Radcliffe Seminar 2014 - School of Engineering Education - Purdue University

ENE Moves: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead

Dr. David Radcliffe

Kamyar Haghighi Head, School of Engineering Education, Epistemology Professor of Engineering Education

Abstract:

The title is a play on words. Last year President Daniels announced the ten Purdue Moves. As part of the 30% growth in the College of Engineering many buildings are being refurbished. Consequently many faculty, staff and students will be moving; sometimes more than once during the next 3 to 5 years. ENE is part of all this. We have been living with the growth in FYE student number since 2009 and there have been a number of staff and faculty moves in and out of ENE over the past year or so with more moves coming. In short we are on the move.

This seminar will be an interactive session where attendees are invited to contribute ideas on how we might move ENE forward in preferred ways during this time of growth and transition. Movement and change come with challenges. Things do not always go to plan; there is heightened uncertainty and often frustrations. Change also opens up new opportunities.

Bio:

Dr. Radcliffe received B.Eng and M.Eng.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Queensland, and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland. His research focuses on the nature of engineering as a profession; how it is perceived and practiced, how it is learned especially outside the classroom, and how an engineering identity is shaped. Within this overall theme he has conducted research on the practice of engineering design thinking in a variety of industry settings, the creation and sharing of design knowledge in large and small firms with an emphasis on design for sustainability, engineering education as a complex system, the design and evaluation of learning environments, and on ways to foster distributed communities of research practice in engineering education. Prior to joining Purdue in 2007, he taught and researched at various universities in Australia, UK and USA.