June 27, 2024June 28, 2024 by shannonchance

Discovering Portland with ASEE

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

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

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

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

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

Dramatic scenery off the tip of my Alaska Air wing.

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

My hotel, right at the gate to Chinatown.

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.

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

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

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

Kari Zacharias, 3(1) individual and collective

Jeff Brown, 5(1) professional organizations and codes

Shannon Chance, 6(1) environment

Julianna Gesun, 10(2) psychological foundations

Susan Lord, 16(3) electrical and electronic engineering

Dayoung Kim, 17(3) chemical engineering

Stephanie Lunn, 18(3) software engineering

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

Aditya Johri, 20(4) case studies

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

Sarah Hitt, 24(4) arts-based

Adetoun Yeaman, 27(5) attitudes and character

Sarah Junaid, 30(5)

Rockwell Clancy, 31(5) behavior and culture

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

Madeline Polmear, 34(6) licensure

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

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

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

Until next time, the memories will have to do.

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

May 28, 2020May 28, 2020 by shannonchance

Action for Inclusion in Engineering Education

My closest-colleague, Dr. Inês Direito from University College London’s Centre for Engineering Education, has been working long and hard on a diversity initiative. She spearheaded efforts on the European side to craft “A Call and Pledge for Action” and get it adopted and formally launched by both the European Society of Engineering Education (SEFI) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).

ASEE & SEFI Joint Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Pledge for Action

April 2020

As a member of a global engineering community, I pledge to celebrate diversity, create opportunities, and actively support inclusive environments, in which all my students, colleagues, and members of the wider society are welcomed, respected, and valued. I acknowledge that a path with no examination, reflection, and action perpetuates an inequitable status quo. I commit to work collaboratively with all engineering community members and stakeholders to disrupt systemic exclusion and to create a culture where all will thrive.
This statement was approved by the Board of Directors of the European Society for Engineering Education: SEFI on 27 April 2020 and the Board of Directors of the American Society for Engineering Education: ASEE on 23 March 2020.

Many people on both sides of the Atlantic were crucial to the development and adoption of this “ASEE & SEFI Joint Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” but I saw first-hand the dedication, hard work, and perseverance of Dr. Direito from start to finish, as I had the desk next to her at UCL for two years and we still work together on various research projects.

Dr. Susan Walden led the effort on the US side and displayed great resilience as well. I hold Susan in even higher esteem now, having watched the process via Inês. You see, Inês rather recently crossed the threshold from Early Career Researcher (ERC) to Senior Researcher, having gained promotion at UCL last September. Working with a skilled, enthusiastic, kind, and mentoring expert like Susan was great for Inês and an inspiration to behold.

Thank goodness for those who mentor others and help our engineering education research (EER) community flourish!

Writing such a document and getting buy-in from the other co-authors, including several from TU Dublin where I teach engineering, is complex enough. But getting the statement endorsed at the highest levels of SEFI and ASEE is remarkable and requires passion for your cause as well as political fortitude.

I wasn’t directly involved, but I watched the process and lent a supportive ear and I am delighted with the results. I extend my own personal thanks to task force members Lesley Berhan, Sara Clavero, Yvonne Galligan, Anne-Marie Jolly, Eric Specking, and Linda Vanasupa and whose who made direction contributions via SEFI (Gabrielle Orbaek White, Bill Williams, Martin Vigild, Mike Murphy, and Yolande Berbers) and ASEE (Rebecca Bates, Jean Bossart, Karin Jeanne Jensen, Liz Litzler, Tasha Zepherin, Stephanie Farrell, Bevlee Watford, and Stephanie Adams). Inês says that Klara Ferdova from SEFI was an amazing support, as well! Thanks to all who contributed to the development and adoption of this document.

Please read the Statement and take the Pledge:

July 16, 2018 by shannonchance

Continental Conference-Hopping

It’s been a hectic few weeks, beginning with Inspirefest in Dublin, Ireland (21-22 June) to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference in Salt Lake City (June 24-27), a quick visit to Virginia Tech and around the state, and ending today with the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and University College London Centre for Engineering Education’s symposium on Inclusive Engineering Education (July 9-10).

Inspirefest: Women in Tech

Live drawing made during my sister Heather’s performance of “Hedy! The Live and Inventions of Hedy Lamar”, by Liza Donnelly.

Inspirefest is an annual celebration of women in technology, and this was its fourth year. It’s organized by Ann O’Dea and Silicon Republic. I attend the very first year it was held, and was invited this year as a VIP since my sister, Heather Massie, was performing the one-woman play she wrote, produces, and performs. The play is “Hedy! The Life and Inventions of Hedy Lamar” and Heather has been performing it all over the world. Just before heading to Dublin, she spent five weeks performing around Zimbabwe and South Africa. A major highlight of this year’s Inspirefest was Heather’s abbreviated 65-minute performance in one of Ireland’s largest theaters, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.

Other highlights this year were the opening address by Ireland’s Minister for Health, Simon Harris, Ranjani Kearsley’s talk, “it’s time to level the playing field”, meeting new friends and reconnecting with ones I’d met at the first Insirpefest, like head STEMette, Anne-Marie Imafadon. Many of the talks were recorded and made available online.

I’ve inserted a small gallery below with a few pictures from Inspirefest of Heather, me, and other special guests. My colleague and frequent co-author, Bill Williams flew in from Portugal on other business and joined us for Heather’s play. I’ve also included photos with Ann O’Dea, Anne-Marie Imafadon, and Mary Carty, who I met at the first Inspirefest.

ASEE

I hopped on a plane to Salt Lake City to attend my first ever ASEE conference. I presented two research papers at this event:

Chance, S. M. & Williams, W. (2018). Preliminary findings of a phenomenological study of Middle Eastern women’s experiences studying engineering in Ireland. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Chance, S. M. & Duffy, G. (2018). A model for spurring organizational change based on faculty experiences working together to implement Problem-Based Learning. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

My first ASEE conference!

You can download and read the papers at the links above. At ASEE, I met many people who I’ve been collaborating with online, and developed new friendships as well. I attended many sessions, caught up with colleagues like former Fulbright scholars to DIT, Drs. Stephanie Ferrall (the incoming ASEE president) and Sheryl Sorby (a director of the ASEE), and met some all-stars like Prof. John Heywood and Prof. Karl Smith. Professor Smith has been bringing experts and theories from student development to speak at this conference for decades, and I hope to carry on his work.

Virginia Tech–my home place

I made a stopover in Virginia, en route back to London, taking a few days to work from home as well as four days of holiday to visit family and friends.

Visiting Nicky Wolmarans and Jenni Case at Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech has one of the USA’s two university schools dedicated to Engineering Education, so I grabbed the opportunity to meet with the schools’ new head, Dr. Jennifer Case, and her colleague from the University of Cape Town, Dr. Nicky Wolmarans.

Other highlights of being in Virginia were visiting my dad, dear friends (Katie, Mary, John, Wendy), aunt and uncle (Kitty and Glen), former professor (Pam Eddy) and former student (Luanna Marins) and their families (Dave and Afonzo), some former colleagues (Tony), Virginia Beach (but for a very short 1.5 hours), and my mom for a visit to the Udvar Hazy Center (a branch of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport).

Inclusive Engineering Education Symposium

Got back to London in time for UCL’s two-day symposium on Inclusive Engineering Education Symposium!

Landing in London Sunday morning left me a bit of time to rest up for the Inclusive Engineering Education Symposium, hosted by my colleagues in UCL’s Centre for Engineering Education. This was a chance to hear from industry leaders as to what steps they have taken to diversify and to welcome a new publication by the Royal Academy and UCL with tools and techniques for making engineering classrooms more inclusive.

The picture gallery below shows all these events and more….