National Symposium on Mathematics Education for 21st Century Engineering Students

(in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education)

7 December 2007, RMIT University

Overview

The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education awarded AMSI a grant to investigate mathematics education for undergraduate engineers. This project began in March 2007 with a literature review and a survey to all mathematical sciences and engineering schools in Australia. See the Carrick project page.

Program

The purpose of the national workshop was to energise interest in teaching maths to engineering students. It provided an opportunity for people to showcase different teaching ideas, discuss issues and generally create a forum for discussion. Results of the national survey were also given.

To make the best use of a single day, apart from the keynote talks and 2 other invited talks, presentations were limited to 15 minutes including question time. This allowed time for a brief description of pedagogical techniques and outcomes, with little discussion of the background theory and philosophy. There were longer discussion times after groups of talks to reflect more widely on the input. A panel session to close the day attempted to identify potential ways forward.

Invited speakers

Dr Frank Barrington, Honorary Senior Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Dr Martin Harrison, Associate Dean of Science, Loughborough University
Emer. Prof. Robin King, University of Technology Sydney
Dr John Pelesko, Director  of Mechanics and Computation Lab, University of Delaware

Contributed talks and/or posters

Short talks and posters were invited from engineers or mathematicians involved in teaching mathematics or statistics to engineering undergraduates. One poster was also submitted. See the program page.

Venue

Building 8, Level 9, Room 66 (Access Grid Room), Swanston Street, City Campus, RMIT University, Melbourne.

The following universities broadcast the proceedings via the Access Grid Room network:

New South Wales

- University of Wollongong

- University of Western Sydney

- UTS

- University of Sydney

Queensland

- Central Queensland University

- Griffith

- University of Southern Queensland

- University of Queensland

Western Australia

- University of Western Australia

Victoria

- La Trobe

- Monash

- VU

 

DOWNLOADS

Almost all the presentations are available. Link or download from the program page.

Organising committee

Philip Broadbridge, AMSI
Roger Hadgraft, University of Melbourne
Simi Henderson, AMSI
Graham Keen, AMSI

Sponsorship

Sponsorship of this event was provided from the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training.

More information

Email Simi Henderson, AMSI at