News

4TU.CEE is pleased to announce that it will host the SEFI conference in the year 2020. The University of Twente is the leading organiser, supported by the other three universities of technology and neighbouring universities of applied sciences Saxion and Windesheim.  The programme committee is looking forward to share visions on future engineering and to discuss the many challenges in engineering education and solutions found by different SEFI members. In the coming period 4TU.CEE will be making preparations to welcome approximately 350 participants from all over Europe. The conference is set to take place from 20 till 24 September 2020. We will keep you informed!

At the 14th Annual NACV  expert-conference (network academic communication skills),  Renate Klaassen of  4TU.CEE  TU Delft spoke about the added value of virtual reality systems in presentation techniques. The attendants were inspired by the results of our research and the lessons on what you should do to use VR effectively in Education. They were specifically interested in the feedback that machines may provide to upgrade presentation skills. One participant of Wageningen University, who also attended our VR on-boarding day last October, claimed to use the VR-presentation app “virtualspeech.com” as a voluntary means of practice in his course. 

On 30 January the second National Interdisciplinary Education Conference took place at TU/e. The day was chaired by Lex Lemmens and Ines Lopez Arteaga provided an inspiring keynote based on her own experiences. Birgit Pepin gave a short presentation about 4TU.CEE and how interdisciplinary education is at the heart of the centre for engineering education. 

Last January the CDIO European regional meeting took place in Moscow. 4TU.CEE ran a workshop on university career frameworks that balance teaching and research achievements. TU Eindhoven was accepted in the CDIO network with the entire TU/e Bachelor college. Lex Lemmens, dean of the Bachelor College, explained in his presentation why the Bachelor College wanted join and what TU/e has to offer to CDIO. An impression of the CDIO meeting is given in the 4TU.CEE blog of Jan van der Veen.  

The day after the NIE conference the Eindhoven team of 4TU.CEE organised the TU/e Innovation Day. Special attention was paid to innovations in the context of the Innovation Space. After a short introduction about the TU/e vision on education in 2030, participants could choose between four different workshops. They represented issues of the vision 2030 agenda and how the agenda (and its principles) could be implemented and practiced. 

Internationalisation and cross cultural communication skills are essential for all 4TU engineering students, due to the international student population and international setting they will work in. A workshop on cultural diversity was organised in November by WUR for educational advisors of University of Twente on how to create an intercultural interdisciplinary learning environment. The workshop was very interactive and participants were able to work together and exchange experiences. The project is part of joint UT and WUR actions on this topic and more workshops are coming up soon. ‘Diversity promotes cultural awareness and contributes to this innovative approach to teaching,’ says drs. Marijke van Oppen, educational consultant and intercultural trainer at WUR.

The Netherlands Initiative for Educational Research has opened a call for proposals for practice-orientated research for higher education. Consortia of full professors at Dutch Universities or Lectors of Dutch Universities for applied sciences with education professionals of at least two higher education institutions can apply for funding. In total a budget of 1.750.000 euro is available.

Professional engineers at TU Delft have examined future engineering roles in various contexts by looking at current trends and considering the knowledge and skills engineers need to thrive in new situations. The project was supported by 4TU.CEE and resulted in a prof-ed course that will start on 24 January 2018.  Registration for the course is now open!

Read the latest 4TU.CEE weblog written by Birgit Pepin of TU/e about her inspiring visit to two tertiary institutions in Paris: d.school and Ecole 42, which are known to be “different” in terms of their teaching and learning practices.

The second National Conference on Interdisciplinary Education (NIE) will take place on January 30, 2018, at Eindhoven University of Technology. During this conference teachers and researchers from universities in the Netherlands and Flanders will share their experiences, practices, expertise, and ideas on interdisciplinary education in the domain of higher education. The conference is hosted by 4TU.CEE. Note that proposals can still be submitted till 30 November. Tickets for the conference are available now.

A university is involved in research and education, but how is the balance between these two? Is the one more important than the other or not? How do they reinforce each other? These questions were addressed at the Education Day of the University of Twente on 19 October with the theme ‘interplay between research and education’. Participants look back on an inspiring day.

Last summer a group of 20 honours programme students from Delft University of Technology visited Tokyo to find out how Japan’s engineering education is keeping up with the rapidly changing engineering world. They visited and interviewed technical companies and Tokyo Institute of Technology and discussed themes such as interdisciplinary systems thinking, intrapreneurship and personal leadership. The report with their findings is now available.

Recently a workshop on Composing the Engineer of the Future was held at the Dutch Design week and at the Teaching Lab at TU Delft Campus. Both sessions were organised by the 4TU.Centre for Engineering Education and Reframing Studio. The workshops introduce a vision of the future of the Engineering profession and different roles derived from driving forces in society. Reframing Studio has joined our project this year helping to build a more sustainable vision on the future engineering roles.

In spring 2016 Marie-José Verkroost, Rob Lemmens and other colleagues of Faculty ITC (Geo-information Science and Earth Observation) of the University of Twente started a project to create a Living Textbook. The project aims to create a different type of textbook, suitable to be used in modern blended learning and distance education settings. One aspect of this is to provide a better overview of the relationships between the concepts that are explained in the textbook by using a visual overlay, a concept map, connected to the digital book in a Wiki environment. This concept map should help students getting a better grip on the course materials. A first pilot shows that both students and lecturers are enthusiastic about this new learning tool sponsored by 4TU.CEE.

Active learning for future engineers in a sustainable world; this was the topic of the SEFI conference 2017. Read all about it in our newest blog, written by Emiel van Puffelen, 4TU.CEE leader for Wageningen University.