On May 19-23, 2014 Association for Engineering Education of Russia held an international conference “Interdisciplinary Projects Management in Engineering Education: Planning and Executing” in Lisbon, Porto (Portugal).
Co-organizers of the conference:
The conference audience included vice-rectors, institute directors, deans, heads of departments of technical universities, executives and members of educational and scientific divisions, representing various universities of Russia: National Research University of Electronic Technology MIET, Don State Technical University (DSTU), Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Volga State University of Technology, N.P. Ogarev Mordovia State University, National Research Saratov State University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Siberian Federal University, Ural Federal University.
According to the conference agenda the first day of the conference took place in Lisbon, where international experts from Denmark, Italy, USA and Portugal presented their reports. Key-note speeches covered the following topics: methodology of planning and executing of interdisciplinary projects, best practices of interdisciplinary educational programs implementation, core trends and methods of interdisciplinarity in engineering education, and expertise in projects’ execution.
First day reports:
Prof. Xiangyun Du, Aalborg University (Denmark);
Mr. Nicolás Lori, Vice-President of Fullbrighters PT, (USA);
Prof. Maria Martins, Senior Researcher at Rocha Cabral Scientific Research Institute, Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters (Portugal);
Prof. José Carlos Quadrado, President of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES)
Dr. Elisa Guberti, Coordinator of EU Projects, University of Florence (Italy)
One of the main aims of the conference was to study best practices of planning and managing interdisciplinary projects in Russian engineering education. Vast experience of Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas has been represented by Professor Victor Sheinbaum , Director of Institute of Human Resource Development in Fuel and Energy field, and Dr. Petr Piatibratov, Director of Institute of Innovative Educational Projects and Management. They held a workshop “Implementation of interdisciplinary training in a virtual environment in framework of design and production activities” that included not only a key-note speech, but an on-line video broadcast of interdisciplinary approach execution in Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.
After experts’ reports review and gain of expertise on organizing and executing of interdisciplinary projects, participants were asked to make an attempt of developing their own interdisciplinary projects. Different types of individual and team work have been accomplished by the participants in a training session “Development of interdisciplinary projects in engineering education”. The session was led by Prof. Jose Carlos Quadrado, President of International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), and Professor Yury Pokholkov, President of Association for Engineering Education of Russia (AEER).
Training session agenda:
To learn more about teams’ projects and training session, see Training session “Development of interdisciplinary projects in engineering education” (Rus)
The conference became an open discussion area for Russian and European experts in engineering education field. Experts were able to share their experience and exchange opinions while taking part in a round table “Interdisciplinary projects: challenges and solutions”.
The round table discussion covered the following issues:
Results of the round table discussion are outlined in the presentation (Rus).
Another vital purpose of the conference was to establish contacts and develop (enhance) international cooperation between universities in scientific and educational fields. Universities have reached several agreements during the workshop on joint master programs and scientific and educational projects. The negotiations resulted in signing partnership agreements of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto with Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and Don State Technical University.
The Conference ended with gala certificate awarding by Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto to the participants and invited experts.
Information about the Conference