European Society for Engineering Education

The European Society for Engineering Education is the largest organisation for engineering education in Europe.[1] Commonly known as SEFI, an acronym for its French name, Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs, it is also known in German as the Europäische Gesellschaft für Ingenieur-Ausbildung. SEFI was founded in Brussels in 1973[2][3] and has more than 300 members in 40 countries.[1] It promotes information exchange about current developments in the field of engineering education, between teachers, researchers and students in the various European countries.[4]

Logo of SEFI
European Society for Engineering Education
Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs
Formation1973 in Brussels
HeadquartersSEFI aisbl - Rue des Deux Eglises 39, 1000 Brussels
Secretary General
Mrs Françoise Côme
President
Prof. Mike Murphy (DIT)
Websitehttps://www.sefi.be/

Additionally, it develops the cooperation between higher engineering education institutions and promotes cooperation with industry, acting as a link between its members and other scientific and international bodies, in collaboration with other international organisations like its European sister organisation IGIP, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Board of European Students of Technology.

Members

SEFI is primarily a network of universities however, it offers four types of membership: individual, institutional (list), associate (list), and industrial (list)

Institutional - Educational institutions and other teaching establishments involved in the education and training of engineers. (list)

Industrial - Enterprises, companies and administrations employing engineers or interested in the education and training of engineers. (list)

Associate - Professional organizations involved in engineering education or improvement of engineering profession, or institutions not fulfilling the criteria of the institutional membership (list)

Individual - Persons involved in the engineering education and the improvement of the engineering profession, and individuals interested in joining our Working groups or EEDC

Organisation

SEFI is governed by a Board of Directors composed of 21 elected members and members’ representatives, two Vice-Presidents and is presently chaired by President Prof. Mike Murphy (Director - Digital Campus and Learning Transformation at Dublin Institute of Technology).

SEFI Working Groups

SEFI Working Groups connect the educators, students and industrial stakeholders with interests in similar aspects of the engineering education and they are open to SEFI members. These groups organize meetings, workshops, write on position papers and EU projects. Current working groups include:

  • Mathematics - Group engages in discussion role of Mathematics in engineering curriculum and its practical application in professional life, use of technology, the ways of teaching, learning and motivating students as well as forms of assessment.
  • Physics - This working group is a network of physics teachers and those who are interested in physics teaching in Engineering Education. It is a forum of sharing challenges and solutions and it organizes a PTEE conference on every two years.
  • Engineering Education Research - The overall objective of this group is to create a European community of engineering education researchers in order to contribute with research evidence to the advancement of engineering education.
  • Open and Online Education - This group is interested in new technologies that remove barriers and provide more students with access to engineering education; new possible educational formats; and helping to advance the development of more personalized education by introducing evidence-based, data-driven educational practices.
  • Continuing Engineering Education - Its main interest is in development and research into both theory and practice about CEE and lifelong learning. The aim is to enhance the integration of new practices for CEE e.g. work-integrated learning, It-support in CEE, work-based learning, formal, in-formal and non-formal learning activities etc.
  • Sustainability - Sustainability principles become an important aspect of the engineering curriculum. The working group aims to investigate the field of sustainability with respect to impact on engineering education.
  • Gender and Diversity - The group focuses its work on identifying best practices to attract and retain female students in higher engineering education and gender awareness among academic staff and satisfaction of women engineers in the workplace.
  • Attractiveness - The group is open to those interested in enhancing the attractiveness of engineering education to potential students - academics, industrialists and those involved in initiatives to enhance the attractiveness of engineering education.
  • Curriculum Development - this groups focuses on learning about curriculum innovation in EE in different educational environments, as well as becoming aware of the interests of students from different countries as well as those of a dynamic society, university/business interaction
  • Ethics - To address current and future economic, social and environmental challenges the skills needed for ethical decision making and action. Indicating such moral qualities is the main focus of this group. The group is now preparing a publication on ethics in engineering.

European Council for Engineering Deans (EEDC)

EEDC is a permanent platform of European engineering deans which brings together their collective strengths for the advancement of engineering education and research. The EEDC provides a forum for exchange of information about experiences, challenges and best practices in engineering education institution leadership. This forum helps the engineering deans find opportunities for collaboration with industry and with other stakeholders in education, research and innovation. It also to encourages engineering deans to play a leading role in developing European and national policies for the benefit of society.

Events

Workshops and are regularly organized by the working groups and committees on specific themes of engineering education and in the context of SEFI's priorities. Participation in the working groups is reserved to the members of SEFI.

Annual Conferences[5]

The SEFI Annual Conferences represent a unique opportunity for the members and all those involved in Engineering Education to meet colleagues, exchange views and opinions and to establish new contacts. The themes of the Conferences reflect the interests of SEFI members.[6]

The last conferences were Annual Conference 2017 Organised by the ISEP (Porto), Azores Islands “Education Excellence for Sustainable Development” and Annual Conference 2016 “Engineering Education on Top of the World: Industry-University Cooperation”[7]

Future Conferences are Annual Conference 2018 - organised by Technical University of Denmark on the topic of '“Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence” and Annual Conference 2019 - organised by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

European Convention for Engineering Deans (ECED)

The general objective of the Conventions is to bring together Deans from whole over Europe to meet and to discuss in depth common topics, share experiences, identify solutions for problems and build up a network with peers in different European countries. SEFI launched the conventions in 2005, under the Presidency of Prof. Borri, University of Florence. Since 2011, ECEDs are organised by SEFI, in cooperation with CESAER and other partners. The ECED 2018 will take be organised by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim on 27–29 May 2018.

Publications

The European Journal of Engineering Education published by Taylor and Francis is the official scientific journal of SEFI.

SEFI also publishes a monthly electronic Newsletter [8] and a weekly Press review as a benefit to SEFI membership.

Among regular publications are also SEFI Annual Reports and the Proceedings of SEFI Annual Conferences, indexed in Scopus.

Other publications consist of Ad Hoc Documents presenting the outcomes of seminars organised by the Working Groups/Committees/Projects as well as reference documents.[9]

Ongoing EU Projects

EBCC Model – Education, Business and Community Cooperation Model for a Creative European Engineering Education

STELA – Successful transition for secondary to higher education using learning analytics

PREFER – Professional Roles and Employability of Future EngineeRs

Awards
Leonardo da Vinci Medal
  • Leonardo da Vinci Medal - The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest distinction SEFI can bestow. The Medal is awarded by the Administrative Council to living persons who have made an outstanding contribution of international significance to engineering education. Since its institution in 1983, the Medal has been awarded to: Mr. Jacques Delors (France); Prof. Heinz Zemanek (Austria); Sir Monty Finniston † (United Kingdom); Prof. John P. Klus † (USA); Prof. Antonio Ruberti † (Italy); Prof. James C. I. Dooge † (Ireland); Prof Hubert Curien † (France); Sir Robert Telford † (United Kingdom); Mr Jean Gandois (France); Prof. Fritz Paschke (Austria);Prof. Olgierd C. Zienkiewicz † (United Kingdom, Poland); Prof. Teuvo Kalevi Kohonen (Finland); Prof. Niklaus Wirth (Switzerland); Senator Pierre Laffitte (France); Prof. Niels I. Meyer (Denmark); Mr. Santiago Calatrava (Spain, Switzerland); Prof. Joaquim A. Ribeiro Sarmento (Portugal); Prof. Giuliano Augusti (Italy); Prof. Gülsün Sağlamer (Turkey); Prof. Ingemar Ingemarsson (Sweden); Mr Paul Soros (Hungary); Prof. Ole Vinther (Denmark); Prof. Jean Michel (France); H.R.H. Prince Friso van Oranje-Nassau †(The Netherlands); in 2010, Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder, Rector of the United Nations University (Switzerland); in 2011, Mr. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (former President of Brazil); in 2012, Prof. Joseph Sifakis (Greece/France); in 2013, Dr. Franck De Winne (Belgium); in 2014, Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge (United Kingdom); and in 2015 to Mr. Charles Champion (France).
  • The SEFI Fellowship Award - The SEFI Fellowship Award recognises meritorious service to engineering education in Europe. Award recipients may use the expression “Fellow of SEFI” (F.SEFI) as a postscript to their name. The nominees are in principle SEFI individual members who have worked in the field or in the promotion of engineering education for at least the previous five years.[10]
  • Best Papers Award - The Best Papers Award is given at the end of each Annual Conference to congratulate to the quality and originality of someone's work.[11]
  • SEFI Award for the best PHD Thesis in Engineering Education - The SEFI has launched a competition for thesis at PhD level. The aim of the competition is to stimulate and reward initiatives that lead to improvements in Engineering Education. Only thesis performed in universities members of SEFI are eligible. In order to be accepted, the subject of the thesis must be capable of being classified under the topic: ‘Engineering Education’. The thesis must have been officially accepted or approved by the applicant's teaching establishment, member of SEFI, during the three academic years previous to the year of the competition. So it has been awarded only once, namely to Dr. Pia Lappalainen, Aalto University for her thesis “Socially Competent Leadership - predictors, impacts and skilling in engineering”.[12]
  • SEFI Francesco Maffioli Award - The Award has been created to commemorate the 37 years of outstanding support and major contributions to the Society of the late Francesco Maffioli. The Award is given to individual teachers, or a team of teachers, of higher engineering education institutions members of SEFI, in recognition of open-minded development of curriculum, learning environments or tools, novel didactics, methods or systems in engineering studies. This is to reflect Professor Maffioli's passion for cooperation with engineering students and ensuring they had a voice in the development of engineering education in the future. So far it has been awarded in 2014 to the Board of European Students of Technology.;[13] in 2018 to Prof. Ingvar Gustavsson from Blekinge Institute of Technology and in 2019 to the Blue Engineering Initiative.[14]

Cooperation

SEFI cooperates with other major European and international associations (ASEE, GEDC, IFEES, WFEO, IGIP, BEST, LACCEI, EDEN, JSEE, ...) and international bodies (European Commission, UNESCO, Council of Europe, OECD) . SEFI also participated in the creation of numerous international organisations such as ENAEE,[15] IFEES,[16] EuroPace, IACEE, IIDEA, or EEDC.

References
  1. "SEFI Annual Report 2014-2015" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
  2. The founding and purposes of this organization are described, e.g., by James, D. J. G. (1985), "Foreword to Proc. Eur. Sem. on Mathematics in Engineering Education", Int. J. Math. Educ. Sci. Tech., 16 (2): 152–155.
  3. Seitzer, Dieter (1983), "The European Society for Engineering Education: SEFI", European Journal of Engineering Education, 8 (2): 109–112, doi:10.1080/03043798308903550. Description of a speech by Seitzer, the president of SEFI, outlining its history, objectives, and activities.
  4. "SEFI » We about us". www.sefi.be. Archived from the original on 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  5. Jones, Russel C.; Oberst, Bethany S.; Siller, Thomas J. (2002), "It's Time to Re-think Engineering Education Conferences", ASEE Annual Conf. Jones et al. describe the 2001 SEFI Conference, held in Copenhagen, and argue that it "provided a model for what engineering education conferences should be in the future."
  6. "SEFI » Annual Conferences". www.sefi.be.
  7. "SEFI Annual Conference 2016 - Tampere University of Technology". www.sefi2016.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  8. "SEFI » Newssletter". www.sefi.be. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
  9. "SEFI » Position Papers and References documents". www.sefi.be. Retrieved 2018-01-25.
  10. "SEFI » SEFI Fellowships". www.sefi.be. Archived from the original on 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  11. "SEFI » Best Papers Award". www.sefi.be. Archived from the original on 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  12. Lappalainen, Pia. "Socially Competent Leadership - predictors, impacts and skilling in engineering".
  13. "During the SEFI Awards' Dinner in the... - Board of European Students of Technology | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  14. SEFI Awards, Website. "SEFI Awards Website".
  15. "ENAEE - European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education". www.enaee.eu. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  16. "IFEES". IFEES. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
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