Dear Dr. Aung:
It was great meeting you at the ICEE2000 conference. I have included some thoughts towards your request. Please let me know if I can be of more help. Thank you.
With my best regards,
>Items for which your input is requested:
>
>(1) Your impressions on ICEE-2000, its positive attributes and areas for
>improvement for future conferences. Please also address: How frequently
>should ICEE conferences be held and why? Since the annual ICEEs are being
>proposed up to Year 2008, should we alleviate the long wait by scheduling
>regional workshops, perhaps identifying them as iNEER Workshops?
It is a successful conference in general, however, there are areas for improvement as detailed later. The concept of progress through regional alliances is great, but it would better if there is a dedicated meeting time to allow information exchange on this specific topic between representatives from various regions within the conference.
Area of Improvements: The conference could have been condensed to three days with culture tours/events following the conference. Presentations on actual implemented collaboration/exchange program resulted directly from the previous ICEE conference should be encouraged. It should include more discussion on how to implement the proposed/discussed methods of strengthening alliance.
>(2) Your feedback on how the international engineering education community
>can cooperate more broadly in education (as opposed to research), with
>special reference to the language barriers, other than the usual exchange of
>students and faculty. Should funding agencies in selected countries get
>together and support a limited number of test cases involving bilateral or
>trilateral experiments dealing with joint development of courseware and/or
>modules using advanced language translation software as test cases? What
>are some of the appropriate topics?
The attendees should be encouraged/organized to have follow-up meetings/conference calls about the issues raised and discussed at the conference. Professor Scavarda do Carmo at Brazil, Professor Ramiro Jordon at UNM, and I are talking about organizing a Pan American preparatory meeting; which will eventually become a "regional meeting" on Engineering Education. It is also crucial to get students' feedback about their past experience about international collaboration.
>(3) Your feedback on how we can make distance education a more effective
>tool in the international community. Again, should there be some test cases
>funded?
It's a pity that there was no internet accessibility at the conference, otherwise, speakers can introduce their remote learning sites to the conference attendees, who can have first-hand experience about these sits and offer evaluation. Test cases can be selected through this process and be funded for further improvement.
>(5) Your input on other cross-cutting issues that need follow up by
>iNEER/ICEE as a result of ICEE-2000.
Interdisciplinary Degree Programs in Engineering Education
Interactive Remote Learning Program
Meeting for Strengthening Regional Alliances
New Trends in Engineering Education
International Collaborations for Strengthening Alliances
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
5532-D Boelter Hall
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095