WSI.3 - Capacity Building for Engineering Education Practice and Scholarship in Lusophone Countries
Overview: EE Research (EER) is a growing field, with established roots and traditions mostly in the United States (US). Many universities in the US have dedicated departments of Engineering Education (EE), which co-exist in parallel with other disciplinary engineering departments (e.g. Civil, Mechanical, etc), as well as established PhD programs in EE. EER is an emerging field in Portugal (Van-Hattum, Williams, & Oliveira, 2013) and Brazil (Viana & Villas-Boas, 2022).
Despite the recognition of EE in the Portuguese and Brazilian contexts, and many good practices in EE being published by scholars in both countries, research in these contexts could be more vibrant. The Lusophone Network for EER aims to map out the current landscape of EE capacity-building, scholarship and research in Portugal and Brazil, as well as other Portuguese-speaking countries. The proposed workshop aims to start mapping out this landscape in Portugal.
The intended outcomes of the workshop are: i) Capture different international perspectives on EE capacity building for innovative practices, scholarship & research; ii) To map out the challenges faced by engineering educators in engaging with scholarly research in EE; iii) To identify opportunities for sharing ‘know-how’ and resources between scholars.
Matheus de Andrade
Matheus de Andrade is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) at the UCL Centre for Engineering Education (CEE), with a focus on large-scale mathematics education, and quantitative methods in EE Research. Matheus is Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE) and a member of the SEFI Ethics and Sustainability SIGs.
Inês Direito
Inês Direito is a researcher at the University of Aveiro (Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation) in Portugal, and honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Engineering Education (University College London, UK). Her research is focused on exploring empathy as a tool to enhance EE and practice.
Bill Williams
Bill Williams originally trained as a chemist at the UCC, National University of Ireland and has work experience in Mozambique and Portugal. He ran international distance courses for the International Labour Organization in various African Lusophone countries. He serves as Senior Associate Editor of JEE and Associate Editor of EJEE. Dr Williams is an active member of SEFI EE Research and DEI SIGs. As a founding member of SPEE he has a good knowledge of EE initiatives in the Lusophone world.
Valquíria Villas-Boas
Valquíria Villas-Boas was a member of the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN) from 2017 to 2021 due to her knowledge of the research context in EE in Brazil. She has also been collaborating with Portuguese researchers since 2012, which also gives her a considerable knowledge of EER in Portugal. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Active Learning in Engineering Education (ALE).