ICTIEE 2017

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IUCEE Brief

“Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education” (2007 to ongoing):

The Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE), with headquarters at University of Massachusetts Lowell, was conceptualized by over 150 leaders of engineering education and businesses from US and India in 2007. IUCEE is one of the founder members of IFEES (International Federation for Engineering Education Societies), which was the primary facilitator for the growth and development of IUCEE.

The vision of IUCEE is to improve the quality and global relevance of engineering education and research in India and related benefits to US engineering educators, with focus on faculty development, student development, curriculum development, as well as improved teaching technologies & research.

The IUCEE process is under way during the past eight years. Generous financial contributions (over $ 1 million) from distinguished patrons have helped initiate the program. Each year, international experts from the US travel to India to discuss global best practices in teaching and research in their field with Indian faculty at Faculty Leadership Institutes (FLI). During the past seven years, 180 workshops were conducted. Significant positive outcomes from these FLIs have been demonstrated. Networks for collaborations have been created between faculty from over 150 Indian colleges and 250 US faculty members from over 50 US institutions resulting in a wide variety of research and teaching collaborations.

The IUCEE College Consortium, created in 2010, has 70 members as of December 2015. Members receive special assistance in establishing collaborations with US experts and institutions. It also enables IUCEE to be financially sustainable. The IUCEE Virtual Academy has been created in 2011, using technology to enable US experts to conduct live Webinars and MiniCourses on-line from the US to faculty and students all over India. More than 400 one-hour webinars on teaching, research and general education topics have been conducted online by US faculty to Indian faculty and students. In addition, 26 MiniCourses of 10 Webinar Lectures each by US experts have been conducted during 2012-13. Recordings of all the webinars and lectures are available in on our partner Inpods (http://iucee.inpods.com/MasterCourse. The IUCEE Research Academy has been launched in 2013 with the goal of providing mentoring and co-guides for faculty in Indian colleges who are pursuing PhD. Three Research Academy workshops have been successfully conducted. Distinguished US faculty researchers participated and were available for mentoring the Indian faculty.

The IUCEE-GEDC (Global Engineering Deans Council) has been formally launched and now has 28 members. 16 members attended the Global Engineering Deans Conference in Chicago in October 2013 and 20 members attended the World Engineering Education Forum in Dubai in 2014. In 2015, IUCEE-GEDC is partnering with IEDC (Indian Engineering Deans Council) which is affiliated with ISTE (Indian Society for Technical Education) which is also an IFEES member. The IUCEE-SPEED (Student Platform for Engineering Education Development) India Chapter has been launched. Representatives participated in the Global Student Forum at in Columbia in September 2013 and the Global Student Forum in Dubai in December 2014. More than 40 leadership workshops for students have been conducted all over India during 2014-2015.The IUCEE-ASEE Chapter has been founded in 2014 with 20 individual members from IUCEE Colleges confirmed. This is a platform for IUCEE to actively participate in the Annual Conferences of ASEE starting with the 2014 Annual ASEE Conference in Indianapolis in June 2014, 2015 Annual Conference in Seattle and the upcoming 2016 Annual Conference in New Orleans in June 2016. IUCEE and IGIP have started a Pilot Teacher Certification in India with accreditation by IGIP (International Society for Engineering Education), Austria, with funding support from Microsoft. IUCEE has facilitated a few Twinning and Joint Degree programs as well as Study Abroad programs between US colleges and IUCEE Colleges in India.

In 2014, IUCEE has started co-organizing the International Conference on Transformations in Engineering Education (ICTIEE) annually in India. The first ICTIEE 2014 was held at Hubli, India in January 2014 and the second was held at Bangalore in January 2015. The third ICTIEE 2016 was held in Pune in January 2016. More than 1000 participants attended; 200 papers we were presented; 40 participants were from around the world. The conferences are organized and sponsored under the leadership of IUCEE, with primary fund raising responsibility. In 2014, IUCEE has also started publishing the Journal for Engineering Education Transformations (JEET), in collaboration with one of the Consortium Colleges (Rajarambapu Institute of Technology). This journal is a vehicle for sharing best practices in engineering education by Indian and global engineering educators. JEET is also the publisher of papers presented at ICTIEE Conferences.

In summary, with the facilitation of IFEES, IUCEE has been establish itself as a prime mover for improving quality of engineering education in more than 100 engineering colleges in India. An ecosystem has been built with the help of global experts from around the world. This ecosystem includes face-to-face workshops, webinars and courses in a blended format for faculty development, international conferences, a peer-reviewed journal for engineering education, as well as networking opportunities between engineering educators and students from India and the IFEES global community.