November 28, 2023January 13, 2024 by shannonchance

Our Great Escape to London

Although the days are short, dark, and frequently wet now that we’ve gone off daylight savings time, I’m still savoring memories of a recent week in London. As you likely know, I spent all of 2018 and 2919 on an MSCA fellowship from the European Union, working at University College London and developing fabulous new skills and an invaluable network of colleagues at UCL and around the globe. UCL is truly a magnet for talent and an ongoing source of inspiration.

The time change happened again this year while Aongus and I were in London for the October bank holiday… I often overlap a bank holiday Monday with a working visit to London since my colleagues at UCL have different days than me (at TU Dublin) and I can visit UCL without falling behind at my main job. This was my second Halloween in a row visiting UCL.

I’m fact, this Halloween I spent a full week in London, collaborating with colleagues and attending lectures including Emanuela Tilley’s inaugural professorial lecture (and reception!) and a guest lecture in one of Professor Nick Tyler’s transport engineering classes.

Emanuela Tilley’s Inaugural Professorial Lecture and Reception at UCL.

I worked several days at UCL’s Henry Morley building, which houses the Centre for Engineering Education. I enjoyed catching up with colleagues there, especially Drs Vivek Ramachandran, Kate Roach, and Fiona Truscott. I showed Vivek, who is new to UCL, some of my favorite places in and around campus, including the Thursday Farmers’ Market, the Life Goddess restaurant, and the Building Centre. I after work one night, I attended a comedy show at the newly renovated Bloomsbury Theater.

In the daytimes, I kept Dr Inês Direito’s old desk warm as she’s moved to the University of Aveiro in Portugal. Never fear, though, Inês and I are still in close communication, and now, my mentee Dr Diana Martin is joining CEE so I’ll still never be more than a WhatsApp away from the Center!

During the week, I attended strategic planning meetings with my two “bosses” at UCL — the two directors of the curriculum design project I’ve been working on, via a contract between UCL and TU Dublin, since 2020. They are Professors Emanuela Tilley and John Mitchell, two truly fabulous people to work with.

Thanks to the marvel of online communication, I also completed a half day training on finance software at TU Dublin while I was in London. I also attended online meetings with co-editors of the handbook I’m leading as well as co-authors on a chapter I’m contributing to the handbook.

For the extended weekend, Aongus joined me in the city. We attended two musicals (the Tina Turner musical and “Crazy for You”) and an improv comedy show. We took architectural tours of the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican complex. We visited the Royal Academy of Art , the photography museum off Oxford Street, and the Natural History Museum including its Wildlife Photography of the Year exhibition.

We also visited our favorite haunts around Shoreditch, where we previously lived for 18 months. We got to know the area around Victoria Station better. We even saw Rebecca from “Ted Lasso”, Hannah Waddingham, up close and in person as she’d attended “Crazy for You” and was in the lobby when we exited.

Glimpses of our adventures around the city.

While in London, I also drafted text for my handbook chapter, worked on various projects, attended an improv musical called “Showstopper!”, and did loads of Spanish lessons on Duolingo in the evenings before bed.

It wasn’t supersizing, really, that I picked up a cold somewhere in London. I brought it home along with heaps of inspiration to help carry me through the long working weeks until Christmas.

Now that I’ve recovered from that nasty cold, I can say with conviction that life is good and I am blessed beyond belief.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

March 14, 2019March 17, 2019 by shannonchance

Directors of TU Dublin’s MSc in Transport + Mobility Visit UCL to Compare Notes

When my colleagues at Technological University Dublin announced to me they were launching a new Master’s degree in Transport and Mobility (student handbook available here), I immediately invited them over to London to meet my supervisor, Professor Nick Tyler, who is a leading expert in transportation design, particularly where accessibility and mobility are concerned. He advises cities worldwide about their transportation systems, and in the Queen’s 2011 New Year’s Honours ceremony, Nick was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Services to Technology. That followed an earlier appointment to OBE. As an American, I wasn’t quite sure what all this meant, but Wikipedia provided me a handy primer:

The five classes of appointment to the Order are, in descending order of precedence:

Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE)

Knight Commander or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE or DBE)

Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE)

Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) –Quoted from Wikipedia,

Overall, I wanted my Dublin colleagues to learn about how Nick teaches his Master’s level module on their MSc topic, to see the research center he has built that is named PAMELA, and to encounter Nick’s epic personality and his can-do, ger-her-done spirit.

Shannon Chance hosting TU Dublin’s Sinead Flavin, Roisin Murray, Lorraine D Arcy, and David O Connor

Four colleagues from TU Dublin took me up on the offer and traveled over to University College London this past Monday to meet with Nick and other world-leading researchers and experts in transportation, accessibility, and spatial planning.

The aim of the visit was for TU Dublin staff to get advice on starting their new degree program and to identify potential projects and research where they could collaborate in the future. The delegation from TU Dublin included:

Dr. Lorraine D’Arcy, Lecturer in Civil Engineering and Transport
David O’Connor, Head of Environment and Planning
Roisin Murray, Head of Transport Engineering
Sinead Flavin, Assistant Lecturer in Planning and Transport

David and Lorraine are co-chairs of the new MSc in Transport and Mobility.

Meeting at the Bartlett with leaders of the Space Syntax group

All members of the visiting group are all involved with a new multidisciplinary part-time MSc in Transport and Mobility at TU Dublin which has a focus on sustainable transport. The first students started this January. All members of the group are Early Stage Researchers, most less than 6 years past earning their doctorates, despite having years of consultancy and teaching experience behind them.

The TU crew touched down at London Heathrow a little late due to extreme winds, but it was, nevertheless, an action-packed day!

10:30

Meeting at the Bartlett School of Architecture with Professor Laura Vaughan who is Director of the Space Syntax Laboratory, and her research associates Professor Sophia Psarra, Dr. Ashley Dhanani, Dr. Kayvan Karimi, and Ph.D.candidate Kimon Krenz.

Meeting with experts from Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering at UCL

12:00

Meeting with transportation experts from UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geotechnical Engineering (CEGE) at the Chadwick Building to discuss Transport and Mobility. Attending from UCL were: Professor Emeritus Roger Mackett, Dr. Tom Cohen, Dr. Adriana Ortegon, and Visiting Professor Shannon Chance. Professor Mackett is an expert in how transportation affects public health–a topic near an dear to my heart and one I’ve published about.

13:20

Head up to Tuffnell Park to visit the PAMELA Lab.

Meeting with Nick Tyler at the PAMELA lab

14:00

Start of Nick’s MSc class in Transportation Design “T19 Accessible Design”. Meet with Professor Tyler to learn about his teaching and research, which has been called “The London Lab With A Fake Tube Train” by Londonist magazine.

There were a number of additional experts my TU Dublin colleagues would like to have met with so, hopefully, they will return again soon.

November 29, 2018November 30, 2018 by shannonchance

Perched atop UCL for an Away Day strategizing engineering education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My colleagues in engineering education development and research at UCL.

February 14, 2018February 14, 2018 by shannonchance

Learning London: University College London

During a recent workshop for development of research skills, the facilitator warned that people from other universities might approach us to work as a collaborator simply because they want to associate with UCL and they might not have genuine interest in actually working with us as individuals.

Funny enough, I was too naïve to have joined UCL just for its reputation. I’m only now beginning to understand the prominence of this institution and understand its very long, egalitarian history. As noted on the university’s website, “UCL was founded in 1826 as a secular alternative to Oxford and Cambridge by prominent intellectuals such as James Mill and Henry Brougham. UCL was the first university to be established in London, and the first entirely secular university to admit students regardless of religion. It was also the first university to admit women on equal terms with men.”

UCL’s surrounding neighborhood, Bloomsbury, hasn’t been portrayed as a center of equality and social reform in the various books, webpages, and exhibits I’ve consulted, but I see roots here. Near UCL’s main/Bloomsbury campus you’ll find the Quaker Meeting House, a symbol of religious tolerance (it has a lovely restaurant underground that offers discounts to UCL staff, and it has a cafe at street level) . You’ll find that huguenots and other religious minorities arrived in this neighborhood as immigrants seeking freedom from oppression in their homelands. You’ll find a former residence of Charles Dickens, whose tales show a deep concern for improving the lives of the oppressed.

As for breaking my naïve on the reputation and standing of UCL: QS’s most recent “world university rankings” ranked this institution seventh… in the world! Up there with MIT, Oxford, Harvard, and Cambridge.

I’d applied to work here after meeting some folks from the university’s Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) and traveling over from Dublin for the launch of the CEE. Back in the States, I had heard of the Bartlett, UCL’s world-famous school of architecture, but not of UCL itself.

I applied to work here because I wanted to learn from movers-and-shakers and highly-accomplished teacher/researchers like Nick Tyler, John Mitchell, and Emanuela Tilley.

As explained in a case study of Nick’s past work overhauling engineering education published by MIT, this institution encourages quick and decisive action. It behaves more like a business than a typical university, and implements changes swiftly. The results can be impressive, as demonstrated with the increase in grades and diversity of students at intake and at graduation among students in civil engineering at UCL following the implementation of major curricular changes. And, who wouldn’t want a chance to observe in action a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), Nick’s current title? An article in The Sun describes the British ranking system.

Today, I am enjoying learning my way around UCL. The photos in today’s gallery were taken on and near campus, in my adventures seeking out workshop, library, and lunch locations.

February 6, 2018February 6, 2018 by shannonchance

Learning London–one month in!

Tower Bridge selfie in the mirror above to the bridge floor and Thames River, far below.

Learning the lay of the land in London—the best way to spend the cold, wet month of January. I’ve been in my new position as a Marie Curie Research Fellow at University College London’s Center for Engineering Education for one month.

In this time, I’ve also settled into a new apartment, where I’m flat-sitting for some friends. They travel quite a bit, so it all works fine.

I’ve been getting to know Shoreditch and its surrounding areas. Turns out, Shoreditch is one of London’s hippest addresses and my place is surrounded by local markets, many dozen vintage clothing stores, and Boundary Estate, the world’s first social housing community, which is architecturally stunning. I’ve joined Nuffield Gym and have been enjoying its pool and yoga classes. I got a wonderfully positive health screening when I joined and will soon meet with a personal trainer to get anti-aging tips!

One of the many vintage shops off Brick Lane, buzzing on Sunday afternoon. Surprises at every turn–here a photo booth at the back of the shop and selling vintage clothes by the kilo downstairs.

Mostly, though, I’ve focused on making headway with my fellowship work. In the four weeks I have been working at UCL, I have:

Completed UCL induction/orientation

Got my employment contract, work visa, and bank account set up and obtained my British Residency Permit
Completed including face-to-face and on-line training and earned certificates in (1) Safety, (2) Green Awareness, and (3) Green Champion
Updated my research profiles, including UCL Engineering, IRIS, and LinkedIn

Contributed to peer reviewed conferences

Appointed to the Governing Board of REEN, Research in Engineering Education Network
Submitted a final conference paper for publication in the proceedings of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering’s EERN, Engineering Education Research Network
Submitted a draft paper on group learning by engineering faculty to the ASEE, the American Society for Engineering Education
Submitted a draft paper on Middle Eastern women studying engineering abroad to ASEE

Provided leadership in evaluation

Submitted a peer review to EJEE, the European Journal of Engineering Education
Served as a guest editor for a special focus issue of IEEE Transactions on Education on socio-cultural diversity in engineering education
Been appointed to the overall editorial board IEEE Transactions on Education,as an Associate Editor, based on successful contributions
Agreed in principle to spearhead an additional special focus issue for IEEE Transactions on Education on “harnessing the power of design projects to spur cognitive and epistemological development among students of engineering”
Updated my CV for the pool of team chairs for the NAAB, National Architectural Accrediting Board in the USA

Made two research trips to Dublin

Conducted four research interviews, and successfully scheduled five more for February
Was invited to collaborate on a policy project with 6 civil service professionals in Dublin
Met with several dozen DIT colleagues about current and future projects
Transcribed two interviews
Was invited to present at DIT research event on March 2nd

UCL workshop on “Leading Collaborative Projects.”

Completed researcher development workshops at UCL

A slide from architect Ken Yeang’s lecture on eco-architecture, delivered at the Bartlett.

Attended lectures at the Bartlett School of Architecture

Scoped research funding programs

Attended an information session on opportunities to collaborate with UK-based researchers, hosted in Dublin by the Irish Research Council
Identified promising funding program for gender studies and downloaded guidance materials

Reviewed literature pertinent to my research projects

Three PhD dissertations using phenomenology
Seminal texts in epistemological development

Professor Nick Tyler (left) at PAMELA (Pedestrian Accessibility Movement Environment Laboratory) aiming to improve transport and access to transport for people with barriers to mobility.

Studied art and design

Met twice with Kindall Brantley, NYU grad student in sustainable urbanism
Attended transportation design class at PAMELA, UCL’s transportation research hub
Joined the Tate and visited three times
Studied the special exhibition on Modigliani
Studied the special exhibition on “Impressionists in London” at Tate Britain
Studied bridge design topics at Tower Bridge Exhibition
Studied transportation and product design topics in two visits to London’s Science Museum
Even learned a bit of history by watching The Post at the RichMix cinema near my home, with a new membership to help support local culture and arts.

Tower Bridge as see from below. The glass-floored walkway joins the two, tall middle tower (nearly visible to the left of this image).

Met with colleagues at UCL

Nick Tyler, my supervisor (grant kick off and one-month probationary meeting)
John Mitchell, my co-supervisor (grant kick)
Emanuela Tilley, Director of the Integrated Engineering Programme at UCL
Inês Direito, Research Associate UCL’s Centre for Engineering Education
Jennifer Griffiths, Principal Teaching Fellow at the Arena Centre for Research-based Education at UCL
Tony Fawcett, Communications and Marketing Manager in Nick Tyler’s department at UCL
Invited to present at lunchtime seminar at UCL Center for Engineering Education on Wednesday, April 18th (1-2pm)

I’ll say that of all this, the interviews I conducted in Dublin were probably the most fun. Two of the participants provided two-hour interviews that were chock full of insight. These are follow-up interviews with students I’ve previously interviewed. They are women studying engineering at DIT and hearing how their stories unfold from year to year is fascinating.

A reflection from the Liffey River in downtown Dublin, taken during one of my two January overnights to the city.

I’m working hard to get participants in Dublin scheduled for follow up interviews in February — before the final-year students get too busy with final exams and graduation.

Stay tuned for more work photos from the places I visited this past month.

UCL’s central library building.

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 by shannonchance

Life as a Roving Academic

Flashback: Teaching architecture students about sun angles at Hampton University, circa 2007.

I keep shifting roles in higher education so I can learn new skills. I spent 15 years teaching in the USA (advancing my way up to Professor of Architecture in 2014) before coming to Ireland as an education researcher and now Lecturer.

Transitioning from teaching to researching was more difficult than I had anticipated, partly because the work is more sedentary, but mostly because I missed interacting with students every day. And while I do enjoy engineering, I also miss discussing architecture and urban design on a daily basis. Fortunately though, I also enjoy interviewing engineering students.

As part of my Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to Dublin Institute of Technology (2014-2016), I conducted 60-90 minute interviews with 47 women in Poland, Portugal, and Ireland. The interviews I conducted as a researcher allow me to connect with students in new ways.

Flashback to Portugal, where my colleagues and I have interviewed 11 women studying engineering.

Since the end of that initial Marie Curie fellowship, I’ve continued this research project alongside new responsibilities. I’ve recently conducted follow-up interviews with 11 of the 47 women in my study, for instance.

After that Marie Curie fellowship ended, I also found work as a Lecturer on the teaching staff in DIT’s School of Multidisciplinary Technologies and found my way back into the classroom. Today, I get to work with wonderful teaching colleagues, and to teach undergraduate as well as Masters-level students. I’ve included a photo gallery at the end of this blog, showing a typical week of teaching.

So these days, I divide my time between teaching in-class 16 hours per week, learning new content for the classes I teach, advising thesis students, serving as a year tutor in our MSc program in BIM technologies, and doing research. (I’ve taken a break from grant-writing this semester and have enjoyed the respite.)

Planning for future studies in London.

I enjoy exciting new adventures, though, and so I’m preparing to transition back into full-time research for a while, so I can develop new skills by working for two years at University College of London. UCL’s website provides more details via a press release about the fellowship).

I’ll look for opportunities to teach informally while I’m at UCL, as well, and I’ll look forward to my return to DIT’s classroom in two year’s time to apply what I’ve learned through observation and research.

DIT has granted me a Career Break so that at the end of the fellowship I’ll be able to come back to my current lecturing post. I’m excited about this because I feel I’ve found my feet and my voice teaching here. Aongus (my partner) says it’s clear I selected the right profession since my passion for teaching and for students comes through in the stories I tell at the end of the day.

Now, in the month before I leave for London, I’m trying my best to track down the 10 students from my DIT cohort who I haven’t yet met for follow-up interviews and move to this research project ahead.

Monday: Technical graphics

Monday evening: BIM, guest lecture by Dr. Bill East

Monday evening: BIM for Construction Managers and Quantity Surveyors

Monday evening: BIM with Barry McAuley

Wednesday’s RoboSumo project starts with a one-hour lecture by Ted Burke that I document for our class blog.

Wednesday: RoboSumo electrical design project

Wednesday evening: BIM

Friday: Bridge (structural and civil design) project

Friday: Bridge project

November 8, 2017 by shannonchance

Down the Rabbit Hole, from Bath to London

Beautiful “ferry” trees at Avebury in the UK’s Wiltshire region.

Last week I crossed the threshold into a brave new world. I traveled over to the UK, my soon-to-be home, twice to learn more about the place.

First, to celebrate Ireland’s bank holiday weekend, my partner Aongus and I flew to Bath. We rented a car so we could visit Stonehenge, the flight of locks at Devizes (the Caen Hill flight of the Kennet and Avon canal), Avebury which is similar to Stonehenge but larger, and the picturesque village of Castle Combe. In the city of Bath, we toured the ruins of the old Roman baths, the bell tower of Bath Abbey, Royal Crescent and the townhouse museum at One Royal Crescent, and weir and the Putney Bridge, as well as getting Watsu treatments and a night time soak with spectacular views from the rooftop pool at the Thermal Spa.

Stonehenge was spectacular, but Avebury had an even more mystical feel. The majestic old fairy trees with their thick boughs and knotted roots make it feel as if you’re stepping foot into C.S. Lewis’ Narnia or the Wonderland Lewis Carroll created for Alice. (Both of these were English writers, who could well have stood beneath the same magical trees we found here.) Wikipedia provides a quick reference to the meaning of ferry trees: “Many types of trees found in the Celtic nations are considered to be sacred, whether as symbols, or due to medicinal properties, or because they are seen as the abode of particular nature spirits. Historically and in folklore, the respect given to trees varies in different parts of the Celtic world.”

Meeting with UCL’s Professor Nick Tyler.

After flying home, I flew back to London on short notice for four meetings on Wednesday–because my new colleagues at University College London had time to meet me and it was “review week” at DIT.

These meetings were in preparation for the start of my new Marie Curie research fellowship in January. The EU is providing funding for me to work at UCL for two years, to further upgrade my skills in educational research. During my short visit, I met with my primary supervisor Professor Nick Tyler who has an amazing record of research in transportation engineering and educational innovation. I also met with my secondary supervisor, Professor John Mitchell, who directs UCL’s Centre for Engineering Education (CEE). I also got to meet with the newest member of CEE’s research team, Dr. Inês Direito, who I’ll get to collaborate with in projects. All this in addition to visiting UCL’s European Office and quick chats with two other colleagues, Emanuela Tilley and Dr. Arnie McKinley, both originally from my own side of the Atlantic.

Overall it was a very productive day, and I even got two grant proposals read in route.

Across the span of the week, I had great experiences at work and at play. I can’t wait to get back to London, Bath, and the Wiltshire region of England for more learning, and more novel adventures.