September 2006
Newsletter

International Association for Continuing Engineering Education

Special Points of Interest

- IACEE Secretary General's Corner

- Articles of Interest to Continuing Engineering Education

- Conferences

IACEE President�s Corner
September 2006

As in most of Europe, the months of June, July, and August gave the UK some wonderful weather. Coupled with recent dry winters, some parts of the country now face water supply problems with reservoirs at low levels. This is not the normal external perception of the UK�s weather! Is this indicative of a changing climate? Climate recognises no national boundaries, it is a global issue. Today as we are all aware, businesses and indeed educators also think on a global basis, as also does the IACEE with one of the issues that has been discussed recently within Council being the development of an globally applicable accreditation system for CEE providers. It is recognised that there are organisations which would welcome such a development, and an effective scheme could bring benefits both to providers and purchasers alike as being an important indicator of standards. However this will need to be undertaken carefully and several of us are trying to see how we might develop such a system. In doing this I�m most anxious to ensure that we capture all the expertise within the Association and would be very pleased to hear from any IACEE member who has thoughts or an interest in accreditation issues.

I�d also like to draw your attention to the ASEE�s forthcoming 5^th Annual Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, which will be held in Le Meridien Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 9-12 October, in association with the Brazilian Society for Engineering Education, and Rio universities Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and Instituto Militar de Engenharia. It will bring together many strands of interest to the international engineering education community. It is planned to have several workshops focusing on cutting-edge issues related to Engineering Education and economic development and will be of special interest for all concerned with engineering for the Americas. Further details can be found at the conference web site: www.asee.org/conferences/international/2006/. This should be a very interesting meeting and I would encourage all IACEE members with the possibility, to think about attending, as I�m sure they will find it very rewarding.

Progress is also being made with the development of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies, which IACEE at the Council meeting in Vienna formally agreed to join. At he time of this meeting in Rio a further meeting will be held and we await developments with interest.

Mervyn Jones
IACEE President
m.jones@imperial.ac.uk

Conferences

XXX Pan American Convention of Engineers (UPADI), "Building a Sustainable Infrastructure through Education, Technological Innovation and Economic Development," September 19-22, 2006

5th ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, "Engineering Education in the Americas and Beyond," October 9-12, 2006

Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education (CESAER) General Assembly, October 27-28, 2006

17th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, "Creativity, Challenge, Change: Partnerships in Engineering Education," December 10-13, 2006

For more information on the stories below, click on the title. 

European Union e-Learning

SiliconRepublic.com has posted an article regarding Ireland and the EU's Minerva program, which deals with research into e-learning. Eight Irish universities have received funding for such research on Traveller literacy and mobile learning.

Accreditation Collaboration in Asia

Malaysia and China have agreed to work together on a mutual accreditation program for tertiary students of both countries, according to a July 24th article by Hoo Ban Khee in the Malaysian Star. Malaysia will establish a Malaysian Qualifications Agency to maintain a list of accredited courses and colleges.

Mondialogo Engineering Award

The first round of the Mondialogo Engineering Award (2004-05) brought together over 1700 young engineers from 79 countries in 111 teams. The overall goal of the Award program, a DaimlerChrysler-UNESCO partnership, is to promote intercultural dialogue among young people around the world. Teams of engineering students in universities in developing and developed countries cooperate in the design, production and presentation of project proposals that address basic needs in developing countries, focusing on poverty eradication, sustainable development, and the other UN Millennium Development Goals.

5th ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education

The American Society for Engineering Education will hold the 2006 Global Colloquium on Engineering Education  October 9-12, 2006 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The Colloquium will have three themes of major contemporary interest:

For more information, visit: www.asee.org/gcee2006/.

International Association

for

Continuing Engineering

Education

1818 N Street, NW
Suite 600
Washington, DC
20036 USA

Phone: 202-331-3504
Web Site: www.iacee.org
E-mail: info@iacee.org

IACEE Executive Committee

President
Mervyn Jones
m.jones@imperial.ac.uk

First Vice President; Vice President, Special Interest Groups
Gerardo Ferrando
ferrando@servidor.unam.mx

Vice President, Membership Development
Frank Burris
fburris@uclaextension.edu

Vice President, Projects
Feng Changgen
cgfeng@cast.org.cn

Vice President, World Conferences on CEE
Colin C.F. Leung
cvelcf@nus.edu.sg

Secretary General
Frank Huband
f.huband@iacee.org