https://uindy.hyrell.com/VirtualStepPositionDetails.aspx?TemplateId=257773

Questions may be directed to Dr. Jose Sanchez at sanchezjr@uindy.edu

 

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  1. CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Engineering Education CAREER Webinar

 

Julie Martin, the program director for Engineering Education in the EEC Division of NSF, will be hosting a webinar for prospective CAREER PIs on Monday, December 17 from 1-2pm Eastern. Participants are invited to send questions to Julie ahead of time to be answered during the webinar. Please log in a few minutes early to join the meeting. Meeting number (access code): 903 505 576. Meeting password: Career@2018. Join by phone by dialing 1-510-210-8882. The webinar will be recorded. Live captioning will be provided: click here for live captioning and enter event number 3795027.

 

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Holly M. Matusovich, PhD

Associate Professor

Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Programs

Engineering Education

Virginia Tech

355 Goodwin Hall

matushm at vt dot edu

Learning London: A day of cream tea and BauBax testing

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Soho at Christmas–but it is lit this way year round!

Aongus and I aim to make the most of every free day we have in London. I’m back at Gatwick now, flying to a speaking engagement in Dublin, and reflecting on the past 24 hours.

After work yesterday (7PM Friday), we met in Covent Garden. First strolling aimlessly, for the purpose of exercise and air, we found ourselves in Soho when Aongus’ hunger pangs won out. We stopped in for Dim Sum at the Golden Phoenix restaurant on Gerrard Street, London W1D 6JE, in the heart of China Town.

Aiming to try new things as often as possible, we thus enjoyed our first dinner on Gerrard Street. The custard-filled buns at the Golden Phoenix were particularly delicious; we will skip ordering a saucy dish next time and stick to the dumplings!

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Cream tea for two at Harrod’s

Today (Saturday morning) we awoke for a trip to Kensington via the London underground. I’d booked cream tea for two at Harrod’s. The store and its surrounding streets had a festive holiday feel.

After tea, we browsed and even made a small purchase (but not Italian luxury furniture, unfortunately!).

In our photos of furniture-testing, you’ll see Aongus trying out his new BauBax 2.0 travel jacket. In a recent Kick Starter campaign, I had ordered us matching bomber jackets. Today we donned these early Christmas presents, and Aongus is delighted with his. I’m an architect and I am quite detail-oriented, so although I’m happy with several of the innovative features, I am not entirely satisfied with the overall product–at least not in the medium size for women.

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Harrods interior stair. The building is a-maze-ing.

It seems to me they tested the BauBax 2.0 design on the large size for men. Several of the features promised–most notably the interior iPad pocket–are too small in the version for ladies. My iPad is a few millimeters too long to fit, and they now say the ladies version will only fit an “iPad mini” which I have not found to be a useful tool. Nevertheless, there’s still a pocket for the iPad pencil. Not too useful if you can’t bring your iPad! It’s important to have pockets when Ryanair won’t allow baggage aboard without add-on fees. I like to travel with as few bags as possible!

So, while the garment does have several nice design features, the final product appears to have been rushed out of the factory. Many of the seams and details in mine are of poor quality. I’ll need to bring it to a tailor to remedy its shortfalls, and I’ll not buy clothing online again.

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Giving an Italian recliner and a BauBax 2.0 bomber jacket a test run

I guess it boils down to the fact that when it comes to buying cars, computers, and clothes, I’m not an Innovator according to Rodger’s Adoption model–those folks bought the BauBax 1.0 on Kickstarter. I’m also not completely comfortable as an Early Adopter, as I’ve ended up with second-iteration products that still needed some refinement–including this BauBax 2.0 and a 2004 Nissan 350Z.

I really loved my Z car but it, and its 2003 and 2004 siblings, came out of the factory without its tires balanced! They didn’t realize that tire-balancing issue until they’d rolled 14 months or so of these two-seat sports cars out of showrooms. Tires started failing at 16k miles and had to be replaced. So now I know definitively–I need to wait for v3.0. Just be an Early Innovator and enjoy the benefits of having a refined design rather than a cutting-edge showpiece.

I am, however, very happy with the smile on Aongus’ face and the fact that he says the shape of the jacket is flattering. Fortunately, with time and use, I’m beginning to identify which pockets can fit which items–which doesn’t exactly align with the BauBax info sheets that we studied meticulously–but I’m finding systems that work for me.

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Comptior on Exhibition Rd

So as you see from Aongus’ reclined testing position at Harrod’s furniture showrooms, we rested a bit on some cozy chairs, identifying ideal options for our future. After discussing chair designs with a furniture rep, we viewed some women’s fashions. We enjoy seeing the bizarre clothing designs on offer here and at Harvey Nichols, but we quickly had our fill and headed out and down to the street.

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Enjoying a chicken tagine

Following a zesty Lebanese tagine at Comptior on Exhibition Road–a cafe we had previously enjoyed with my cousin Kaitlin–we headed over to the Victoria and Albert Museum to absorb some art and history. We particularly enjoyed the stained glass and the new section for photography. You’ll see photos of the building and also from the Buddist, metalwork, and photography sections.

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Cameras on exhibit in the V&A’s new photography section

The sun had set and there wasn’t much time before my flight to Dublin, so we dashed to the South Kensington tube station and jumped onto a District line train.

We said a quick but heartfelt “goodbye and see you Friday” as I disembarked at Victoria Station and climbed the stairs to the National Rail station on the ground floor. Despite construction works around Gatwick that delayed the train 15 minutes, I arrived and cleared security with plenty of time for a browse at Dixon’s and a healthy salad from Pret before I hit the runway–putting my travel jacket to work.

Ciao, Britain. See your other side on Tuesday!

Perched atop UCL for an Away Day strategizing engineering education

Perched high above UCL, in the penthouse Marconi room, University College London’s engineering education experts assembled on November 29th at the uppermost point of the Bloomsbury campus to discuss progress and strategy for the future. I was delighted with the sweeping views toward East London, where I live, and my co-researcher Dr. Inês Direito and I selected seats where we could watch the color of the sky shift throughout the day.

UCL staff from the Institute of Education (IoE), Arena Centre for Research-Base Education, and Faculty of Engineering Sciences (Integrated Engineering Programme and the Centre for Engineering Education where I’m working) joined together for a half-day retreat. We started with a light lunch so that we could get re-acquainted and welcome a guest from McGill University in Canada. I myself am here for two years as a Marie Curie Research Fellow, on a career break from Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

Our Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) has two directors. Professor David Guile is from the Institute of Education and Professor John Mitchell is from the Faculty of Engineering Sciences. John ran the meeting.

After introductions, we got updates on CEE activities as well as a synopsis of our core mission. Emanuela Tilley, Director of UCL’s Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) provide an update and John Mitchell described progress building the university’s new campus in Stratford, East London. The campus is called Here East and will eventually include space for our Centre.

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Emanuela Tilley providing updates on UCL’s award-winning IEP

We learned about the new Masters in Engineering and Education that CEE and IoE recently launched. There are six MSc students in the current, inagural cohort and its organizers anticipate bringing in 20 additional students next year. I’ll be delivering a session for this degree program in January, on learning theories. I’m hoping that DIT’s MSc in aBIMM (Masters in applied Building Information Modeling and Management technologies) can provide a helpful precedent for organizing the thesis portion of the program, as my colleagues Deborah Brennan and Dr. Avril Behan have already achieved creative solutions to address the types of challenges our UCL team faces, as identified by Jay Derrick and David Guile. I’ll work to connect these four people.

Near the end of the meeting, Inês and I provided updates on our current and planned research projects. I mentioned contributions we’ve made to the larger community of engineering education researchers, running multiple workshops at SEFI 2018, providing leadership on journals like IEEE Transactions on Education, and collaborating with the CREATE research group at DIT, my home institution. I wrapped up by identifying the research projects that we have in progress—two that use phenomenology as well as two phenomenographic studies and two systematic reviews. I should have mentioned the special focus issue I have underway on using design projects to promote student development, but I forgot!

Meeting my bosses at London DIT Alumni’s annual chapter gathering

Maintaining professional connections is important, and although I’m on a Marie Curie fellowship in London, I still meet frequently with leaders from my home institution, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). Last night I met with Dr. Avril Behan (my direct line manager at DIT) in London, our recently-retired boss Professor Kevin Kelly, and DIT’s president Professor Brian Norton.

The London DIT Alumni chapter hosted a brilliant get-together, an annual event, at London’s Irish Center. This gave me a chance to meet DIT alumni working in London and also catch up with Avril, Kevin, Brian, and other DIT staff like Ciara Ahern.

I also had the pleasure of meeting anew many DIT graduates: MBA Tania Eyanga, Architecture Technologist John Heaney, daylighting designer Dr. Ruth Kelly Waskett, and engineers Paul Sheridan and Stephen Sunderland who work with WSP.

I’ve attached photos of the event as well as a few pics from Professor Kevin Kelly’s retirement party, held at DIT a couple of weeks ago.

At last night’s gathering, Professor Brian Norton provided updates on DIT’s new campus at Grangegoreman, and delivered the exciting news that a pedestrian route connecting Grangegoreman with DIT Bolton Street has just opened. The walk now takes just seven minutes and cuts through Kings Inn Law building, a truly stroll walk up Henrietta Street to Constitution Hill. Can’t wait to use this route! It will cut about 15 minutes off the current walking time between the two DIT sites.

Do-it-yourself punch cards and other amazing feats: DIT’s Paper Programming booth at Dublin Maker 2018

img_5842With the annual Dublin Maker fair on July 21st, DIT’s RoboSlam group of volunteer staff and students headed to Marrion Square for an action-packed Saturday. After four years of teaching visitors to Dublin Maker about build robots, we shifted focus to activities that could engage even more people at a time.

My clever colleagues in DIT’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering designed a booth on the theme of “Paper Programming” to teach the history and theory of using paper to program computerized gadgets that date back to the industrial loom for weaving fabric and the computer punch card.

img_5850The set of photo galleries below shows my weekend activities helping run this booth at Dublin Maker 2018. You’ll learn about and see photos of:

  • Getting to the fair
  • Setting up our booth
  • History of Paper Programming
  • Visiting other exhibits
  • Our activities
    • Fraktalismus
    • Scan2 Tweet
    • isitpop.art
    • Music Box
  • Time enough left for a relaxing Sunday!

Getting to the fair

My trip from London to the fair included a trip to London City Airport via the Docklands Light Rail on Friday. Exploring the city center of Dublin, I discovered a number of welcome changes. Namely, a second bike rental scheme has entered the city! This scheme requires locking the rental bike to a bike rack but doesn’t require using a docking stating like Dublin Bikes (of which I’m a member and enjoyed using twice this weekend). I also observed a slight increase in the use of the electric-car-charging stations. As I didn’t want to disturb my flat-mates, I dined out at Porto while reviewing calls for conference papers, and then took in a film about Oscar Wilde at the IFI. The next morning I woke early for my cycle ride to Marrion Square.

Setting up our booth

The team arrived an hour an a half before the official opening of the event, to get everything up and running. As every single activity we offered was brand new and designed for this event, we had some tweaking to do! The two main developers–Ted Burke and Frank Duignan–did an amazing job, and that enabled the rest of the crew to set up the activities. We learned a lot and had many successes at this event, and we will expand and continue to develop these activities for use in the future.

History of Paper Programming

Damon Berry and I served as the welcoming committee, of sorts–greeting people and providing introduction and background. Damon discussed the history of programming with paper, as described in the poster pictured below.

Visiting other exhibits

Before things got rolling, and on the way to pick up a lunch box, I got to visit other booths, check out the incredibly wide range of learning events, and make a few things myself.

Fraktalismus

For Fraktalismus, each participant drew one or two small sketches. Then a group of recent DIT graduates would capture the sketched image(s) and import them into a laptop.

The laptop was running a program developed by Dr. Ted Burke that applied a mathematical equation that would repeat the image in a fractal pattern. The participant could then use our computer mouse to adjust the “z” value in the equation–to flip through various iterations of the equation. The equation is included in an image below.

After selecting one fractal as the favorite pattern, the participant would then select a favored color combination. The DIT folks would print the image on glossy cardstock and provide the participant with it and an envelope to take home.

The results were artistic and consistently stunning! People of all ages got involved. I loved making my own greeting card using fractal geometry along with my hand-made sketch of a beloved fragment of London’s skyline.

Scan2 Tweet

in Scan2 Tweet, the participant used a barcode sheet with a hand scanner. Each barcode corresponded to one letter or keyboard character (space, delete, enter, for example). By scanning barcodes from this sheet, the participant could compose a short message and “Tweet” it from our group’s Twitter account. DIT’s Shane Ormonde ran this activity.

isitpop.art

Ted managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat at the last minute, getting his design-it-yourself video game programme up and running that he calls “isitpop.art”. Participants could input their own drawing to use as an icon in the game, and control the background to be an image of their choice (such as their own photo, or a video clip from the internet).

Music Box

In the Music Box activity, designed by Frank Duignan, participants received a sheet of paper with a grid for plotting musical tones in sequence. They were given a quick briefing on how the technology worked—they would color one square per row with a black marker. When this colored square passed its corresponding color sensor, a note would play. Thus, participants with knowledge of music theory were able to predict or orchestrate the sequence of notes to play a tune.

The piece of paper was attached to a drum (in this case a large drink bottle) and spun on its axis. This allowed the grided paper to pass across the set of color sensors, one row after another. A tennis ball was used to hold the bottom of the bottle in the correct place (effectively weighing it down).

We tried to use a similar system to run four small motors to operate a small robotic arm and its claw, and I suspect we will see this up and running in subsequent later events. Watching the teamwork on this activity gave a sense of what it’s like to work as an engineer, working to troubleshoot and address problems that arise with the parts.

I really enjoyed this activity and enjoyed hearing the short tunes that participants created.

Time enough left for a relaxing Sunday!

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, I hailed a cab for Dublin Airport. Landing at Gatwick, I grabbed breakfast to go and headed to the train platform. When the next train to Brighton pulled into the station, Aongus popped out to welcome me aboard for the half hour trip to the southern coast of Britain.

We spent the day on Brighton Beach, with lunch in the town and a visit to Brighton Pier before enjoying a peaceful 1.75-hour trip back by train to our place in Mile End.

 

Excursions from London: Weekend trip to Rye

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Window shopping in Rye.

During May, we celebrated our third “bank holiday weekend” of the year in the quaint medieval town of Rye. Enamored with England’s southeastern coast from the two prior weekends, we boarded the Southern high-speed train service headed to Kent for a new adventure there.

Arriving in Rye, we found ourselves in an amazingly tranquil and sunny, exquisitely preserved town not far from the beach.

Top memories from our three-day weekend are identified below and also shown in a gallery of photos. I hope that if you’re planning an outing to Rye, this info will inspire you and help you plan.

Day One

  • Arrive at the pretty little train station and check in at the Regent “Motel” where it’s possible to park a car
  • Find the bike rental shop and make arrangements for the next morning
  • Walk around scenic Mermaid Street and its surrounding cobbled streets
  • Eat, drink, and be merry at Mermaid Hotel, Pub, and Restaurant
  • Attempt to see Lamb House (which was temporarily closed, unfortunately)
  • Stroll through Cemetery of St. Mary’s Church
  • Visit Ypres Tower/Castle, its courtyard and Woman’s prison tower, and its panoramic terrace with historic cannons
  • Grab a second lunch at Fletchers House or next door to it, at Simon the Pieman (my guy gets very hungry)
  • Tour St. Mary’s Church, its annual flower festival
  • Climb St. Mary’s bell tower to reach the spectacular panoramic view—this is a climb suited only to brave and well-coordinated folks (the passageways and stairs are extremely narrow and I tripped any number of times on the roof)
  • Shop in the boutiques around town and visit the Kino to check show times to see if any suit
  • Wander around town, visit the fun fair, and drive like a maniac at bumper cars
  • Dinner at The Devil in Rye, in the bright, sunny indoor courtyard area in the back
  • Enjoy a scenic night stroll through the town
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Blown away by Rye!

Day Two

On our second day, we set out for a leisurely bicycle trip toward Rye Harbour and Winchelsea town.

  • Enjoy breakfast at Whitehouse Rye, then rent bikes at Rye Hire, Ltd.
  • Pack a picnic lunch, and make a cycling tour, heading in the direction of Rye Harbour taking time out along the way for whatever pops up, such as an RV open house at JC Leisure
  • Relax I the courtyard and cemetery of the Church of the Holy Spirit and the nearby playground
  • Stop off at William the Conqueror, and attend special bank holiday events, such as traditional musicians and traditional folk dancers (Morris dancing) performing I. The streets in both Rye Harbour and Winchelsea town
  • Explore the WWII bunkers along the coast, the seawall at the mouth of River Rother, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, and many protective structures along the coast and at Winchelsea Beach
  • Experience sunset rays piercing through slit windows at the spectacular St. Thomas the Martyr church in Winchelsea, and search for famous names in the cemetery surrounding g the church
  • Enjoy a refreshment at The New Inn, in the lovely, floral Biergarten, a walled secret garden
  • Head home via rugged footpaths, as long as you’ve got an off-road bike–but next time, I’ll go for the electric bike rather than rent a push bike, so I can cover more distance
  • Dine again at The Mermaid Inn in Rye, “The Mermaid’s doors had been opened 150 years when Elizabeth I visited Rye in 1573” since it serves food late into the evening
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Cycling from Winchelsea back to Rye.

Day Three

On the final day, we checked out of the hotel, the. We de died to:

  • Enjoy breakfast in Rye, and jump on the Wave 101 bus to Camber Sands Beach (21-minute trip)
  • Sit on the beach, play in the shallow water, and walk along the beach and seawall until time to head back
  • Return to Rye, pick up bags at the hotel and enjoy a quick cookout meal at the pub in the old Water Works building, constructed 1869
  • Head to the Historic train station for the small two-carriage train back to Ashford International Train Station and on to London

Note that evening trains are extremely crowded on bank holiday Mondays.

Visiting Professors in London

West End fun with Drs. Eddy and Pape

I’ve been visiting with Professors from the States the past few weeks here in London, and morphing into even more of a Visiting Professor myself!

Two weeks ago, Prof. Pam Eddy and her husband Dave arrived for a week-long visit. Pam was my PhD advisor at William and Mary and she has been an inspiration, role model, and source of advice as I’ve moved across from teaching architectural into researching engineering education. Pam had a Fulbright fellowship to Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in 2009. Because I’d set that very same goal—winning a Fulbright grant to work at DIT—in 2003, Pam’s advice on the matter proved indispensable. She shared valuable insight into how Fulbright and DIT operate and she helped me connect with others in-the-know. On my first working trip to Dublin, I got to interview more than half a dozen academics about how DIT works, and this gave me the context I needed to make the most of my subsequent time here. Pam and I even met local scholars together, over another spring break, also before my Fulbright, when we both found ourselves Dublin.

Pam is truly one of the most generous, energetic, and positive people I’ve ever met. I’m beyond lucky to know her and I value her advice—even if I don’t always understand the funny policy-wonk words she uses! 😜

After the excellent musical “Kinky Boots.”

Pam has featured prominently on this blog before, as she’s visited me often in Dublin and we have met up in cities all around the world: Rome, Paris, New Orleans, and Washington, DC. Now we’ve added London to that list. Her professor-husband Dave is usually in tow, and always adding interesting insight, since he’s a former engineering dean.

I’m proud to say this was Pam and Dave’s first trip to the City of London and they really seemed to enjoy the place. I think they will be back!

While here, Pam and I got to work on the journal article we are crafting along with two of my colleagues from the Irish public service. We’ve had our proposal accepted for Policy Reviews in Higher Education, and now we need to pull the parts together and synch them effectively.

Following the departure of Pam and Dave, I had the chance to catch up with another favorite professor, Ron Daniel, and his spouse, Cheryl.

With Prof. Ron and Cheryl Daniel

Ron Daniel was my professor for spring semester of my second year of architecture school. We worked closely together, along with some other amazingly dedicated students and teachers, to create a multimedia extravaganza to celebrate Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies’ 25th anniversary in 1989. We had nine screens running simultaneously with performance artists dancing throughout the hour-long show. In preparation for that bash, we also silkscreened posters and designed and poured concrete banner stands with welded steel bases—yes, I learned to weld at Virginia Tech!

For the Anniversary show, I was most closely involved with making several of the 16mm films running on three of the nine screens. And I was one of nine diligent students running the projection booth. What a techie I was!

The following year, Ron invited me to teach film workshops to younger students, and that got me into leading activities and events for my peers. Over the next three years, I taught many workshops and also organized trips, including excursions to Charlottesville, Columbus, and New York City to hear visiting lecturers—world renowned architects visiting UVA, Ohio State, and Columbia University.

When I was nearing graduation from VT’s Bachelor of Architecture program, I went to Ron, expressing interest in the teaching role I’d seen older students doing in the past. I hadn’t realized they were actually designated as lecturers. This was a full-time faculty role, and Ron thought I fit the bill. I was soon awarded this one-year stipend position, and looking back, it seems that may have been my first fellowship.

The year lecturing at VT was a success so I continued on to earn a post-professional Masters in Architecture that would allow me to teach in the future at the university level in architecture. Ron was one of my three advisors for that Masters, and the thesis document was good enough to snag a job working as an intern architect in Switzerland for a year, at Studio Martin Wagner. I also helped teach film that year, for the SCI-Arc center Martin directed.

For the past two years, Ron has been working in London. We finally got a chance to catch up in the neighborhood in Barnes where he and Cheryl have lived for the past year. Aongus and I throughly enjoyed visiting in their home, dining out with them, and attending a jazz performance together. Photos of the Cadillac Kings are included in the photo gallery below. What a hoot!

The instrumental roles professors have had in my life is clear. I’m glad I’ve stayed connected with many who have helped grow my abilities.

Prof. Brad Grant

In the past week, for instance, I’ve communivated with Prof. Brad Grant and Prof. David Leslie, who I learned from at Hampton University and William and Mary, respectively. I always enjoy hearing from them! Their kids—Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, Asa Wynn-Grant, and Prof. Tom Leslie are true inspirations as well, and are always raising the bar higher.

And I’m doing my bit to reach out and support others in return. I hope someday the students I’ve worked with will have similar things to say about me. I cherish the ongoing relationships I have with my former students, many enabled by Facebook. Just this week, another one earned his license to practice architecture in the USA. Monteil Crawley joined his wife, Kristina Crawley, with this status. Monteil worked on the design of the Smithsonian’s new museum of African-American History. They both took my second-year architecture studio and Architectural Ecology class. I was Krissy’s Bachelors thesis advisor. Krissy went in to get a Masters from UVA. They have two bright and beautiful children.

Profs. David and Thomas Leslie

Today, I make a point to extend the kind and gracious support to the students I meet, as my professors extended me.

Kendall Brantley and Aongus and me at the Vaudeville Theater

For instance, a colleague of mine from Hampton has a niece, Kendall Brantley, who has been studying at NYU here in London. We’ve met a few times, and I took her for dinner and a play last week, before her trip home.

A PhD supervision meeting with Thomas Empson

I hope the relationship I’m developing with my new PhD advisee, Thomas Empson, will extend far into the future as well. Thomas is a doc student at London South Bank University, and I’ve just been appointed Visiting Professor there to aid in my work with him. Our working sessions over the past few months have been quite successful and I have the highest of hopes for him. He’s a bright student, well organized, and an extremely hard worker.

One of my current supervisors, Prof. John Mitchell, helped me connect to LSBU as a way to meet one of my training objectives. You see, my current fellowships aims to equip and position me to secure funding for larger grants. This is so that, someday, I can lead an independent research team. I’m gradually gaining skills in supervising and in publishing. And I’m connecting the people I know from the USA with scholars I meet here in Europe and those I’m working with globally, through networks like REEN and SEFI.

With London superstars Emanuela Tilley and Folashade Akinmolayan

I’m receiving this training as a Marie Curie Research Fellow at University College London, where I’m also officially classified as a Visiting Professor (which will help me continue collaborating with scholars here even after my two-year fellowship is done, for an additional three years or more). I’ve been learning so much from my new colleagues, like professors-in-the-making Folashade Akinmolayan and Emanuela Tilley.

Building a professional research network, connecting scholars across the ocean, and learning to supervise doc students are all important in building my skills as a researcher. And, they are a lot of fun as well!

 

 

 

Learning London: Four-Day Family Extravaganza

My cousin Kaitlin has been teaching English in Spain this past year. So we (my partner Aongus and I) decided to add a second stamp to her passport and we invited her up to London for an extended weekend

Aongus meet her at the Tube station and guided her home from the airport, with a stop for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, Indigo at Richmix. Meanwhile, I sped back via train from my conference in Newcastle and arrived home minutes before them.

We were up bright and early Thursday morning for the start of a whirlwind tour that lasted four days.

On day one, we included:

  • Kaitlin’s first double-decker bus trip, on Bus 8, so as to see St. Paul’s and other prominent sites from the top deck, front row–best seats on the bus!
  • Sir John Soane’s House Museum, full of Roman antiquities and memorable painting and flooded with daylight in every corner.
  • The British Museum, stopping for coffee in the courtyard and visiting the South American and Egyptian sections.
  • Dashing into the Building Centre in Store Street to view the enormous model of London.
  • A relaxing couple of hours in Bloomsbury, for lunch with my UCL colleagues Emanuela and Folashade–our farewell sendoff to Queen Mary University of London for Folashade.
  • A walk to Picadilly Circus and the courtyard of the Royal Academy, with rose petal macaroons at Laudre in the Burlington Arcade, then onward to Green Park, the gates of Buckingham Palace, and a stroll across St. James’s Park.
  • Arriving at Westminster Abbey in perfect time to attend the choral Evensong.
  • A walk to Trafalgar Square and up Strsnd Street to fetch tickets at the box office of The Savoy.
  • A quick but tasty dinner at Itsu, where Aongus joined us after his work day.
  • A delightful evening at the West End musical “Dreamgirls”
  • Wrapping up the day with a walk through Covent Garden, stopping at Gelaterino before our bus ride home

Day two was filled with more adventures. This was Saturday and we headed by Tube to the Bourough of South Kensington and Chelsea for:

  • The Saatchi Gallery (modern art)
  • Kale salad and chestnut/almond waffles at a favorite cafe on Sloane Avenue
  • The Natural History Museum, where we focused on the dinasoaur and mammal exhibitions
  • Drinks and tagines at the Comptoir Libanas restaurant on Exhibition Road where we snagged an outdoor table under the awnings and heat lamps to avoid the evening rainstorm
  • Art-till-you-drop and cultural-encounters-of-all-kinds at the Victoria and Albert Museum (we saw several new wings due to Kaitlin’s interest in world religions)
  • Visits to high-end furniture shops and luxury department stores (John Lewis top to bottom, Herrod’s food courts, and Harvey Nichols tour of floors)
  • Pints at the Wilton Arms to again wait out the rain, and chat with some lively Brits
  • Dinner nearby at the Alfred Tennyson to round out the day and a stroll through high-end alleyways en route back to the tube–admiring the pricy vehicles.

Kaitlin spent day three with a friend she graduated university alongside. I’m so impressed with Kaitlin and all she has learned and done. She graduated first in her university class last year and then came to teach in Spain fresh out of college. She has taught both in a school and also private lessons and she even played soccer competitively, on a team in Spain.

Since it was Sunday and she was otherwise occupied, Aongus and I made the most of the day with:

  • A visit to the Imperial War Museum and the Tibetian Peace Garden, located on its grounds
  • A walk over to Trafalgar Square with a delightful Sunday roast at The Clarence
  • Fancy desserts at the sushi place in Kingly Court
  • Bus ride back to Shoreditch to catch up with Kaitlin at a South American restaurant near our home

On day four, Kaitlin and I had specific plans. We headed to:

  • The Churchill War Rooms, also viewing the exhibition on Churchill’s life
  • The London Eye, for a half-hour trip around this impressive Ferris wheel with its sweeping views of London
  • A quick visit to the National Gallery
  • Our second lunch in Bloomsbury at Dim T, since we enjoyed the one wit Folashade and Emanuela so much
  • A walking tour across University College London’s city campus

We gathered our bags from my office at UCL and boarded the tube for Heathrow, where we bid each other farewell–me heading to Dublin for a week’s work and Kait back to Spain to wrap up her teaching.

It was a truly delightful four days, though I admit I was completely exhausted the day after we parted. It was a treat to get to know this first-cousin-once-removed a bit better and to learn how very much alike we are despite having drastically different parental upbringing. I’m so very impressed with the person she’s become and how intelligent and thoughtful and hardworking and courteous she is. I’m glad I’d worked ahead and could take comp days while she was here so I could really get to know her. It was a rare treat to tour the city with her, and one I hope to have someday again.

Sharing research at EERN

The Engineering Education Research Network (EERN) for the UK and Ireland met today at Newcastle University. Since one third of the presentations at this colloquium were delivered by DIT’s research group called CREATE (for Contributions to Research in Engineeing and Applied Technology Education), I got to catch up with my beloved colleagues from Dublin.

Yesterday, Emma Whitney, a colleague at UCL asked me to Tweet the events since three of us from UCL were attending. She gave me a few pointers for Tweeting, and I gave it a go.

@shannonchance7 has never had much success with Twitter. But with Emma’s tips I was able to do a respectable job (although I can’t get Twitter working now, on the train back to London, so perhaps I downed the platform!?).

It was great hearing about the #engineeringeducation #educationresearch folks are doing across Ireland and the UK.

This was the first EERN event with specific discussions to help support and guide PhD students and early-career/newer researchers. I actually feel that we’re all new to this! It’s an emerging field of research and were working hard to establish the methods, publications, conferences, and knowledge-sharing networks.

I’m delighted to be part of such a vibrant community, dedicated to improving the student experience and the quality of learning. I’ve uploaded photos of the conference and also of my morning exploration in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It’s a lovely little city and I’ll hope to return again some day.

Able Nyamapfene from UCL.

The DIT CREATE contingent. DIT’s Una Beagon. Rebecca Broadbent from Astin University. DIT’s Darren McCarthy. DIT’s Gavin Duffy. EERN colloquium organizers, Jane Andrews and Roger Penlimgton. Shannon, Darren, Rachel, Robert, Una, Brian (with Gavin MIA for the selfie)

Learning London’s Lengthy Flat-hunt

IMG_7541 2As I peered over my Asian-style crispy chicken burger–the healthiest lunch I could find in the time ticking down to my afternoon workshop on supervising PhD students–I was reminded by my view of my extensive London-flat hunt.  I was enjoying the moment as well as the view and the new-found flavors. It’s not uncommon for burgers in London to include kimchi and I was developing fondness to the new taste. Like these Korean-infused breaded-chicken-fillet sandwiches, London flats have distinctive qualities all their own, I realized.

Flats in zone one and two seem darker, on average, than flats in other cities.

Hunting for a place to live in this massive and densely-occupied city has its own unique joys and challenges. I think it’s helpful to share pointers–I reviewed multiple YouTube videos during my three-month search. This blog explains some of what I learned and experienced during my search to help other roving scholars looking to settle here.

IMG_7544 2As I munched, I observed one of the apartment buildings I visited, across the leafy green Tavistock Square, over in the very far corner. The place was lovely. At the top of the building with a sweeping view to the north, it was served by multiple stairs, elevators, and even a porter. But it had just one room. One very expensive room, at that.

All the places I visited were expensive. Most cost above £1500 a month (that’s $2800), PLUS utilities and council tax. Such was the case for either a room in a shared flat or a studio apartment. In a shared-flat where you live with roommates, there’s a surcharge for having two people in one room. That seems fair enough, but the surcharge goes on top of the publish rate, often catching me by surprise. It can run £300, plus increased council tax (a per-head charge based on the estimated value of the property), and a larger (per-person) share of utilities.

IMG_7552Most surprising to me: (1) many flats had no living room since it had been converted to sleeping space in order to bring in more rent money, and (2) even very expensive flats had no views out. Sometimes the entire flat received no direct sunlight.

One room that had light and views came with five energetic dogs of all sizes but similar make and model. *Five.* Imagine five dogs in a small townhouse… and that townhouse had six sleeping rooms, so who knows how many roommates you’d end up tolerating in addition to the dogs?

I couldn’t imagine. I wouldn’t.

I had searched for months online and I visited London multiple times during my search. I found a number of online search platforms helpful:

UCL’s accommodation site is intended to help incoming staff, and accessing it requires a staff identification number. It was a good place to start, although I found its listings to be outdated. A majority were not available at the time I was searching. (They seem to be listed in perpetuity?) I believe this resource was developed before there were so many other options available for searching online. Nevertheless, I was grateful to have the resource as a point of comparison of what a traveling scholar could expect.

Sabbatical Homes is a great resource–especially for scholars needing short-term lets, long lead-times, and tailored dates. But the listings are very, very costly! We did view one Sabbatical Home that was in our price range, but it was underground. The hosts were super interesting and fun to talk with–an academic set–but the main window faced north (toward the garden wall) and was covered with a decorative iron grate. All the other windows were too small to crawl through. Plus, the furniture was depressingly old-fashioned. I just couldn’t get past that. I could have handled crawling out the end of the bed, since the mattress filled most of the room, because at least the mattress was not in the living room. Overall, we decided we had to find some light. Sun-filled homes on this site would cost at least twice what we would eventually pay.

I found Gun Tree to be too confusing–it’s not designed specifically for property searches and leaves many unknowns. The map locations are not precise and any transaction appeared to have a high level of risk involved. An AirBnB host of mine, who had used it to locate his own place, provided words of caution. If I need to move again when I’m more familiar with the city, Gum Tree might be more help.

I eventually viewed a number of flats in person. The ones I visited had been located using: (1) UCL’s staff accommodation website, (2) Sabbatical Homes, and (3) Spare Room.

I ultimately found our new place via Spare Room.

After uploading a profile about my partner and myself on Spare Room, offers actually flooded in. It appears many people want mates who they can count on to be courteous and pay the rent! Many are looking for older, established professionals with dual income. I’d had trouble early-on since I’d locate a possible flat and later realize the residents were all 20 and wanted young flatmates. You can input your age and other parameters into Spare Room to help with matching.

Spare Room’s matching may have entered the realm of creepy, however. I just today received this email message:

Hi Shannon,

Looking for the perfect flatshare? We’ve got the answer for you: science.

Yep, that’s right. We’ve dusted off our lab goggles, found a few test tubes and even got ourselves some lab coats – all to ensure you find flatmates you really click with.

According to Swiss science boffins at Karmagenes, your DNA influences as much as 60% of your personality traits. So we’re joining forces to create a DNA Flatmate Matchmaking Service – giving you the chance to reveal key insights into you personality that will tell you which characters you’d blend well with in a flatshare.

In other words: your DNA + saliva swab = new BFF.

Sound interesting? We’re giving kits away on Facebook – just head to the page and follow the instructions for your chance to win.

Find out more »

Good luck!

The SpareRoom Team
news@spareroom.co.uk
0161 768 1162

My trouble hasn’t been with roommates, thankfully! I read on-line, though, that various spots such as the nearby Shoreditch Library offer ideal get-aways from troublesome flat mates.

What was hard for me was being able to get a feel for any given advertised flat from its online profile. The actual spaces weren’t at all like the ads seemed.

But leasehold can also be stressful and complex. There’s high turn-over in residence in the London flat market. Young and/or single people seem to apartment-hop (move residence) quite often around London. It’s common for a person, for example my osteopath, to describe living 4-5 different places in as many year.

The market churns. Buildings get sold to the highest bidder, and apparently these situations — of sharing with many, many roommates and renting from the leasehold — are fraught with complications. Adam Smith’s invisible hand lands people out of home and, sometimes, on the street. There’s more non-drug-related homelessness evident here than in Dublin. Overall, though the social support system seems more caring here than in many other places. Doctor’s visits are free (though I had to pay an entry tax to the health system) and the mail gets delivered to my door–up four flights of stairs. Residents of public/social housing are far more diverse than in the States and much less deprecated. Taxes are higher but provide a greater range of housing possibilities, with varying levels of support.

Incidentally, when traveling to London to view apartments, I used AirBnB and Hotels.com. Of these, Hotels.com provided the best value for money. That surprised me as I am a lover of AirBnB. Aongus and I used AirBnB to get a feel for a variety of neighborhoods, which was good in many ways.

However, I have found that quality control related to AirBnB in London is not high enough. we ended up in a very bad situation one night, when I’d needed to re-book due to the host’s change of plans. I selected a cheap place that lacked ratings from past guests. Of the 60 or so places I’ve stayed on AirBnB, this was truly the worst. Apparently, the superintendent of a campus of council flats was renting rooms out between formal rentals. Most likely he was pocketing the money himself.

Come to think of it, the manager of an international student house I’d used with AirBnB, also here in London, was doing something quite similar, by forcing people to book through his personal friend in the Mediterranean rather than through the house directly.

In both cases, I should have known better. The room was cheaper than market rate. To avoid such problems, read the AirBnB reviews carefully and heed the ratings posted by prior users! Do not cut corners when reviewing rooms prior to booking. I only go with hosts who have earned four or more stars from at least ten people.

In searching for flatmates, one perspective host had us over for a night so we could gauge what the experience of living at his place would actually be like. That was great! The host was amazing–such a great connector and a get-it-done, can-do kind of guy who mentors dozens of young musicians and performers. But the room was also very, very expensive (ringing in at £1770/€2000/$2500 per month, youch!). The estimated commute for Aongus from that flat was over an hour. Moreover, the owner’s ex-wife was to conduct workshops from the flat rendering it off- limits several days a month, and the sound system on the TV was extremely loud. And so we continued our search.

IMG_7594Subsequently, we visited a beautiful red brick building at Old Street Station, but the flat received no direct light whatsoever. And we’d have had to be more tidy than we could imagine in order to suit our very refined 23 year-old lawyer host.

In retrospect, the north-facing studio at Tavistock Square presented the most viable alternative to what we found, despite charging NYC rates for a single room. The membership fee for the homeowners association was unknown and the association was in the process of setting new rules. But the place was very clean and provided multiple routes out, in case of fire. What a luxury!

Sitting here, eating my pickled-cabbage fillet-on-a-bun, I felt a sense of fondness for the studio at Tavistock.

Aongus and I did succeed in finding a comfortable and happy home. It has plenty of space to work and read and learn and cook. Nice light, with beautiful views day and night. Friendly hosts who come and go, but travel a lot. It’s a half hour commute for me using the tube–longer than most other places I visited but still far less than the average Londoner’s commute. We’re grateful for our hosts who let us flat-sit here and for the search features provided by Spare Room that helped us connect with them. We found a cozy place to call home.

Seems like filming crews are forever setting up to shoot in the surrounding area. The neighborhood’s timeless charm holds great appeal. In two months here, I’ve observed three multi-day shoots in just four-block leading from our place to the tube. I only learned the name of one of these, to become a BBC TV series here in the UK. Perhaps buying a TV is in order, to view their results?