Scholarly, useful research is the name of the game in Europe!
These are the standards for research published in the European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE), and they serve as a good guide for researchers in general.
This post sheds light on what makes a conference paper stand out. It shares the story of soon-to-be-Dr Sandra Ieri Cruz Moreno, who won the top research award from the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) in 2025.
SEFI’s special interest group on Engineering Education Research featured the work Sandra and I have done last week, in an online workshop, and the information is worth sharing more broadly — so here it is!
Workshop overview
Last week, Sandra (my PhD supervisee) and I presented this workshop as part of the SEFI@work learning series. We reported on one strand of Sandra’s PhD thesis research.
During the workshop, Sandra engaged the audience with questions about their own research to help transfer the successful part of our experience to the researchers who attended.
The workshop was great practice for Sandra’s viva voce (called a ‘dissertation defense’ in the USA), scheduled for March 10.
Unfortunately, vivas are closed-door events in Ireland. That means our colleagues can’t attend, so this online workshop was the main way to let our SEFI community know about the amazing work Sandra has done.
I reported on the overall SEFI conference and my surprise and elation at winning this award in a September blogpost.
I accepted the award on Sandra’s behalf at SEFI 2025.
Now, the organizers of the online workshop asked us to share some secrets to our success. That was tricky!
SEFI advertised widely, and over 80 people registered to attend.
We hadn’t set out to win an award, just to make a scholarly summary of part of Sandra’s thesis study!
Although it felt intimidating to explain how to win, we went in with the confidence that the paper had been nominated in all three categories it was eligible for last year, and each category has a separate panel of judges.
We were beyond delighted — and completely surprised — to win.
It helped reassure us that the thesis research was ready to wrap up and report.
Workshop content
You can watch a video of the workshop, to hear in Sandra’s own words what is most interesting and valuable about her work and her research process:
And you’re able to download Sandra’s slides, to jump straight into the content, by clicking here:
One slide from Sandra’s presentation.
Sandra’s achievements
I couldn’t be prouder of Sandra and all she has accomplished in four short years. Since starting her doctoral studies in January 2022, she has delivered two babies into the world and developed an award-winning research study and a fully written thesis.
Sandra’s special contributions include introducing sociological techniques and perspectives into engineering education research. She has broadened the focus of our discourse on the usefulness and applicability of phenomenology as a research method, and she has shed valuable new light regarding the experiences of female students in our engineering courses at Technological University Dublin.
The findings of her PhD research hold applicability well beyond TU Dublin, however. They show us how the social dynamics of teamwork evolve over time — how students develop meaningful friendships that help them personally and professionally.
Sandra used the “Gender at Work” framework to better understand students’ experiences with Problem-Based Learning and other collaborative learning approaches. Using this framework, she found that the 22 women I’d interviewed (longitudinally over a period of four years):
had experienced uneven access to engineering content before entering university,
lacked female engineers in their families who could serve as role models,
experienced some biased team dynamics that influenced what jobs got assigned to whom by the team, and that the need to prove themselves on teams grew less but nonetheless persisted across their four-year matriculation, and
received increased recognition for their credibility over time, which helped them challenge stereotypes and shift team dynamics in a favorable direction.
Sandra’s SEFI 2025 paper complemented papers we’ve published and presented at earlier conferences, including:
Soon, you’ll be able to read Sandra’s final thesis and learn about the impressive contributions she has made to the literature and to the engineering education research community.
I am honored to call Sardar Cruz Moreno a friend and colleague. I look forward to calling her “Dr” and to watching her flourish in the coming years!
I had the immense honor of visiting Japan as a guest of the Japanese Society of Engineering Education, 6-16 January 2026.
This trip focused on engineering ethics, how it is conceptualized and taught, and how this differs between Eastern and Western cultures.
The purpose of the trip was to advance collaboration between Japan and Europe, expand professional networks, and better understand and ultimately improve how engineering ethics is described and taught to students.
The trip was significant because language differences, travel distances, and past cultural isolation mean there is still much to learn from each other.
This was a collaboration between JSEE and SEFI, our European Society for Engineering Education. Practical info sent to JSEE members calling for participation at the conference.
For this ten-day trip around Japan, I represented the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) — to help build bridges connecting Japan, Europe, and the global engineering ethics education and engineering education research communities.
This blog post contains loads of detail and possibly a hundred photos. I felt it was important to document the activities for posterity and to help build greater cultural understanding.
This was only my second ever trip to Asia (the first being a 1999 conference in Seoul, South Korea).
On this trip, I met so many amazing people.
I want a chance to thank each of them and let them know how much the time together meant to me. Many of them are pictured below (from the main conference, which I’ll tell you more about below).
I have summarized the profound set of cultural and professional experiences as best I can.
The participants of the main conference on engineering ethics education in Japan, from JSEE, with Sarah Junaid and Shannon Chance from SEFI.
I traveled alongside Dr. Sarah Junaid, a Reader in Biomedical Engineering at Aston University (Birmingham, UK). Sarah has travelled to Japan several times before, most recently as a Churchill Fellow, collecting data on engineering ethics education.
Sarah has cultivated a transcontinental team of academics who are researching the words used to describe ethics in engineering accreditation documents worldwide. This project has captivated me since I attended a paper presentation Sarah gave at the SEFI conference in Barcelona in September 2022.
Sarah’s efforts mirrored the focus on collaborative transcontinental capacity-building that I also cultivated as Chair of the global Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN).
Sarah served as a positive role model for me as I worked with the ethics handbook’s editorial team. When I explained this at the JSEE conference, I choked up; I don’t think I’d ever told Sarah how central she is to my worldview today.
I made this map to show where the authors of our handbook have lived and/or worked. You can see we had some representation from Japan (Kenichi Natsumi and Fumihiko Tochinai), but could benefit from more collaboration in Asia and also across the global south.
In all. the presentations I delivered in Japan all emphasized the power of collaboration in enhancing the delivery of engineering education and our collective approaches to understanding, defining, learning, assessing, regulating, and expanding ethics.
I define engineering ethics as professional codes, laws, theories, and frameworks, as well as social and environmental sustainability, including equity, diversity, and inclusion, that underpin engineering practice and guide what we are and want to become.
It’s about making the best better, a motto I bring with me from my formative years in 4-H, empowered by life-long, hands-on, self-directed learning. I first dreamed of travelling to Japan through 4-H, but that never came to pass. Today, my work as an academic in engineering education research finally brought me to this exotic land.
With 105 authors including 6 editors, our ethics handbook had impressive transcontinental representation.My keynote highlighted trancontinental aspects of the handbook and the need for collective action among engineers to reflexively define ethics and how to improve the way we deliver ethics education.
This team hosted us on behalf of the Committee for Investigation and Research of Engineering Ethics of JSEE; they were exceptional hosts during our visit.
A grant from the Kansai University Fund for Supporting the Formation of Strategic Research Centers, which Atsushi holds, funded our travel.
We hope to work together in the future, also collaborating with Mary Nolan from ATU Sligo, on educational games and the ethics of care.
Shinya Takehara at the SEFI Ethics Symposium, March 2025, alongside SEFI Ethics co-chairs Mircea Tobosaru and Diana Adela Martin.Shinya Takehara setting up, surrounded by close colleagues from Japan.
Atsushi works in the College of Engineering Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Shibaura Institute of Technology and runs a laboratory where “students can deepen their consideration of ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) associated with the development of science and technology, mainly from the humanities and social sciences, such as applied ethics, philosophy of technology, and social theories of science and technology.”
A publication we found in the University bookstore that featured Atsushi’s project.Atsushi is a social scientist.Atsushi was an amazing host. Here we see me, Shinya Takehara, Shinya Oie, Atsushi Fujiki, Stefané and Sarah.
Arriving in Japan
Flying into Japan from Europe, Sarah and I landed in Osaka.
We met Shinya and Atsushi at the airport for a brief orientation, then took the train into Osaka for two nights, and onward via bullet train to Tokyo. Atsushi made sure we understood our way around and how to get food.
We used the first day to adjust to the dramatic time zone change and to explore Osaka a bit.
It was a long flight, and we changed nine time zones!In Osaka, we find sites like this shrine beside our hotel, which had traditoinal building forms,and statues,a cemetery, … and an unexpected architectural form. We took a bullet train to Tokyo. This shows only the back half of a bullet train!
Headline Event at the Cocoon Tower
We got oriented for our first major activity of the week, an international workshop at Cocoon Tower, where Tokyo Online University operates. Our host, Tamami, teaches there.
Headed to Cocoon Tower with Tamami.Stefané, Sarah and Tamami on the way.Lovely to view at night.With a quick stop at Tokoyo’s LOVE sign.
As an architect, I immediately recognized this building. It is quite famous and boy is it architecturally striking.
Tamami met us and gave us a tour of the building the night before the workshop.
Tamami explaining the building’s organization. our event was to be held. These three-story high atriums offer sweeping views.But the best views are from teh top of the Cocoon Tower.A busy Tokoyo intersection. Buildings as far as the eye can see — the world’s biggest megalopolis!More buildings prinnign up that will block the views of and from the Cocoon Tower.
Following the tour, I enjoyed a lovely pre-conference dinner at a Turkish restaurant alongside Tamami, Dr. Asami Ogura (of the National Institute of Technology, KOSEN, branch in Hiroshima), Shinya, STefané, Sarah, Dr. Jun Fudano (whom I met last February in Virginia at the Association for Practical and Applied Ethics conference, as he helps lead APPE), and Misaki (a graduate of University College London’s Institute of Education, who helped translate several of our sessions) who took the photo below.
Preconference dinner with Tamami, Asami, Shinya, Stefané, Sarah, me, and Jun.
Sarah and I arrived at Cocoon Tower plenty early the next day and had breakfast near the venue. Eating so much for breakfast was a mistake with a big lunch on the horizon, but I didn’t want to risk being underprepared.
Sarah and me, headed to the venue the next day.The building is also lovely to view in the sunshine.
This was a spectacular event! So engaging. So well organized and translated.
The event included many interesting speakers and was well attended, with roughly two dozen colleagues travelling from all corners of Japan to participate.
The event opened with a welcome from Shinya, followed by a keynote I delivered and a Memorial Lecture delivered by Sarah.
Atsushi’s grant paid for two professional translators, which made a world of difference in the quality and comfort of our day. We each had a headset so we could hear in real time what anyone in the other language was saying.
Translators hard at work!
This was an enormous support for effective communication — it represented a substantial investment but was essential to helping us understand and engage with each other in deeply meaningful ways.
Particpants ready to start the day!Shinya Takehara opening the event.
First up was my own keynote, a half-hour presentation summarizing topics that Tom Børsen and I presented at the SEFI conference last September. I helped the audience understand what SEFI is doing in engineering ethics education and invited our Japanese colleagues to join our SEFI Ethics projects and activities.
In the talk, I advocated for a shift from individual rule-following toward collective global responsibility and an “Ethics of Care” for the planet and future generations. I introduced some useful frameworks for navigating complex, high-stakes socio-technical challenges, including humble, reflexive dialogue and inclusive, culturally appropriate assessment models.
Discussing ways forward.Introducing the handbook.
I also honored the legacy of Japanese scholar Prof. Kenichi Natsume, calling on the international community to collaboratively integrate ethics into teaching to shape a more socially responsible future.
The next talk, the Memorial Lecture, presented by Sarah Junaid, paid tribute to Kenichi. He was a co-author on Sarah’s chapter of the engineering ethics handbook. The editors of the handbook dedicated it to Kenichi, in honor of the groundbreaking work he did bridging eastern and western perspectives on engineering ethics.
The table of contents of Kenichi’s book.The cover of Kenichi’s book and our co-authored handbook.
Sarah summarized Japan’s context as steeped in collective consciousness, a duty to others, and an embedded morality. The education system there has historically focused on ethics and morality in an intrinsic, embedded way, with a strong awareness and regard for others and loyalty to the group. There have been recent shifts to increase the focus on individual responsibility.
In contrast, Sarah described Western cultures as emphasizing individuality, liberalization, and challenges of social responsibility. Education has typically focused on capitalism and free markets, economies built on growth, individuality, and liberalization. Recently, there has been increased focus on social and collective responsibility, which was a major theme of my keynote as well.
“Global collaboration is needed,” Sarah asserted, “for shaping ethical engineers and global citizens.” During Sarah’s presentation, we learned that Kenichi was central in helping Sarah collect data at KOSEN institutes across Japan during her Churchill Fellowship, and the slides in her talk showed the two of them actively collaborating. Sarah and Kenichi exemplified the type of collaboration that is desperately needed.
Shinya noted that “together, we shared our commitment to carrying forward [Kenichi’s] legacy and reaffirmed the importance of sustained dialogue between JSEE and SEFI on engineering ethics education.”
Participants posing questions to Sarah and me.Discussing questions posed.Atsushi summarizing the day’s discussions.
Following our talks, the first featured speaker from JSEE, Dr. Muraran Yasui (Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Osaka University), discussed how engineering ethics is taught in Japan and how it aligns with global accreditation standards.
His group studies how this is done at many postsecondary institutions in Japan. He described Japanese efforts to foster “aspirational ethics” rather than just preventive ethics among future engineers. This concerns what engineers ought to do, not just what they are legally and professionally obligated to do.
Next, Dr. Asami Ogura told us about KOSEN (the National Institute of Technology, with 51 colleges across Japan that teach students aged 15-20). Asami discussed how ethics is taught currently at KOSEN and how she believes that technology transfer can foster peace.
Dr. Asami Ogura
She also explained that KOSEN established a model core curriculum for ethics in 2018, identifying minimum competencies and learning outcomes, and providing guidance to teachers.
Asami’s work focuses on the overlap between environmental conservation, international understanding, and peacebuilding.
Third among the JSEE experts, Dr. Naoki Taoka discussed corporate engineering ethics. He is a leader in the Institution of Professional Engineers in Japan and a visiting professor at Hiroshima University.
Dr. Naoki Taoka
Naoki explained that the Institute’s main business is “to raise awareness of ethics among professional engineers and engineers,” as well as to improve their qualifications, promote and spread awareness of the professionalization system, develop technical talent, and contribute socially through activities.
Following the three JSEE presentations, Dr. Yukito (Happyman) Kobayasi and Atsushi also provided overview comments and insights.
Sarah and I were listening attentively to it all and making detailed notes, as we’d been asked to respond to Tamami’s questions from our European perspective.
We also provided feedback on the other speakers’ presentations, and then addressed questions from the very engaged audience.
Social Side of Events at Cocoon Tower
Overall, this was a very exciting day. Participants came from all over Japan, the event was held at the architecturally famous “Cocoon Tower”, and before the event, Sarah and I got to meet and enjoy lunch with the late Professor Kenichi Natsumi’s wife, Misaki Natsume, and son. We enjoyed a delicious ramen-type lunch with Misaki, Shinya, Atsushi, and some of the experts named above.
Invited speakers at lunch before the main event.A really yummy chicken soup.The Natsumis agree!
We also got to exchange gifts with Misaki and her son. She gave us the most sincere, heartwarming, handwritten notes describing, among other things, how much being part of the handbook project had meant to her husband.
We exchanged gifts with Misaki just before the main event.It’s not easy to find toddler-friendly gifts.But it looks like this t-short from Dublin will fit fine.
Dr. Fumihiko Tochinai also attended the event. He co-authored Chapter 30 of the ethics handbook, titled “Two criticisms of engineering ethics assessment,” with Rockwell Clancy, Xin Luo, and Chunping Fan.
Dr. Fumihiko Tochinai, co-author of handbook chapter 30, “Two criticisms of engineering ethics assessment,” attended the conference.
At the end of the event, we got a “family picture” and then headed off for a traditional Japanese meal together. It was a very special experience, and I learned some important cultural aspects (when and where to wear slippers versus socks only inside, how to pour beer for each other, and the like). One of the day’s attendees, Jeffrey S. Cross, an expat from the USA like me, helped me translate and explain nuances.
Headed out for a traditional Japanese dinner after the conference!Goodbye Cocoon!Dr. Yukito (Happyman) Kobayasi leading a toast at dinner after the event.Learning Japanese traditions.And about Japanese foods.A culminating toast by Jun.
Cultural Explorations
Following this big day of activity, Sarah and I, along with Sarah’s lovely newlywed husband, Stefané, who joined her for the trip, had a bit of time to explore Tokyo. We enjoyed exploring a huge electronics store together.
Getting to Tokyo…We explored an electronics store filled with all kinds of interesting gadgets, like these clothes washers. We had a special dinner, Sarah, her husband Stefané, and me.Sarah knew the ins and outs of getting around.In this arcade, we found delicious crepes and mochi balls.
On our last morning in Tokyo, I visited the Shinjuku Goyen National Garden, where at the tea house, I bumped into Asami and a friend of hers.
The Japanese garden.A few cherry blossoms left in the cold of winter.My favorite views are into the boughs.Enormous fish!A chance meet up with Asami at the tea house.The greenhouse.Views from the garden of Cocoon Tower.Colorful plants in the greenhouse.
Small-Scale Working Session
After I explored the greenhouses at the Garden, Sarah, Stefané, and I headed back to Osaka, where the following day we participated in a small-scale workshop to plan engineering ethics education activities for the future. The workshop was held at Kansai University’s Umeda Campus.
Mari Ito joined us as a language expert to help translate ideas between English and Japanese. She had also translated many of the written materials and slides for the full sequence of events during our trip.
The whole group at the end of our working session.
I really enjoyed the presentation that Dr. Shinya Oya delivered and the discussion of projects underway or envisioned in Japan where Sarah and I might be able to connect, ourselves and/or alongside our colleagues from Europe. “In this intimate setting,” Shinya explained, “we were able to deepen discussions on how future joint research might be shaped, building on insights from the Tokyo workshop.”
I enjoyed a (very popular) French crepe o the way to the workshop. KansaiThe opening of our Joint Seminar workshop. It was a small but hardworking group.Connecting Shinya Oie’s research to ours. He’s quite an energetic and demonstrative scholar! We had great discussion about his reserach.We discussed upcoming events and ideas for future projects together.
We all went out for Italian tapas together after the workshop. We each selected a couple of items from the menu and got a chance to taste a wide variety of foods. The presentation was beautiful!
Tapas dinner with Shinya Takehara, Shinya Oie, Atsushi Fujiki, Stefané and Sarah.Such beautiful presentation!We each selected a couple of items from the menu.Still full of life after an intense day!
Visiting KOSAN Nara Campus
Leaving Osaka the next day, we headed to Nara to visit a branch of the Institute of Technology (KOSEN), where Shinya teaches. Sarah and I travelled with Shinya to his campus.
The walk from the train station to the campus was really beautiful. The town where the campus sits is a ‘castle town,’ still organized around the canal that looped the site and still with a castle on the hill.
Arriving on campus.A WWII airplane, which Shinya said was from the Allies.Entering the KOSAN Nara campus with Shinya.
We had the immense honor of meeting Dr. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh, a medical doctor and currently the Principal (president) of Nara National College of Technology.
She is also the Vice President of the Japan Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (JNWES).
Shinya Takehara with his university leader.
Shinae is a Japanese researcher, professor, and administrator known for her work in molecular imaging and tumor hypoxia, as well as her advocacy for women in STEM. She has published research on the challenges and solutions regarding the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in Japan.
Tea with Dr. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh
Shinae, Sarah, and I delivered talks to a class of about 40 Chemical Engineering students at KOSEN. The class is taught by Ryoko Uda. Chiyako Araya also spoke; she has done interesting research to quantitatively evaluate generic skills in active learning. She was also an important contributor to the event at the Cocoon Tower.
Dr. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh and Chiyako Araya each presented their research.
During the class, we discussed gender and diversity related to engineering ethics and engineering education research.
Sarah presented research on gender aspects developed by a student she supervised.
Students, spellbound by Sarah.It was a big audience of Chemical Engineering students. They loved the discussion questions that Sarah gave them.The students sat gender segregated, initially at the back fo the room. They willingly moved to the front when asked.
At the end of the class session, I had the opportunity to speak about the broader role of engineering education research. I also shared some of the research that Sandra Cruz Moreno and I have done together.
I presented our work in engineering education research to understand students’ experiences and assess how effectively students learn various engineering topics depending on how the content is delivered.
I spoke about the role of engineering education research more broadly. And I shared some of the research that Sandra Cruz Moreno and I have done together.
Touring Tanpopo, A Community of Disabled Artists
Leaving KOSAN, we (Shinya, Sarah, and I) stopped in at Tanpopo, a community center where disabled artists work and live.
Artists there produced Shinya’s engineering ethics card game, which we hope to translate into English soon.
Shinya at the SEFI Ethics Symposium,showing us his ethics card game.
At Tanpopo, staff members Gian Miki and Masashi Yamano showed us around and explained how things work.
I bought two lovely scarves woven by members of the community. Proceeds go to the artists themselves, and the artist of one of the scarves I bought was there at the time. She expressed such pride and joy!
An artist’s workspace. The formal exhibition gallery.A tour from the director.Each person’s tools are customized to meet their own unique needs.Here’s the artist I bought a scarf from.She’s so vivacious and was happy to have her picture taken with me.There’s so much lovely artwork here. This artist’s work was some of my favorite. We also visited the community cafe and some residential spaces (some artists live here, others come for the day).
Visiting Yakushiji Temple
Then, Sarah and I had the chance to visit Yakushiji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This temple is of Chinese design, and artisans from China helped construct it. It was eye-opening to me how much exchange my colleagues described having with other Asian countries. Their politicians may not seem to collaborate, but their academics certainly do!
Earlier on this day, at KOSAN, I met a student who won an international competition in Chemical Engineering. The competition was held in the Middle East, but he said Vietnam and (I think) India were major competitors.
Yakushiji Temple
Dinner and Accomodations Celebraitng Japanese Traditions
The evening after this event, we joined with Shinae, Chiyako, Mari Ito, Ryoko Una, Atsushi, Shinya, and his wife and daughters for a very special meal at ‘bird bird.’ The owner/head chef is an architect, and he runs this restaurant in addition to having restored the accommodation where we stayed.
Overall, bird bird (@birdbird_nara), operates as a community space offering coworking, a shared office, dining, and a rooftop sauna. It was created by architect Shunpei Fujioka and is located on the same block as the housing complex or ‘hotel’ where we stayed. We booked the place on Booking.com at Tamami and Shinya’s recommendation.
The chefs use the middle part, and serve each person directly from the kitchen.This is Shinya’s family. All the speakers from the day attended the meal, plus our hosts and translator.This. is one of the five courses we enjoyed.Here’s a photo of the whole dinner group.The chef/architect, Shunpei Fujioka, presented the reovation project. It was intriguing to hear the story of the reonvation and see before and after photos.The set of homes had been vacant for years before this architect renovated them.
The dinner group made lovely cards for Sarah and me without us even suspecting. It was a project led by Shinya’s daughters, who also made many origami gifts for us. I saw the architect/chef, Shunpei Fujioka, helping with that!
A lovely card to memorialize our time together.
A major highlight of our visit to Japan was staying for three nights in a traditional Japanese house, part of a set of five adjacent homes that this architect has lovingly restored.
I have read about traditional Japanese houses and visited similar (Korean) ones in folk museums, but living in one for three days was an immense honor.
The set of restored houses at night.The alleyway where my house was.My house (the “Presidential Suite”).The house’s gorgeous private courtyard.Japanese “half-light” in the interiors.The dining area.They sit on the floor, and roll out futons when it’s time to sleep.The corridor between the living spaces and courtyard.The kitchen,with steps down from the seating area to the work space.The kitchen workspace. YOu can see renovation work (light wood) distinguished from the original (dark) wood. The covered (outside) walkway from the house to the bathroom. There’s a separate room with toilet and washbasin.View from the bathing space to the courtyard.The tub and shower.Hygiene is very important in Japanese culture.The plan of my house.
Overall, the bathing rituals were a highlight of my private time in Japan. The hotel in Tokyo had a public bath in the basement, which was an experience like no other. I love Turkish hammams (and even visited one in Malta over the Christmas holiday).
The traditional Japanese house also offered a unique and exquisite bathing experience.
But the most unexpected pleasure was that all but one of the toilet seats I used in Japan were heated and had a bidet function. The joy of a warm bum cannot be overstated.
Cultural Immersion with Collegial Friends
It was a privilege to get deeply acquainted with Shinya, Atsushi, Tamami, and all their colleagues.
For me, it was also a unique honor to travel with Sarah and Stefané; they treated me as family and never let me feel like a third wheel. Sarah skillfully guided Stefané and me through complex networks of trains, streets, alleyways, shops, and restaurants.
A halal ramen place.With dramatic effect.An official photoshoot — must be famous sicne security shooed me away.Aongus’ favorite, sweet potatoes!Lego of a famous paintitng (our colleague Inês’ favorite, so I had to take pictures!)View from my second hotel window in Osaka. Most hotels dont’ offere such a sweeping view — or any view at all!Refelctions seen from my hotel window.One of many shires I passed walking along the streets.I learned more about Islam from my travel companions and enjoyed several halal meals. I also got to explore Japanese culture and daily life alongside these lovely colleagues.
We visited a mosque at the Turkish Cultural Center in Tokyo, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. We even had a meal at the mosque, prepared by the community for the worshippers.
Visiting the mosque.Inside the mosque. Views from the balcony.I learned more about Islam from my travel companions and enjoyed several halal meals. I also got to explore Japanese culture and daily life alongside these lovely colleagues.
We also visited a museum with Japanese artifacts, located in a shopping center, presented in collaboration with a university, and located right beside the main train station in Tokyo.
Entering the shopping mall with my friends.The grand artium.Artifacts from the museum.A collection of Thomas Edison’s phonographs. Japanese pottery.Japanese pottery.Japanese birds.Fun selfies.Reflections on the statues.Shopping mall with a cultural museum.
Heading Home
Our visit to Japan was full of unique and deeply meaningful experiences. I was sad to leave and, unfortunately, brought home a chest infection (travel sometimes has its challenges, but I’m now 95% recovered). Nevertheless, I also left Japan a treasure trove of new connections, memories that I will never forget, and opportunities to follow up on. My sincere gratitude goes to Atsushi, Shinya, Tamami, and all the wonderful colleagues who shared their time, talents, resources, and insights while we were in Japan.
I look forward to seeing you again soon and to working together to deliver workshops, translate games, test them with Western audiences, and collaborate on projects and research articles.
Last views of Japan.Flying over the Arctic Circle. We flew around the world on this trip!Leaving Japan, our plane flew east. We flew between Alaska and Russia, over Greenland, over Iceland, and to Charles de Gaulle airport. From there, I connected back to Dublin.
What an amazing week at Riga Technical University (RTU) in the charming capital city of Latvia!
I designed and co-delivered an intensive “Education Forum”, as part of the European University of Technology (EUt+) “Riga Week,” held December 1-5, 2025.
Here’s our Forum group on the final day!
This teacher training Forum brought experts from the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) and TU Dublin to help educators from EUt+ member universities experience and apply new pedagogical approaches.
We utilized innovative teaching methodologies—case studies, problems and challenges, service-learning, and arts-based, dialogical and reflexive approaches as well as games-based and flipped classroom formats—to integrate ethics topics into the courses we teach. And of course, we also practiced interdisciplinarity.
Designing it, I drew from knowledge and experience gained at the Symposium. For Riga, I used a similar format—a fun and immersive three-day series of hands-on workshops and mini-keynote presentations. I am grateful to the SEFI experts who helped me design the SEFI symposium format, Drs. Diana Martin and Mircea Tobosaru. (Diana was also scheduled to help facilitate the Forum in Riga, but a winter flu kept her from joining us.)
Learning together — actively and fully engaged
Ultimately, 21 educators travelled to Riga from Cluj-Napoca, Sofia, Cassino, Darmstadt, Cartagena, Dublin, Troyes, along with Sarah from the UK. We assembled for the first ever SEFI/EUt+ Engineering and Technology Education Forum. Dr. Sarah Hitt (of SEFI), Miriam Delaney (of TU Dublin), and Edmund Nevin (of both) helped me facilitate the Forum.
Before the Forum got underway, Sarah Hitt and I delivered the opening address for the larger event. We used the same delivery format that Dr. Tom Børsen and I developed for our keynote at the recent SEFI conference, which you can watch here. Sarah is such a great collaborator. We worked really well together preparing and delivering the General Seminar address, debriefing between Forum sessions and passing the baton back and forth across the three workshop days.
Preparations Riga Week audience Catching up beforehand Presenting……a topic we love…to an engaged audience!And loving every minute!
In total, about 80 people came to the “Riga Week.” They arrived from all around EUt+, an alliance of nine technological universities across Europe. They came to work on projects, refine approaches, and align systems. Many who attended this particular EUt+ Week are involved in disciplinary clusters (like biomedical or electrical and electronics engineering).
EUt Riga Week familyTimothèe Toury in actionChristmas market Exploring with SarahSharing stories with Mariam
And what a lovely place to hold a conference. Riga has stunning architecture and a lively Christmas market.
Riga design and culture — you might even glimpse Santa!
This alliance is one of the many funded via the European Commission to enable partnerships, collaboration, and some degree of standardization across European institutions. It is part of Erasmus, the teaching arm of the European Union’s development of higher education. (Up until now, I’ve been involved in programs funded under the parallel research arm.)
EUt+ is the brainchild of Dr. Timothèe Toury, the “Secrétaire général de l’Alliance Université de technologie européenne” (Secretary General of EUt+). He has played a central role in shaping the vision, leading it at global level, and advocating externally for what we do and how transformative we aim to be.
Timothèe providing historical context Shannon sharing a teacher development model
I think it was Timothèe who conceived the idea of combining our campuses into one streamlined university where students can (someday?) flow uninterrupted, taking modules on any campus that contribute toward their degree. That said, EUt+ can be seen as a genuinely collective effort. This includes the wider Secretariat General team (Drs. Rafael Toledo, Karine Lan, and others), as well as representatives from the member institutions, including rectors and colleagues, who have actively designed and contributed to substantial parts of the proposal and its development.
Although there are many university alliances funded by Europe, ours is unique in its vision for the members to unite into one single university. One organization—in multiple, extremely diverse, locations—with aligned curricula and a powerful and unique teaching approach that sets EUt+ apart. We want to foster an exemplary student experience and to advance engineering and technology knowledge-how across Europe, empowering our graduates with transferable skills like teamwork/collaboration, critical thinking, and project management. And, I hope, well-integrated arts, social sciences, and humanities approaches to boot!
This can’t happen without updating and enhancing the way engineering and technology are taught in our member campuses. Lecture-based approaches simply won’t suffice to equip the engineers of tomorrow.
Deeply meaningful learning experiences are required.
And that’s what our facilitation team aimed to deliver at the SEFI/EUt+ Forum.
Helping us organize behind the scenes was the EUt+ staff, particularly Timothèe, Rafael, and Karine but also Dr. Santiago Perez, Ms. Eleanor Asprey, and Dr. Emilija Sarma and a host of others helping on the ground, once we arrived in Riga. (Karine couldn’t attend but sent helpful hints throughout Riga Week by WhatsApp… an angel in my shoulder!)
At the SEFI Education Forum, teachers got the chance to experience the student side of the equation.
Forum participants each brought their own unique skills and ideas to the event, and shared them with each other. It was like a pot-luck dinner where everyone contributed!
For example, every participant (and facilitator) read several chapter of the Handbook prior to the Forum, so we could discuss these in groups. I designed these discussions like “book clubs.” The various book-club groups each designed an activity for all the other participants on some aspect of their assigned chapters. On the third day, each group facilitated their activity for the rest of us.
At the start of each of the nine working sessions that comprised the Forum, one participant delivered a 15-minute “mini-keynote” on a topic of particular relevance to the group.
Catching them in full action below:
Dr./Prof. Matthias Veit shared frameworks he and his colleagues in Darmstadt are using to facilitate curricular change.Dr. Kalina Belcheva described learners as digital content creators in educational settings.Dr. Sarah Hitt showed us how to use the Sustainability and Ethics Toolkits she developed for the Engineering Professors Council.Dr. José Luis Serrano presented on using film excerpts to teach (test and challenge) physics concepts as presented in popular movies. He calls this activity “Bloopbusters”!Ms. “soon-to-be-Dr.” Miriam Delaney showcased Building Change, a curriculum change initiate across all the schools of architecture in Ireland to support sustainability, housing, and climate resilience.Mr. Edmund Nevin described an Erasmus project he’s part of, focused on supporting students in their transition from second to third-level education.
The Forum also included interactive workshops.
I started the Forum off with a mini-keynote on the Handbook followed by a workshop on applying targeted teaching methods to integrate ethics content into the subjects our participants teach.
Santi’s Revolt game
Dr. Santiago Perez delivered an ethics game he developed, called Revolt.
We all learned so much, as described on the whiteboards.
At the very beginning of the Forum, following introductions, Sarah Hitt and I helped the group identify learning goals for the week. Together, we co-designed a strategy that used the pot-luck “dishes” we’d each brought with us (readings, keynotes, workshop outlines, prior experience and innovative spirit). At the end of the week, Sarah helped us assess how well we’d succeeded in covering the topics we’d defined.
I have to say, Sarah was an absolute superstar! She’s a natural leader and event facilitator. I invited her because she was an author on our handbook and she teaches at NMITE, the New Model Institute for Technology & Engineering, based in the UK. They teach using all the featured pedagogies, so I figured she’d have the necessary skills—but wow! Was I impressed beyond expectations!
Sarah Jayne was a Hitt!
Miriam and Edmund also did a fabulous job facilitating. Their (book club / workshop design) group discussions were lively and engaging.
I was also extremely pleased with the contributions my other TU Dublin colleagues, Mr. Keith Colton and Dr. Mayank Parmar, made to the Forum.
The Forum succeeded overall, though, due to the wholehearted engagement of the EUt+ educators who travelled from near and far! The 21 of us attending put in our all, and as a result we all left with new ideas and experiences and inspiration to evolve our teaching.
Some of us are already working on follow-up conference session and grant proposals together, and hopefully we’ll have more successes to report to you in the coming semester!
Thanks, EUt+, Timothèe, Rafa, and Karine, for working so hard to include use and showcase what SEFI engagement can give the EUt+ community!
This past Friday, I had the distinct pleasure of reviewing studio work and giving architecture students feedback on prototypes they have been developing to reuse scrap materials from the woodworking shops at the School of Architecture, Building and Environment (SABE) at TU Dublin.
A cool transformer-type system that can be moved and easily set-up.
The students are helping support the circular economy, and learning to work together.
This is a vertical architecture studio, comprised of second and third year students.
A corbelled system that can be reconfigured dozens of ways.
Each team as allocated a collection of cast-off wood sheets or wood planks to use to make a small structure. The structure needed to be at least 3 meters in at least one direction.
From the reminders of CNC routing
This architecture studio is led by Marcin Wojcik and Kevin Donovan. The project is also tied to a grant from Ireland’s Housing Authority to study how to modularize materials brought to construction sites, but never used to allow them to be reused elsewhere. Marcin and Kevin are doing the grant-funded project with Noel Brady.
And I am an enthusiastic observer, doing what I can to help my colleagues get more involved in research.
Reviewing the proposal by Group 4.
Overall, the work I saw presented and the level of attentiveness and collegiality among the students were all highly impressive! They have done all this in just three weeks. 
A pavilion for bird watching; intriguing lessons in tension and compression.
I was excited enough about the work I saw to convince Marcin to draft a short conference paper, which he accomplished over the weekend. It’s about the outcomes of this three-week assignment, how it has evolved over the years, and the implications of Friday’s presentations for the grant-funded project.
Kevin and I are editing Marcin’s draft today, so I’d better get to it!
Hope you have enjoyed seeing the students’ collaborative work! I was thrilled they agreed to let me post photos of them and what they designed and constructed.
What an inspiring whirlwind week at the European Society for Engineering Education SEFI 2025 Annual Conference! The event was packed with meaningful presentations, deep and reflective conversations, intellectual rigor, and memorable community moments. Attending SEFI always feels like a homecoming to me, and this year’s conference certainly delivered, especially with the monumental achievements of my colleagues and students.
From Handbook to Keynote Stage
A significant highlight for me was being invited to deliver a keynote address at SEFI alongside Associate Professor Tom Børsen from Aalborg University. The address drew extensively from the Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education, which Tom and I co-edited alongside our phenomenal team of co-editors, Diana Adela Martin, Roland Tormey, Thomas Taro Lennerfors, and Gunter Bombaerts.
Our keynote, titled “Towards socially responsible, post-normal and reflexive engineering ethics education,” (video link here) called for a bold transformation in how engineering ethics is taught. We addressed the urgent need for engineering ethics education (EEE) to move beyond traditional, individual-focused approaches to embrace collective responsibility, reflexivity, and social justice. This is particularly critical in “post-normal times,” characterized by uncertainty, high stakes, and contested values.
Among other things, Tom and I urged the community to integrate non-Western and AI ethics, foster transdisciplinary collaboration, and empower engineers to challenge power structures and cultivate an ethics of care for people and the planet.
And regarding Tom, I was thrilled to watch him receive a major honor at SEFI: the 2025 Maffiolli Award. Tom has been instrumental in advancing the field of Technological Anthropology, and this award is so very well deserved! Tom won in the individual category, and my colleagues from UCL, led by Fiona Truscott, won in the group category. A very excitig night, all around!
The awards were presented at the conference banquet – the entertainment was superb! Singing Finnish engineers – a whole choir of them – who knew?
I knew about Tom’s award, as I’d been pulling for this outcome for over a year. Yet, other outcomes of the conference were a complete surprise…
The Power of Collaborative Research: Winner of the Best Research Paper Award!
My PhD student, the incredibly talented and astute sociologist Sandra Cruz Moreno, won the BEST RESEARCH PAPER award for SEFI 2025. I serve as her supervisor and was the co-author of this paper.
The recognition for excellent research was deeply validating, especially since the paper, “EVOLVING GENDER DYNAMICS IN TEAMWORK EXPERIENCES AMONG FEMALE ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN PBL SETTINGS”, was nominated in three separate categories, each with its own panel of judges: Best Student Paper, Best Diversity and Inclusion Paper, and overall Best Research Paper.
The certificateShannon and Sandra at an emotions symposium in Portugal
The paper reports one aspect of Sandra’s doctoral research, which has been funded by a First-Time Supervisor grant to me from TU Dublin. The funding allowed us to analyze the extensive interview data I collected since 2015.
Sandra’s study is crucial for understanding inclusivity in engineering education. It employed a longitudinal, qualitative social phenomenological approach combined with an intersectionality framework. Using data from 41 interviews with 22 female engineering students from seven countries at TU Dublin, Sandra explored how diverse students navigate challenges and evolve strategies during project- and problem-based learning (PBL) teamwork across their academic journeys.
A key finding was that while students’ confidence and participation increased over time, the women persistently faced gendered biases and cultural norms that influenced their perceived roles and credibility in teams. For instance, they reported often being relegated to non-technical tasks like presenting or report writing, while feeling required to constantly prove their competence regarding hands-on skills. This analysis led Sandra to conclude that focusing solely on individual resilience is insufficient; systemic structural interventions are also needed to promote inclusive educational practices and challenge embedded norms.
I was honored to accept the award in Sandra’s absence, celebrating the resounding endorsement of her work. This recognition is truly a cherry on top of our successful 3.5 years of teamwork.
Cruz, S., & Chance, S. (Accepted/In press). EVOLVING GENDER DYNAMICS IN TEAMWORK EXPERIENCES AMONG FEMALE ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN PBL SETTINGS. Paper presented at European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) Annual Conference 2025, Tampere, Finland.
Nurturing Community and Capacity
SEFI is always about nurturing the community, and I was pleased to contribute in several ways:
• Doctoral Symposium: I co-facilitated the full-day pre-conference Doctoral Symposium to support early-career researchers.
The 2025 Doc Symposium
• Workshops: I delivered and co-facilitated multiple workshops, including one on integrating ethics into course delivery, a session on methodological approaches in Engineering Education Research, a workshop on the ethics of care, and a peer-review workshop for journal editors and aspiring reviewers.
The workshop I facilitated on intergrating ethics into your teaching
O’Gorman, L., Gwynne-Evan, A., Ridgeway, L., Rebow, M., & Chance, S. (Accepted/In press). ACCREDITATION CONSIDERATIONS IN ENGINEERING ETHICS EDUCATION: BRIDGING GLOBAL STANDARDS AND LOCAL PRACTICES. Paper presented at European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) Annual Conference 2025, Tampere, Finland.
• Supporting Swapneel Thite: I had the immense pleasure of facilitating the attendance of Dr Swapneel Thite, a recent PhD earner. Swapneel won the prestigious Best Paper Award for Volume 49 (2024) of SEFI’s journal, the European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE), for which I serve as Deputy Editor. He and his PhD supervisors published the “Design of a simple rubric to peer-evaluate the teamwork skills of engineering students” with us. Since I had already paid my registration fee, I was able to offer Swapneel the free registration given to me as a keynote speaker, helping him travel to SEFI to receive his award and meet the community. His paper, recognized for its rigor and practical utility (an easy-to-use instrument for peer assessment of teamwork), is well worth reading!
Meeting Swapneel Thite with SEFI incoming president, Emanuela TilleyKristina Edstrõm presenting Swapneel’s team’s award
Post-Conference Finnish Discoveries
The conference officially wrapped up on Thursday, but the adventures continued. I attended the SEFI Board of Directors meeting, worked with colleagues on planning future SEFI events, and then headed to Helsinki.
I spent Friday exploring Aalto University and meeting colleagues there. Dr Xiaoqi Feng provided a personal tour and connected me with her colleagues—a bittersweet moment as she prepares for her new job at TU Delft.
Snapshots from my day at Aalto University — thanks Dr Xiaoqi Feng for the personalized tour!
My Finnish travels culminated on a serendipitous high note when I ran into early-career researcher Yousef Jalali at the remarkable Oodi, Helsinki’s new Central Library. Moments like this—a chance encounter in a vibrant cultural space far from home—gave Yousef and me a chance to reflect on the conference and help support each other as “researchers on the move” who have relocated ourselves far from home in the pursuit of academic excellence.
What an amazing community of inspiring educators SEFI is!
Wrapping up the day at the people-magnet library, Oodi, in central Helsinki and rurring into Dr Yousef Jalali.
From celebrating major awards and delivering keynotes to fostering the next generation of researchers and exploring expressive Finnish architecture, this SEFI was truly a testament to the powerful, collaborative community we have built in engineering education.
For me, SEFI 2025 was such a celebration of community and collaboration.
Practicing the keynoteDelivering the keynoteCelebrating our handbook authorsConferring with colleagues near and far — these two from the European University of Technology — I’ll be working with them on an event for December — stand by for news on that!
Looking forward to visiting Helsinki and Aalto University again soon!
Most years, right before the beginning of the new academic year, I have the chance to be part of Dublin Maker. It’s a festival that celebrates the creative flair of people from all around Ireland. I’ve been attending Dublin Maker since 2015 and it never fails to delight.
The 2025 edition of Dublin Maker happened last weekend at Leopardstown Racecourse, on the south side of Dublin.
David Powell explaining how the radio features work. It’s designed to facilitate continual upgrade and ongoing R&D.
The open, participatory nature of Dublin Maker really appeals to me. As an education researcher, I’m all about the social construction of new knowledge and Dublin Maker epitomizes this phenomenon!
The venue was packed this year, as usual, and I think we’ve benefited from the rain outside. I attended Saturday (of the two-day event) and observed thousands of visitors engaged in hands-on technology, arts, craft, engineering, and science learning.
The exhibition halls buzzed as makers of all ages shared their projects, demonstrated new ideas, and connected with other creative enthusiasts. Exhibitors showcased everything from polished inventions to prototypes and works in progress.
Postdoc Patricia (Patri) Lucha Farina, Assistant Lecturer Mayank Parmar, and Senior Researcher Harish Kambampati working together.
Heaven knows my colleagues always work to the very last minute, creating new aspects of their projects (even though they’ve all been enthusiastically working for months to prepare)! I’ve provided photographic evidence of our July meeting below. ⬇️
STEM Ensemble’s July meeting to prepare for Dublin Maker.
This year was no exception as our makers worked to perfect the biomedical engineering projects they’d brought to share. Several of our group’s new lecturers and researchers worked together on this table.
Our researchers, Mayank Parmar and Dr. Harish Kambampati, demonstrating biomedical technologies.
I typically help with communicating the ideas to a younger audience or contributing something that’s more on the artistic or spatial side (since I’m an architect, who loves to hang out with these creative engineering types).
In the early years of Dublin Maker, 2015-2018, you would’ve seen us under the banner of RoboSlam. Our booth usually has several tables of displays with hands-on activities, grouped together under some sort of theme.
One year, we hosted the “RoboSlam Cafe” where attendees could build their own robots from low-cost kits—we wanted to provide firsthand experience in robotics. We like to demystify how everyday “smart” devices are made by showing people what’s “under the hood” and making it understandable.
Two of my personal favorites among our past exhibits have been “fractleismus” (generating images from attendees’ sketches using a fractal algorithm) and the “vaporwave fotobooth”, both presenting creations by Ted Burke. ⬇️
From the FotoBooth in 2019.
The fortune teller and subsequent Talking Head booth developed by Shane Ormonde, which integrated AI, were also quite intriguing. The second of these demonstrated generative AI work in real time, back in chat, GPT was just emerging. ⬇️
Shane Ormonde’s fortune teller from 2019.
This year, our major theme was the “Spirit of Radio”.
My STEM Ensemble colleagues have been working hard to develop a radio that has analog feature features as well as AI enabled digital features. This is related to a project that Paula Kelly is leading to introduce senior citizens to AI and help them understand the technology.
David Powell with our new (left) and antique (right) radios.
The radios that we displayed this year were predominantly developed by David Powell, Keith Colton, Frank Duignan, Shane Ormonde, Ted Burke, Richard Hayes. Of course, many other people provided ideas and advice during our STEM Ensemble meetings.
I’ve been attending the meetings, although I can’t contribute much on this topic. Nevertheless, I go to learn and soak in the maker spirit!
Some of the STEM Ensemble at Dublin Maker, giving me a good laugh!
Since we’re no longer just about robotics, we shifted our name from RoboSlam to “Dublin STEM Ensemble”. Our group is associated within the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Technological University Dublin. It’s also associated with the university’s tPOT research group (“tPOT” stands for “toward people oriented technology”), to which I belong.
STEM Ensemble is group of staff, students, and alumni who reflect TU Dublin’s long-standing commitment to inspiring public interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Damon Berry holds tPOT and the STEM Ensemble together—he’s a great leader!
By engaging directly with attendees, our group encouraged new perspectives and fostered a spirit of creative inquiry.
I’m honoured to have hosted a very successful 2025 SEFI Ethics Spring Symposium.
From March 24–26, my colleagues and I gathered at the Royal Marine Hotel in the charming seaside town of Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, for our small and cosy annual symposium. Mother nature blessed us with glorious weather, tasty and healthy food, gorgeous natural and architectural surroundings, an enchanting historic hotel, and new and renewed friendships.
Diana Martin, Mircea Tobosaru, and I organised the programme and all the details, demonstrating that collaboration is key to flourishing!
With 35 delegates from across the globe, this wasn’t just another academic conference—it was a meeting of minds and a celebration of our shared commitment to engineering ethics education.
Soaking in the surroundings, past and present, with a tour by Roland Tormey.
The symposium’s main goal? Strengthening our collective capacity to teach ethics to future engineers. A key focus was the Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education (RIHEEE)—a major collaborative effort by the SEFI Ethics special interest group. We reflected on what is presented in the book and considered how to extend its themes, translate into impactful teaching practices, and generate discussion more broadly in the places we live and work.
Opening the Symposium and introducing the handbook.
A Program Packed with Thought-Provoking Conversations
Over three days, we immersed ourselves in a mix of keynotes, workshops, and panels, tackling big questions from multiple angles:
Keynotes that Challenged and Inspired
Mary Nolan explored the role of care ethics in engineering, pushing us to think beyond traditional engineering thinking.
Paula Tomi examined the nature of truth, a concept that sits at the heart of both engineering and ethics.
Tom Børsen introduced us to techno-anthropology, showing how it intersects with engineering ethics education.
Keynote by Paula Tomi
Workshops that Sparked Debate and Collaboration
Care Ethics—How do we broaden engineers’ notion of responsibility?
AI Experimental Philosophy—How can philosophy guide us in using and developing artificial intelligence?
The Archimedean Oath—Should engineers take an ethical oath, much like doctors do?
Quantitative Methods & Ethics—How can we effectively describe and report ethical impact?
Peer-to-peer learning in action. Tom Børsen, to the right, was the co-lead editor of the handbook. Takehara joined us from Japan, and Miguel from Spain.
Panel Discussions: Making Ethics Education More Practical
Our panelists had a specific challenge: dive into a self-selected sections of RIHEEE and critically assess its themes. We asked: What patterns do you see across the set of chapters in your section? What’s missing? How can can educators make use of the content? How can we help them do that? Can we translate theoretical insights into tangible strategies that can be applied in classrooms and institutions worldwide yet still reflect local culture and values?
Panel with Rachel Harding, Aaron Johnson, Magnus Kahrs (and Valentina Rossi, not shown)Panel on engineering ethics accreditation Panel on Interdisciplinary Perspectives with Katherine Looby, Ronny Kjelsberg, Gaston Meskens, and Sandra Cruz Moreno.
There were so many very special aspects, including exploring care ethics in depth and applying care ethics, and the walking tour was truly spectacular.
A Literary and Cultural Interlude
Roland Tormey’s literary walking tour of Dún Laoghaire was a highlight for us all. We took a step back and immersed ourselves in the cultural richness of our surroundings. For many of us, this blend of intellectual and cultural exploration reinforced the broader ethical dimensions of engineering—how our work is always connected to society, history, and place.
Sunshine and good vibes galore!
Global Voices, Local Impact
The symposium truly reflected the international nature of engineering ethics education. We had voices from across Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia, with universities ranging from UCL and the University of Michigan to EPFL. At the same time, there was strong local representation, with a third of the attendees based in Ireland—TU Dublin, DCU, ATU, and Engineers Ireland all playing an active role. A special shoutout to my TU Dublin colleagues—Sandra Cruz Moreno, Marek Rebow, Rachel Harding, Mike Murphy, and recent PhD grads Diana Adela Martin and Darren Carthy—whose contributions helped everyone feel welcome.
What’s Next?
The energy and ideas sparked at the symposium will propel us forward onto new collaborations, where we apply what we discussed—via research and teaching and leadership and service—and continue building momentum and sharing what we’re learning with our colleagues back home, and indeed worldwide.
For those who couldn’t join us in person, the Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education is freely available in an open-access digital format. Whether you’re new to the field or a long-time educator, it’s a must-read: 🔗 RIHEEE Handbook
For posterity’s sake, I am adding the symposium schedule as it was conducted:
Monday, March 24
09:00-09:30 Welcome and Icebreaker by host Shannon Chance
09:30-10:30 Handbook panel 1 (Foundations) moderated by Roland Tormey with panellists Mircea Tobosaru, Samia Mahé, and Mihaly Héder
10:30-10:50 Coffee break
10:50-11:30 Keynote on Care Ethics by Mary Nolan
11:30-13:00 Workshop on Care Ethics by Robert Irish, Ana Tebeanu, Sofia Duran, Vivek Ramachandran, Roland Tormey, & Alison Gwynne-Evans
13:00-15:30 Picnic Lunch & Walking tour of Dun Laoghaire led by Roland Tormey
15:30-16:00 Coffee break with snacks
16:00-17:00 Handbook panel 4 (Teaching Methods) moderated by Diana Martin with panellists Valentina Rossi, Aaron Johnson, Magnus Kahrs, and Rachel Harding
17:00-17:30 Wrap-up with synthesising activity
19:00 Dinner outing with colleagues departs from the hotel lobby
Tuesday, March 25
09:00-10:00 Handbook panel 6 (Accreditation) moderated by Shannon Chance with panellists Leah Ridgway, Louise O’Gorman, Alison Gwynne-Evans, and Marek Rebow
10:00-10:40 Keynote on Truth by Paula Tomi
10:40-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:15 Workshop on AI experimental philosophy by Krzysztof Sołoducha
12:15-13:00 Ethics SIG session led by Diana Martin and Mircea Tobosaru
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 Handbook panel 3 (Specific Disciplines) moderated by Tom Børson with panellists Jacob Baneham, Miguel Romá, Mike Murphy, and Rhythima Shinde
15:00-15:20 Coffee break with snacks
15:20-16:40 Workshop on the Archimedean Oath by Valentina Rossi
19:00 Dinner outing with colleagues departs from the hotel lobby
Wednesday, March 26
09:00-10:00 Handbook panel 2 (Interdisciplinary Perspectives) moderated by Roland Tormey with panelists Sandra Cruz Moreno, Ronny Kjelsberg, Gaston Meskens, and Katherine Looby, with input from Riadh Habash
10:00-11:15 Workshop on Quantitative Methods & Ethics by Matheus de Andrade and Idalis Villanueva Alarcón
11:15-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:15 Keynote by Tom Børsen on “Techno-Anthropology and Engineering Ethics Education”
12:15-13:15 Ethics SIG session led by Diana Martin and Mircea Tobosaru
13:15-15:00 Lunch and physical activity
15:00-16:00 Handbook panel 5 (Assessment) moderated by Tom Børsen with panellists Takehara Shinya, Celina Leão, Ana Voichita Tebeanu, and Mary Nolan
16:00-16:20 Coffee break with snacks
16:20-17:30 Ethics SIG synthesis session led by Diana Martin and Mircea Tobosaru
19:00 Dinner outing with colleagues departs from the hotel lobby
Over the past two years, I have edited this book in collaboration with five outstanding ethics scholars. Seeing it through to completion is one of the proudest achievements of my professional life.
The project involved 105 authors from around the globe. I led it alongside Tom Børsen, who immediately embraced the idea of a handbook.
We paid the publication fee so that you can read it for free! We wanted to give everyone with a digital device an equal chance, regardless of where they live.
Of course, you are also welcome to order a hard-back print copy of the book from the link above. A discount is currently available. Moreover, a paperback version will be available in 18 months.
The book has six sections:
SECTION 1: Foundations of engineering ethics education (7 chapters)
SECTION 2: Interdisciplinary contributions to engineering ethics education (6 chapters)
SECTION 3: Ethical issues in different engineering disciplines (5 chapters)
SECTION 4: Teaching methods in engineering ethics education (7 chapters)
SECTION 5: Assessment in engineering ethics education (6 chapters)
SECTION 6: Accreditation and engineering ethics education (5 chapters)
The editorial team is pictured below (left to right): Gunter Bombaert, Roland Tormey, Shannon Chance, Tom Børsen, Diana Adela Martin, and Thomas Taro Lennerfors. It’s been a dream team!
This handbook was a project of the Ethics Special Interest Group (SIG) of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). SEFI members made it possible by contributing to their transcontinental networks of colleagues.
We editors started by sending out a survey, as far and wide as possible, to find out who was working in the field and might be interested in authoring a chapter. We held online workshops to identify what topics should be included and structured them into chapters. We invited a lead author for each chapter and asked the lead to invite three others to co-write the chapter. We asked that the chapter team have people from different places on it, and we aimed for transcontinental teams where feasible. We also asked the lead to consider specific people who had expressed interest in the topic. Our team ultimately included people of diverse levels and fields of experience and good geographical distribution. The people on many of the teams had not worked together before. Many lead authors served as mentors for early career researchers. We held numerous meetings online with the led authors of each section to cross-check, coordinate, and challenge our own thinking. The editorial team met weekly throughout most of the process, and the final result reflects the strong and knowledgeable engagement of many leaders in the field. Our team conducted a rigorous internal peer review, and the publisher conducted its own peer review twice during the process. Here’s what the reviewers said about our proposal:
“I believe this is a state-of-the-art milestone.”
“The lead authors are the key people in this vibrant community, and they have recruited a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of international authors for the handbook. This is the right time and the right people. It’s the dream team.”
“This would become the resource in this field.”
The final result is a true masterpiece, and I hope you’ll read at least some of it because the content is quite fascinating!
The Ethics SIG also hosts a Spring School around Easter every year, and this year, the theme of the Spring Symposium is “Growing the Field of Engineering Ethics Education and Research as a Community.” I am the local host for this March 2025 event, and we will spend the three days celebrating, applying, and extending the handbook’s content. Learn more about the Symposium and submit your interest in attending at this link: https://forms.gle/WngZ3DMi97FLtQaZ8
Date: 24-26 March 2025 (9:00-17:30 each day)
Location: Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire, Ireland
Whether or not you can join us in Dún Laoghaire, I hope you’ll peruse the content of this outstanding new resource and reach out to the editors and authors if you’d like more information or to get involved in what we do!
I am confident that this handbook will make a significant global contribution to engineering education. I therefore urge all engineering and architecture educators to become more explicitly involved in learning and teaching about ethics.
If you’ve known me long, then you have gotten to know my partner, Aongus, over the years. It’s likely that you know we like to enjoy life and have a good time….
Since our very first date back in 2016…Through our adventures living in London…Travelling the world and…Staying fit…And always trying to have some fun!
But you also likely know we’re hard workers! We love learning new things, stretching, and exercising our skills.
Today, I am taking the opportunity to brag about this lovely fellow.
He started working on a new credential during the Covid lockdown, earning it just before Christmas. He’s now officially a Chartered Construction Manager and a full Member of the Chartered Institute of Building in Ireland and the UK. He gets to use the letters after his name:
Mr. Aongus Coughlan, MCIOB
This is the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in the European system (the Level 7 ordinary bachelor on the Irish framework), so it represents a boatload of work. When he sat for the five-day exam, he did so well that they bestowed the designation of distinction, but earning this full credential required much more than just passing that exam. He also had to document his experience in detail, and pass high levels of scrutiny.
I couldn’t be prouder of Aongus!
He’s an all-around fabulous guy. He’s always thoughtful and considerate. He’s a great cook and a deeply caring companion. He’s good-natured and kind, never pouts, and always carries his own weight at home and at work.
And now the world knows he’s also an excellent manager!
Well done, baby! Studying is a very good look on you!
You might be asking yourself why I went to India at the start of the New Year. As you may recall, I served on the global Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN) for five years. During that time I chaired REEN’s governing body but before I started chairing I served on a sub-committee to recruit and select host/locations for our Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES).
Hosts of REES 2024 (and the upcoming REES 2025 that will be in El Paso). Can you feel the energy?IUCEE award winners for 2024. Sooooo many working in Idnad to improve engineering education!
REES is generally held every other year, and we go to locations around the globe. REES is a way to meet new people, extend our networks, practice new research skills, and share what we find as we research engineering education. The symposia help attendees learn about engineering education in new parts of the world and they help the community in each region where REES meets to gain momentum. REE Symposia help people entering the field of Engineering Education Research (EER) to meet people who have been doing EER longer.
Two of the main organizers of the conferences were Dr/Prof Vijayalakshmi M. (left) and Dr Preethi Baligar (right).The sessions were very well attended!
REEN was held in Honolulu (2007), Davos (2008), Queensland Australia (2009), Madria (2011), Kuala Lumpur (2013), Dublin (2015), Bogotá (2017), Cape Town (2019), Perth (2021), and now Hubli, India (January 4-6, 2024).
The REEN.co website explains that “provides a forum to share, discuss, disseminate, and propagate high-quality research and best practices through the Global Engineering Education Research community.”
Networking with the lovely and energetic Dipanwita Chakravarty (KLE Architecture) while touring the engineering research building at KLE Tech.Three past REEN chairs in one place! Teresa Hattingh, Shannon Chance, and Adam Carberry. Homero Murzi just took the role of chair on January 1, 2024.
REES 2024 was hosted by KLE Technological University (KLE Tech) in collaboration with the Indo-Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE). We met on KLE Tech’s B. V. Bhoomaraddi Campus in Vidyanagar, Hubballi, Karnataka, India.
We typically team up with the local national organization for engineering practitioners and/or engineering educators. KLE Tech staff are leaders of IUCEE and are leading the way in EER, research-based teaching, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
IUCEE is doing great things in India! It’s vision is “is to improve the quality and global relevance of engineering education in India” and to do this it seeks “to build an ecosystem for transforming engineering education in India with the assistance of engineering education experts and industry from around the world” (https://iucee.org/). The organization’s website is chock full of information with a vast number of events and activities featured every week on its homepage. Wow!
When I was on the REES selection committee, three scholars from India who are active in IUCEE applied to host a Symposium. That excellent proposal came from Krishna Vedula, Gopal Joshi, and Sohum Sohoni who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years since we made that selection in 2018.
Sohum Sohoni at REES 2024.Krishna Vedula there on the left, rallying the troops!
IUCEE was launched in 2007 and today the organization has members from all over India, as well as from the Indian diaspora (all those brave folks who left India to work, study and live elsewhere in the world), like Sohum, who teaches engineering in the USA. I don’t know how many members IUCEE has, but LinkedIn shows 847 followers. Ooops! Add one more! I’m following now, and so can you: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indo-universal-collaboration-for-engineering-education/?originalSubdomain=in
REES workshop activities — see my colleagues Dr Ed Berger and Dr Mikita Hari there in the center, engrossed in converesation.IUCEE includes a showcase of student research.
REEN also has a LinkedIn group you can join (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8537067/), and you can also subscribe to get email updates from REEN (https://reen.co/subscribe/). My fabulous former boss currently runs the REEN website — shout out to John Mitchell at UCL, a truly great person to work with and for!
So, REEN selected India as a host and asked the applicants to send a member to our REEN team to help us all prepare for REES 2024. We scheduled the event for January when IUCEE’s annual conference falls.
Getting to Hubballi, Karnataka, India for the first time was no small feat, with complicated visa and flight arrangements. Thanks very much to Dr. Nithya Venkatesan, Assistant Director of International Relations at VIT Chennai for helping me arrange flights and some accommodations for my stay. Her help made my trip possible as I was truly overwhelmed.
The lovely KLE Tech auditorium building.All the REES 2024 attendees. Imagine, IUCEE was even bigger!
But it was all worth the effort. It was so inspiring to meet the very energetic members of IUCEE, as REES overlapped their conference by one day. May IUCEE members stayed on for the REE Symposium and contributed to it in insightful ways.
I’ll tell you more about the happenings of REES 2024 in an upcoming blog. Thanks for reading along today to learn how I was inspired to travel to India for my first time.
Meals under the marquee with delicious food plus great ambiance.Panel Discussion 2 on “Transitioning from Engineering to Engineering Education Research”.Making so many new friends and colleagues, like Dr Soumya Narayanan form KLE Tech. The awards ceremony for IUCEE. What enthusiasm and what beautiful dresses!
Ireland by Chance 