NMITE academics and their work were well-represented at the SEFI conference this September. The 54th annual conference, with the theme “Engineering Education for Humanity,” was hosted by Czech Technical University and was attended by around 700 people from around the world. SEFI, the European Society for Engineering Education, is the largest network of engineering educators in Europe and brings together leaders in educational development for engineering higher education to address societal challenges by helping shape the future of education and technology.
Professor Sarah Jayne Hitt, Associate Professor Peter Metcalfe, and Assistant Professor James Atuonwu all made academic contributions to the conference. James presented a practice paper called “Man, Know, Thyself: Triadic Socratic Learning for AI-Enhanced Engineering Education” while Sarah Jayne and Peter presented a poster about NMITE specifically, “An Approach to Curriculum-Level Implementation of Challenge-Based Learning Across an Institution” which also featured a promotional video.
Additionally, NMITE’s Centre for Advanced Timber Technology (CATT) was featured in a new publication released at the conference, the SEFI Handbook on Teaching Transferable Competencies and Skills in Engineering. Professor Hitt co-authored a chapter in the handbook on “How to Evaluate the Relevance of Skills and Competencies” which shows how CATT uses the industry-defined Timber in Construction skills framework, created in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University, to align its educational offerings with sector-specific skills. NMITE’s Head of Teaching and Learning, Professor Richard Lillington, also co-authored a chapter for the handbook on “The Role of Accreditation in Transferable competencies and Skills Development.”
At the SEFI General Assembly, Professor Hitt was nominated as co-chair of the SEFI Sustainability Special Interest Group (SIG), a network of over 200 people worldwide, and together with other SIG members from across 4 European universities, she led a workshop for other educators about an experiential teaching activity that can help increase visibility of sustainability on campuses.
NMITE supports its staff to engage with SEFI with its institutional membership, and they are involved in workshops, webinars and other events throughout the year. More on SEFI: https://www.sefi.be
