The University of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering will host the 2013 annual conference of the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) in Chicago Sunday through Tuesday (Oct. 20 through 22).
Titled “Online Digital Education and Transformed Faculty Roles,” this year’s conference will focus on the use of technology in the enhancement of engineering education and, specifically, on evidence-based practices in making engineering education more effective and efficient.
“The GEDC 2013 meeting in Chicago will touch on the most important issues facing engineering education: globalization, the use of technology and the Internet in education, and how to conduct research transnationally,” Peter Kilpatrick, Notre Dame’s McCloskey Dean of Engineering, said. “As our world gets smaller and more interdependent, these issues will only grow in importance. We must learn the valuable lessons of how to collaborate effectively, and not simply compete.”
Among the keynote speakers for the conference are C.D. Mote Jr., Seeram Ramakrishna, Tae-Eog Lee and John J. Tracy.
Mote is the former president and Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of the University of Maryland and the incoming president of the National Academy of Engineering. He is well-known for his work on closing the achievement gap among diverse engineering students and for his work and thoughts on educational funding models.
Ramakrishna is director of the Center for Nanofibers and Nanotechnology at the National University of Singapore. He served as the National University of Singapore’s dean of engineering from 2003 to 2008 and is the author of “The Changing Face of Innovation: Is it Shifting to Asia?” He lectures on global trends in higher education, research and technology.
Lee is the dean for education for the 3.0 Initiative at the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST). He serves as the chairman of the creative education subcommittee for KAIST.
Tracy is chief technology officer for Boeing Co. and senior vice president for engineering, operations and technology. He has authored more than 30 publications in the areas of composite structural mechanics, launch vehicle structures, smart structures and aging aircraft and was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
GEDC and Airbus will present the inaugural GEDC Airbus Diversity Award at the conference. The award is intended to recognize individuals who have been proactive in bringing more diversity into engineering classrooms around the world. It recognizes initiatives that encourage students of all profiles, gender, social and cultural backgrounds as well as disability to study and succeed in engineering.
GEDC’s mission is to serve as a global network of engineering deans and to leverage the collective strengths of the deans for the advancement of engineering education, research and service to the global community. Founded in 2008, it has grown to include more than 120 deans in nearly 40 countries.
Contact: Peter Kilpatrick, 574-631-5534, peter.kilpatrick@nd.edu