News

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.

4TU.Centre for Engineering Education and Matthijs van Dijk of Reframing Studio will be giving two workshops titled ‘Composing the Engineer of the Future’, at the Dutch Design Week and at the TU Delft Teaching Lab. In the two workshops the same methodology will be discussed, but different themes are addressed. Sign up now!

On 5 October lecturers and educational support staff gathered in Utrecht to find out what Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have to offer to Education. Pierre Dillenbourg, Professor of Learning Technologies at EPFL, took us on a trip through the world of virtual and augmented reality and explained when it can be useful for education purposes. Max Louwerse, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University told about his experiences with the mixed reality lab in Tilburg. The general feeling is that VR and AR should only be used in education when it contributes to the learning experience of students. Aldert Kamp, 4TU.CEE leader at TU Delft has written a blog about the event. 

Recently two of our dedicated 4TU.CEE staff have left our institute to pursue new challenges. We would like to thank Perry den Brok, projectleader at TU/e and Lisa Gommer, project coordinator at University of Twente, for their hard work. Chris Rouwenhorst is the successor of Lisa and Birgit Pepin will replace Perry. Hereunder they introduce themselves. We warmly welcome them to our team!

Read the latest 4TU.CEE weblog written by Aldert Kamp about incorporating entrepreneurial skills and innovation in your curriculum.

The 4TU.Centre for Engineering Education (4TU.CEE) invites teachers, support staff and educational management to submit project proposals to innovate their educational practice at the TU/e in accordance with the TU/e educational vision.