Tag / TU Dublin

by shannonchance

Sandra Cruz’s doctoral milestone

I have an exceptional PhD supervisee at TU Dublin, Sandra I. Cruz Moreno. She is an internally motivated, self-driven learner who needs little to no prompting from me. Supervising her for the past two years has been pure joy.

I am extremely pleased to report that Sandra achieved a major milestone yesterday because she very successfully “defended her Ph.D. proposal” (the term we use in the USA). Here, it’s called a confirmation examination to confirm that a student is on track and suitable to continue onward.

Sandra needed to submit an extensive report. The report is a bit more elaborate than a proposal back home, as it must include the work plan in addition to the first three chapters of the dissertation. She also included preliminary analyses of existing interview data.

TU Dublin is funding Sandra’s PhD so that she can analyze extensive interview data I collected from women studying engineering over the years since 2015. It’s such an enormous amount of data that I’ve never been able to wrap my arms around it fully. Sandra, a sociologist who has worked as a research consultant on rural development for the United Nations and similar organizations, is well-prepared to handle this large dataset. She has embraced the challenge and has made great strides forward.

Sandra Cruz at SEFI 2023, where she presented her research (left) and engaged thoroughly in events like the pre-conference Doctoral Symposium (center and right).

Sandra’s study is titled “Exploring Women’s Experiences on Collaborative Learning in Engineering Education: A Phenomenological Analysis.” She submitted written reports of the coursework she has done to date, as well as a five-chapter document presenting her research. Both of Sandra’s supervisors, as well as our college’s head of research and the external examiner from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), all read and critically analyzed Sandra’s submission.

The result of this review and of yesterday’s two-hour oral examination concluded that her “Proposed research and progress [are] suitable for [Sandra] to remain on the higher register” and proceed into the final stage of her doctoral research. That’s fancy talk for “It’s a go!” and “Full speed ahead!”

Sandra Cruz with her external examiner, Dr Roland Tormey and lead supervisor, Prof/Dr Shannon Chance, on the day of examination.

Regarding the research Sandra has produced to date, the external examiner’s evaluation states:

The report is very well structured and extremely well written. It demonstrates a high degree of scholarship in dealing with quite a few challenging concepts while, at the same time, managing to make them accessible. There is a very good balance between methodology and methods in chapter three in particular. 

The data available is suitable for completing of the PhD and the initial analysis carried out shows quite a lot of promise. 

-External Examiner Roland Tormey, PhD

Our advisory supervisor, Prof/Dr Brian Bowe, couldn’t attend the examination (he’s the university registrar, after all, and the end of Semester 1 is an extremely busy time of year). Nevertheless, his guidance to Sandra and me has been essential throughout the process. The advice he provides is targeted and highly applicable. Sandra and I have benefited from having him on the team.

I was delighted, but not at all surprised, to hear about the successful outcome. Congratulations, the result reflects your hard work and dedication.

–Prof/Dr Brian Bowe, Head of Academic Affairs at TU Dublin

I have included the cover and table of contents of Sandra’s report so you can see the level of detail required. The report is 96 pages long. While Sandra was rehearsing for the examination, I was off in India delivering a paper she authored on policy to address gender gaps in engineering — policy at the European and Irish levels. The policy paper generated great interest and will form part of the PhD study, although it wasn’t a major component of the confirmation report. In fact, there were a number of topics she researched that didn’t need to be explained in detail at this point, such as critical feminism, which will inform her work going forward.

Working with and learning with and from Sandra is an honor and a privilege. I am grateful to TU Dublin for providing the grant to fund Sandra’s research activity. I am grateful to Brian, Roland, and Marek for the support they have lent Sandra and me. And most of all, I am grateful to Sandra for her diligence, perseverance, openness, and sincerity. I have learned so much from her and from working with her!

by shannonchance

Digital innovations in construction and CitA’s 2023 BIM Gathering

Last week I taught two evening classes of Research Methods with my BSc in BIM (Digital Construction) students–and I have another starting at 6PM tonight. The students are earning “honors-level” bachelor’s degrees in just one year at TU Dublin. It’s an action-packed year, and they complete 60 ECTS (a full-time academic load, equivalent to 30 credits in the US university system) over 12 continuous months. It’s a great credential to earn and they learn so many new skills. “Honors-level” means they need to write a research paper, and I teach them the basics of that in Research Methods. So, last Tuesday, I welcomed them back from summer (where they completed their Work-Based Learning module) via an online class I taught from a hotel room in Athlone.

And just why was I in Athlone, halfway across Irland, on a school night?

I was lucky enough to attend the 2023 CitA BIM Gathering as an observer. CitA is the Construction IT Alliance in Ireland, and its BIM Gathering is held every second year.

This year the Gathering had a great innovation. The first two days (Monday and Tuesday) were online for a manageable two hours each day. The third (Wednesday) we had a full day in person, in the midlands of Ireland, along the Shannon River.

I really appreciated CitA’s multi-type conference format as we got to hear from speakers who couldn’t travel to Athlone. This format used travel resources more wisely, and the rhythm suited me as a participant. I particularly valued the online presentations by lawyer May Winfield of Buro Happold, Lèon van Berlo from buildingSMART International, Johnthan Reinhard from TU Dublin, and Carolina Soto Oguerta from Chile.

Because I had a class to teach on Tuesday night, I bolted from home to Heusten Station as soon as the Tuesday Gathering events ended, to settle into my hotel room and make sure the wifi connection was sound.

I thoroughly enjoyed traveling with Irish Rail, and I worked on a review for the European Journal of Engineering Education on the way. Sooooo much preferable to driving!

Here’s a map comparing Europe’s train network with the USA’s. Whereas I can’t get outside Ireland by rail, it’s a pleasure when I can use the train domestically.

Athlone is home to the new Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), and I am hoping this increased exposure of the name “Shannon” helps Irish people learn my name 🙂 as they never seem to understand my pronunciation of it. It just doesn’t fit many people’s schema for a woman’s first name here, and they revert to calling me Sharon shortly into almost any conversation.

View from the conference room at the Radisson Blu in Athlone.

CitA is headed by Dr. Alan Hore, who will soon retire from TU Dublin. I’m not happy to learn that bit of news, but I am sure Alan has new plans for doing something big and meaningful!

In-person attendance from TU Dublin was strong, and many students presented really impressive research during the conference. I was particularly impressed with the presentations by students, including Sadaf Dalirazar from UCD, Léa Laurent (affiliated with Munster University of Technology, but presenting on behalf of her firm O’Connell Mahon), and TU Dubin’s Peshawa Mohammed, Ryan Dempsey, and Jennifer McAuley. Sadaf was nominated for an award (at her first-ever conference, for her first-ever conference paper). Léa won for best industry paper and Jennifer won for best academic paper, so I must have picked my sessions well! I also found Ryan’s presentation–though high speed!–to be very enlightening. I applaud them all for their fabulous work.

Presentations pictured by Sadaz Dalirazar, Ryan Dempsey, Léa Laurent, and Jennifer McAuley.

I also got to chat with graduates of our BSc from the first three cohorts, Divia Chadwa and Martin King, as well as one student currently completing the course, Bronte Kavanagh, and my co-teachers from TU Dublin, Davitt Lamon, Kevin Furlong MA, MSc, Dr. Malachy Mathews, and more!

I was also happy to hear from the Mayor of Athlone, who is an architect; Louise Heavin delivered a thought-provoking address and is enhancing the sustainability and livability of her small city. David Philip‘s presentation was also very interesting, “The Unexpected Road, from Premise to Prediction”, and I had the pleasure of chatting with David over lunch.

Main stage presentations by Louise Heavin, David Philips, and Jonathan Reinhard (this time speaking on behalf of Diatec).

I didn’t present any of my own work at this conference. I was just too busy over the summer with other publications to get a paper written that would benefit the audience. However, I did present aspects of a new study that I’m doing with Barry McAuley at two other conferences this summer. You can download the paper from the ASEE conference, “Infusing Research Know-How into the Construction Sector: Pedagogies to Support Digital Construction in Ireland”. I’ll link you to the SEFI paper once those proceedings are released.

Had the pleasure of taking the train back to Dublin with Ph.D. students Shiyao Kuang and Sadif Dalirazar.
by shannonchance

Ethics teaching and learning

Ethics teaching and research are core to my work — teaching, researching, designing curricula, and editing. Here’s a two-day snippet of activities….

Yesterday, I attended a work session for the EthiCo project, led by TU Dublin but working in collaboration with many other technological universities. We’re considering multi-dimensional understandings of ethics. And, our group is developing tools for teaching students about ethics and teachers about how to incorporate ethics (social and environmental justice) into their classrooms. TU Dublin’s Professor Noel Fitzpatrick is leading the effort.

View toward the Dublin mountains from the brand new East Quad, second floor meeting room.
Hybrid format EthiCo working session

Just before we met, my WhatsApp thread was alive as my colleagues and I determined the theme of our upcoming Dublin Maker (July 23) booth: Reboot Arcade. Short description: Games of all sorts and art installations relating to rebooting civilization in our own unique way.

We’ll inspire those who visit our booth to envision the world we’d create if we were doing things from scratch. I’ll contribute an activity for our booth at Dublin Maker about circular economy and regenerative design.

Throughout the day, I also wrote and uploaded feedback to my BIM students in the Research Methods module.

And, did quite a bit of editing on a manuscript with Inês Direito and Bill Williams using the Hero’s Journey framework. Here’s snapshot of my screen with a graphic I’ve made for that paper:

A snapshot of the graphic I’ve made for the Hero’s Journey paper. (Adapted from J. Campbell by Shannon Chance, 2022.)

Today started with a conference of the members of the European University of Technology (EUt+). I presented ideas as part of the morning’s panel on the role of Education in the EUt+. I talked about the importance of ethics in technical education. It’s strange but exciting to be in a room with over 100 educators discussing topics passionately in person once again!

Pics from the EUt+ kickoff session and my view from the Education panel.

After the panel, I chatted with colleagues over coffee, and later followed up with many via email about how they can connect to SEFI and SEFI’s Ethics working group, and also the upcoming Project Approaches in Engineering Education (PAEE) conference where I’ll be delivering a keynote.

I really enjoyed hearing the speakers launch the conference (the secretary of the initiative, TU Dublin’s president, and the TU Dublin point person for the EUt+). Hearing them, I got a better idea of what’s in store for us as we join together as one big university offering more transferability of our students and of ideas and among our teachers. We’re building the future and creating our new reality.

But I couldn’t stay long. I hurried home to meet online with the editorial team for a new Handbook on Engineering Ethics Education. I zipped off emails to invite lead authors for Theme 4, on ethics accreditation.

I’ve got to get back to work now, but I’ll paste the handbook outline below, so you can see what kinds of things we’re exploring.

Outline for the Handbook on EEE

Theme 1: Foundations of engineering ethics education

Chapter 1.1: The purpose(s) of engineering ethics education

Chapter 1.2: How engineering ethics education makes use of normative ethical theories

Chapter 1.3: The individual and the collective in engineering ethics education

Chapter 1.4: Codes and professional organizations in engineering ethics education

Chapter 1.5: Reason and emotion play in engineering ethics education

Theme 2: Interdisciplinary contributions to engineering ethics education

Chapter 2.1: Philosophical and religious foundations in global perspective

Chapter 2.2: Sociological, Postcolonial and Critical Theory foundations

Chapter 2.3: Psychological foundations

Chapter 2.4: Management & Organisational studies foundations

Chapter 2.5: Engineering Design foundations

Chapter 2.6: Environmental Science foundations

Theme 3: Teaching methods in Engineering Ethics Education

Chapter 3.1: Literature review mapping the use of different teaching methods

Chapter 3.2: Case studies and dilemmas in engineering ethics education

Chapter 3.3: Project-Based Learning and Challenge Based Learning

Chapter 3.4: Value Sensitive Design and Design-Based Learning

Chapter 3.5: Field learning in engineering ethics education

Chapter 3.6. Arts-based methods in engineering ethics education

Chapter 3.7: Reflective and dialogue-centered approaches

Theme 4: Accreditation and Engineering Ethics Education

Chapter 4.1: Background history of ethics in accreditation

Chapter 4.2: Contextual mapping of ethics education and accreditation nationally and internationally

Chapter 4.3: Overview of literature and analysis of the types of research that have been published on Accreditation and EEE

Chapter 4.4: Comparative analysis of accreditation processes and implications at global and international levels

Chapter 4.5: Comparative analysis of accreditation processes and implications for ethics education at the local level

Chapter 4.6: A synthesis of the prior chapters in the section

Theme 5: Ethical issues in different engineering disciplines

Chapter 5.1: Software engineering

Chapter 5.2: Chemical engineering

Chapter 5.3: Biotechnology

Chapter 5.4: Civil engineering

Chapter 5.5: Mechanical / aerospatial engineering

Chapter 5.6: Electrical / electronic engineering

Chapter 5.7: Environmental engineering.

Theme 6: Assessment of different aspects of Engineering Ethics Education

Chapter 6.1: Course and curriculum quality

Chapter 6.2: Answering the need of industry, local communities, and other stakeholders

Chapter 6.3: Moral reasoning, ethical judgement, moral awareness, ethical sensitivity

Chapter 6.4: Views on knowledge, science, engineering

Chapter 6.5: Competencies such as critical thinking

Chapter 6.6.: Attitudes and character

Chapter 6.7: Limitations and critical perspectives on assessments

by shannonchance

Harvest of 2020: A summary of my Engineering Education Research

So, I’m not going to lie: 2021 has been incredibly difficult for me. We’ve been on lockdown since before New Years Day here in Ireland. We are homebound and limited to a 5km travel radius from home for essential shopping and exercise (in the cold, wet weather and very short winter days). Moreover, we started the year by burying my partner Aongus’ father.

It’s been work, work, work and nearly no play. Staring at the screen has been taking its toll. Experiencing eye strain, I’ve not had the wherewithal to blog since that requires additional screen time over and above work. Sometimes it feels like I’m marking time, standing in place and making no progress forward.

But then someone asked for info that put some things back into perspective.

You may not know, but even though I am teaching Engineering and Digital Construction at TU Dublin right now, I am still actively engaged in research on engineering education. I’m part of two research centers–one here in Dublin (CREATE) and another in the UK (UCL’s Centre for Engineering Education).

The UCL Centre Coordinator, Paula Broome, is preparing the CEE’s annual report for 2020. She asked me to send a synopsis of my activities in Engineering Education Research. I dashed off the draft below for her to integrate into the report.

Writing this up took time (we’re on Spring Break here, but I can’t seem to get away from the computer). Nevertheless, it made me feel a bit better about forging ahead through 2020. And since it’s Spring Break, I can feel okay taking time away from work to blog!

Two items don’t show upon the list below that actually took a great deal of time in 2020. Hopefully, soon, I’ll be able to list two new journal articles with 2021 publication dates.

I could also have added that my blog made a difference to researchers in 2020. One thanked me on Facebook a couple days ago for providing resources that helped her win her own Marie Curie Research Fellowship in 2020. IrelandByChance.com had a record number of visitors in 2020, totalling 12,265 and beating my previous high of 12,141 visitors in 2013.

The most visited pages all involved the example Marie Curie materials I posted.

UCL CEE 2020 activities of Shannon Chance

Topic: implementing PBL pedagogies

CEE works to help engineering educators learn and implement active learning pedagogies, like problem-based learning. Shannon Chance published the following book chapter on PBL:

CHANCE, S. M. (2020). Problem-Based Learning: Use in Engineering Disciplines. In Amey, M. J. & David, M. E. (Eds.). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education, 5v. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-higher-education/book245423

In addition, this CEE-supported project was presented at a conference on PBL:

Mora, C. E., CHANCE, S. M., Direito, I., Morera-Bello, M. D., Hernández-Zamora, L., & Williams, B. (2020). INGENIA, a novel program Impacting Sustainable Development Goals locally through students’ actions. The International Research Symposium on Problem Based Learning (IRSPBL 2020) in Aalborg, Denmark.

Topic: diversity and inclusion

We believe in creating diverse and inclusive learning environments where all members feel welcome and supported—where they can be their true selves and realize their full potential. Inês Direito leads the SEFI working group on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and CEE’s Shannon Chance, Fiona Turscott, and Sophia Economides are frequent contributors to the group. Our team’s work includes a longitudinal, phenomenological study on Middle Eastern women’s experiences studying engineering abroad in Ireland, led by Shannon Chance, published the following Peer-Reviewed Conference Paper:

CHANCE, S. M., & Williams, B. (2020, May). Here you have to be mixing: Collaborative learning on an engineering program in Ireland as experienced by a group of Middle Eastern young women. EDUCON2020 – IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference in Porto, Portugal.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9125207

Shannon was also invited to present the work in Malaysia:

CHANCE, S., & Williams, B. (2020). Middle Eastern women’s experiences of collaborative learning in engineering in Ireland. Plenary forum Women in Engineering at the Regional Centre for Engineering Education conference (RCEE 2020) on “Engineering Education Leadership in an Uncertain World” at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

This Peer-Reviewed Conference Paper about Portuguese students’ experiences with Brexit also reflects our concern for Diversity and Inclusion:

Direito, I., CHANCE, S. M., & Williams, B. (2020). Exploring the impact of Brexit on UK’s engineering education sector from the perspective of European students. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI 2020) conference in Twente, Netherlands.

Topic: ethics and sustainability

We are looking for ways to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into our work and to infuse environmental sustainability, social justice, and ethics into our teaching and research. To understand these values are being enacted in London, our team has been conducting an exploratory study regarding UK civil engineers’ understandings and practices related to Global Responsibility (the topic of two articles we have under review with journals right now). Shannon Chance was invited to deliver a keynote speech on sustainability at a conference in China:

CHANCE, S., (2020). Equipping STEM graduates for global challenges via design thinking. Keynote speech for Chinese Society for Engineering Education’s 15th International Symposium on Science and Education Development Strategy on “Innovation of Engineering Education System under Global Challenges” held in Hangzhou, China 10-11 December 2020.

CEE members published the following Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers on sustainability in 2020:

CHANCE, S. M., Direito, I., & Mitchell, J. (2020). Challenges to global responsibility faced by London-based early-career civil engineers. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI 2020) conference in Twente, Netherlands.

CHANCE, S. M., Direito, I., & Mitchell, J. (accepted in 2020, although the conference has been postponed until 2021). To what degree do graduate civil engineers working in London enact Global Responsibility and support UN Sustainable Development Goals? Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD2020) conference in Cork, Ireland.

This paper, mentioned above under PBL, also focuses on sustainability:

Mora, C. E., CHANCE, S. M., Direito, I., Morera-Bello, M. D., Hernández-Zamora, L., & Williams, B. (2020). INGENIA, a novel program Impacting Sustainable Development Goals locally through students’ actions. The International Research Symposium on Problem Based Learning (IRSPBL 2020) in Aalborg, Denmark.

And finally, this workshop session intergated on sustainability:

CHANCE, S. M., & Villas Boa, V. (2020). Can we make future conferences greener and more equitable by providing online participation options? Breakout session of the Big EER Meet Up (online via UCL, April 2020).

Topic: Research Methods

CEE seeks to build research skills both across the members of CEE and more broadly. Shannon Chance build skill in teaching research methods by teaching a 5 ECTS module on the topic at TU Dublin in 2020. CEE members also provided the following workshops on research methods:

India

CHANCE, S., Direito, I., & Malik, M. (2020). An introduction to literature reviews in Engineering Education. Workshop for the Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE). 22 November 2020.

Netherlands

Direito, I., CHANCE, S., & Malik, M. (2020). An introduction to systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses in Engineering Education. Workshop at the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) 2020 annual conference in Twente, Netherlands.

Edström, K.,Benson, L.,Mitchell, J., Bernhard, J., van den Bogaard, M., Case, J.; CHANCE, S., & Finelli, C. (2020). Best practices for reviewing manuscripts in engineering education research journals. Workshop at the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) 2020 annual conference in Twente, Netherlands.

Topic: global leadership in engineering education research (EER)

CEE provides leadership at the highest levels in engineering education—including both engineering education program development and engineering education research.

In April 2020, the CEE team organized and hosted the Big Engineering Education Research (EER) Meet Up, with 350 attendees worldwide. We followed this up in June 2020 with a second Meet Up for International Women in Engineering Day, that had 90 attendees. These were our primary activities for helping build academics’ capacity to conduct EER. At the start of 2020, Shannon Chance presented outcomes of the Marie Curie Research Fellowship she completed at UCL:

CHANCE, S. M. (2020). Becoming Civil: Outcomes of a Marie Curie Fellowship with CEGE and CEE. Lunch seminar for UCL’s Centre for Engineering Education in London.

Shannon Chance serves as the Chair of the global Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN). The term of Chair runs for the calendar years 2020 and 2021. As the head of the Governing Board of REEN, she has succeeded in diversifying and expanding the board to better represent the globe, helped organize REEN support for the CEE MeetUps at the outset of the pandemic, led the upgrade of the website for usability and economic sustainability, moved toward more transparent policies and procedures, and helped keep REEN operations on track.

To help grow a strong research community, we also supervise and mentor emerging researchers. In 202,0 Shannon continued to serve as a PhD supervisor and visiting processor at London South Bank University (LSBU). She has also been is highly active in UCL’s CEE and TU Dublin’s CREATE research group, helping aid communication between these two EER centers. In 2020, Shannon also reviewed conference paper submissions for the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) and EDUCON conferences.

Topic: global leadership in EER publishing

CEE work involves serving as top editors of the IEEE Transactions on Education, where John Mitchell is Editor-in-Chief and Shannon Chance is an Associate Editor. John and Shannon are also active contributors to the Engineering Education Research (EER) editors’ roundtables that assembles online and at the world’s top EER conferences and is creating resources to support authors and reviewers. John and Shannon are also both on the editorial board of the European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE).

Shannon is currently the primary editor for a special focus issue on ethics in engineering education and practice, to be published in May 2021 by REEN’s Research in Engineering Education Symposium and the Australasian Journal of Engineering Education. In 2020, Shannon also served as a peer reviewer for all of the following journals:

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Technology | Architecture + Design

Australasian Journal of Engineering Education  

IEEE Transactions on Education

European Journal of Engineering Education

Journal of Engineering Education

Topic: public engagement

Outreach to the public is important to CEE. During 2020, Shannon Chance was interviewed for UK’s “Engineering Matters” podcast #59 Empowering Ethical Engineering (https://engineeringmatters.reby.media/2020/06/25/59-empowering-ethical-engineering/).

Shannon also served as an advisor for the recent publication of a children’s book “The Architecture Scribble Book” by Usborne Publishing Ltd.(2020). This built on past success with titled “The Engineering Scribble Book” by Usborne Publishing Ltd.(2018) which she also consulted on. Shannon also hosts the educational blog IrelandByChance.com.

CHANCE, S. (2012-present). Ireland by Chance: Research Adventures in Ireland and the UK. http://www.IrelandByChance.com showcasing research and fellowship activities.

Our team communicated and promoted research we have done via public channels:

CHANCE, S., Williams, B., & Direito, I. (2020). Tackling gender inclusion of Middle East students in engineering education with Project Based Learning. SEFI Newsletter.

CHANCE, S., Williams, B., & Direito, I. (2020, December 1). Project based learning: a tool for gender inclusion and enhanced team learning. Technological University Dublin blog for Diversity Equity and Inclusion. https://sway.office.com/fjc0aQKqkWotCl2J?ref=email&loc=play

Topic: CPD

Members of the CEE stay on top of their professional credentials. In 2020, Shannon Chance refreshed her Architectural Registration (license to practice) in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA and maintained the National Council Record she holds with the USA’s National Council of Architectural Registration Boards which enables her to gain reciprocity in any of the United States. Shannon also gained a new credential, a Postgraduate Certificate in Building Information Modeling, at the February 2020 graduation ceremony at Technological University Dublin.

Topic: curriculum development

The CEE is currently developing new engineering curricula for Newgiza University in Cairo, Egypt. Emanuela Tilley, Al Mosart Hassan, and Shannon Chance comprise the core team developing the new curriculum in Architectural Engineering.

Topic: leadership in educational evaluation

In a similar vein to developing curricula, CEE also supports Quality Assurance and Accreditation processes. In 2020, Shannon Chance served on a review panel for a Substantive Change application submitted by the University of Puerto Rico to the USA’s National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB). Shannon also served as an external evaluator for applications submitted to Fulbright Ireland. In 2020, Shannon was also active in Quality Assurance at TU Dublin (Ireland), where as part of her role as Programme Chair for the BSc (Hons) in BIM (Digital Construction) she chaired the Programme Committee and served on the Extended School Executive Committee.

by shannonchance

Dublin Maker here we come!

The TU Dublin RoboSlam gang is alive and kicking!

Nearly 20 of us met in February to start planning our exhibition for Dublin Maker 2020. The big event is to be held on the 27th of June in Herbert Park, on the south-side of Dublin.

Last week, a portion of our team reassembled to get different people’s parts working together in a coordinated way. I’ve created a little video of that second prep session for you to enjoy.

One thing that worries me, though, is that all the stuff my colleagues have made looks so very cool, so incredibly professional, that visitors to our Dublin Maker booth will think they BOUGHT this ready-made. Not so.

For instance, Keith Colton (in the video with the bandaid on his thumb) used a 3D printer to make the car he’s holding. He made it from scratch.

Shane Ormond combined a whole bunch of cutting-edge technologies to get a tiny camera on top of his race car to feed video into the VR headsets and TV monitors, all the while controlling the car’s behavior from a hand-held device. He’s been sending us video updates from his house and it’s been cool to watch his car speed under sofas and chairs and around his lovely home.

When I tired driving, I couldn’t control the car too well–and I’m pretty used to driving sporty cars! In this case, the car didn’t quite have the handling of my 2004 Nissan Z350. The car was racing around at top speed and the VR googles made it all seem much too real!

Note in he video how Paul Leamy’s stomach turned when his car flipped over. Seemed real! You can see on the TV monitor, but viewed through VR goggles it’s all the more gripping.

So, see for yourself!

Come on out on June 27th to see where all this leads. Our team is just at the start and we plan to build a plethora of buses, stop lights, trams, and Dublin city sites for our cars to whizz though on Dublin Maker day 2020.

by shannonchance

Discovering the new TU Dublin

It’s been a great start-of-semester and welcome-back here in Dublin. I’ve been settling back in at TU Dublin, since the first of the year. I’ve been learning to juggle a host of new job responsibilities along with my favorite existing projects. There’s so much work to be done!

Images from Dublin (my walking path between TU Dublin buildings), my Tech Graphics class (day 2), and postings in the hallway that remind me of projects led back in the States.

In addition to teaching first-year engineering modules/courses, I have also been helping launch the new MSc in BIM, working on curriculum development (which buys out half my work time), finalizing research projects for publication, and drafting my final report for the 2018-12019 fellowship I had to UCL.

I’ve also attended a host of special events:

  1. The launch of TU Dublin’s new strategic plan
  2. A two-day conference on “Rethinking the Crit” in architecture and design education.
  3. Tech support workshops for staff on Brightspace and Agresso
  4. Personal wellbeing workshops for staff on insurance and personal finance.
  5. A planning sessions with our ever-expanding RoboSlam team preparing for Dublin Maker 2020 (June 2020) and our upcoming Engineering Your Future week (May 2020)

TU Dublin’s new Strategic Plan

The launch of TU Dublin’s strategic plan was held at the Lighthouse Cinema, under Smithfield Plaza.

The unveiling of the strategic plan was quite well organized and inspiring. The speakers and panelists all did a great job explaining the shared aspirations of our academic community. I hope the details are as well done as the vision they presented.

Soon, I’ll read the plan and see how it matches up against the evaluation rubric I published back during my doc studies, which you can download here.

Chance, S and Williams, B. (2009). Assessing University Strategic Plans: A Tool For Consideration. Educational planning: the journal of the international society for educational planning, 2009, 18(1), 38-54.

The take-home message of the strategic planning launch was that TU Dublin values diversity and inclusivity. The student voice was clear, strong and impressive. The leaders were well-spoken.

TU Dublin’s workshop on “Rethinking the Crit”

I attended a hands-on conference alongside architecture students from all over Ireland as well as teachers and critics from Ireland and abroad.

The workshop was organized by my College’s office for Learning Development, under the direction of Patrick Flynn, our Head of Learning Development. In many places, his role would be called Vice Dean for Academics, but DIT (the parent of TU Dublin) tended to do things its own unique way.

As I’m part of a team developing a brand new Architectural Engineering curriculum, this conference on how to improve the studio jury system was of great value to me. That Arch Eng course will graduate people ready for architecture licensing.

One of the presenters, Dr. Kathryn Anthony, literally wrote the book that got this conversation rolling: Design Juries on Trial. It was published in 1991 but there’s still a lot more uptake needed of her ideas across the globe. She collected data at Hampton University, where I used to teach, and at HU we used many of the techniques she proposed—with great success.

I hope to use techniques we discussed to help improve architecture education near and far.

The “Rethinking the Crit” symposium included presentations and small-group work sessions with teams of students, lecturers, and outside experts.