Annual Conference 2013 – SEFI 40th Anniversary

330 delegates and 40 SEFI Fellows from 33 countries met in Belgium during four days to discuss and share views and experi-ences on “Engineering Education Fast Forward 1973 > 2013 >>”. This Conference marked also the 40th Anniversary of SEFI, for which 50 special invited guests came from all over the world.

Among welcoming words from President of SEFI, Prof. Wim Van Petegem, the Rector of KU Leuven Prof. Rik Torfs, the Vice-Rector Prof. Georges Gieten, the Vice-Dean Prof. Yolande Berbers, and by Prof. Ludo Froyen, we were pleased to count Mrs. Lesley Wilson , Secretary General of EUA (European University Association), who offered some views on Higher Educa-tion in the 1970’s at the time of SEFI’s creation.

The Conference welcomed a series of remarkable invited keynote presentations given by Erik Duval, KU Leuven on “Time to open up?”, Dr. Peter Sloep, Open University of the Netherlands, on The Future of Online Learning in Higher Education, Dr. Iring Wasser, ASIIN/ENAEE, on Accreditation and Mobility of Engineers in Europe: SEFI and ENAEE joining forces, Dr. Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines, on The Grand Challenge of Engineering Ethics Education, Dr. Sue Bray, IACEE, on Global Work Teams: Are We Adequately Preparing Our Engineers?, Dr. Mike Ashby, Cambridge University ,UK on Analysing Ar-ticulations of Sustainable Development, Dr. Jordi Segalas, UPC Barcelona Tech, on Transdisciplinarity: a Must for Sustain-able Education, Dr. Phil Wankat, Purdue University, on Past, Present and Future of Engineering Education, Dr. Caroline Bail-lie, University of Western Australia, on Reimagining Engineering and its Education, Dr. Roger Hadgraft, RMIT Australia, on Educating the Sustainability Engineer: Redesigning Curricula.

A SEFI Corporate partners Round Table entitled “Industry Meets Education: The agenda of a young engineer in the coming decade ” was held too, with the participation of Xavier Fouger (Dassault Systems, SEFI Vice-President and Chair of SEFI Univer-sity – Business Cooperation Committee), Tuuli Sornikivi (Hewlett Packard), Alex Tarchini (Mathworks), Marc Fry (Granta), Philip Langenaken (National Instruments), Kim Koserski (Maplesoft), Marc Heyns (IMEC), Christiane Malcorps (Solvay). A series of pre-conference workshops were organised by our Working groups on Curriculum Development, Educational Technologies, Engi-neering Education Research, Ethics in EE, Gender and Diversity in EE, and Sustainability, as well as numerous workshops organ-ised by our Corporate Partners Mathworks, HP, and National Instruments.

The SEFI Annual Conference 2013 was remarkable for many different aspects: the excellent presentations, the interesting pa-pers presented by colleagues from all over the globe, the strong presence of former SEFI presidents, Leonardo da Vinci Medalists, Fellows… Not to mention the wonderful locations of our Gala Dinner in the Faculty Club of KU Leuven and the Con-ference Banquet in the University Hall. This year awards ceremony has also been very intense, organized in the Promotiezaal of the University Hall and with 4 awardees.