SUMMARY MINUTES
International Steering Committee (ISC) Meeting
International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEE)
Telemark University College (HiT)
Porsgrunn, Norway

October 2, 2000

Attendees: Nils Rottingen (Norway), Jorn Archer (Norway), Ana Gimena (Spain), Ana Pavani (Brazil), Luis Manual Sanchez Ruiz (Spain), Win Aung, Trond Clausen (Norway), Radim Farana (Czech Republic), Jaromir Polak (Czech Republic), Ramiro Jordan (USA), K.S. Kim (South Korea), Peter Lee (USA), Rolf Palmgren (Norway), C.H. Wei (Taiwan), W. Zielinski (Poland), Edward Parrish (USA), Colin Adamson-Macedo (UK), Peter Hicks (UK), Kjell Malvig (Norway), Andreas Wild (USA), Victor Schutz (USA).

1. Chaired by Rolf Palmgren, the meeting started at 9:00 AM. ICEE-ISC members were welcomed in remarks delivered by Nils Rottingen, Director General of HiT.
2. Following introductions, R. Palmgren called for approval of the meeting agenda, and the Committee agreed it to.
3. R. Palmgren called for discussion and adoption of the minutes of the August 13, 2000 meeting held in Taipei. This was agreed to by the Committee.
4. C.H. Wei provided a final report for ICEE-2000. The Committee thanked him for conducting an excellent conference. W. Aung circulated feedback he received from ICEE-2000 attendees. Some of the e-mails are appended to the back of these minutes.
5. ICEE-2001 Plans – A summary report was provided by Rolf Palmgren and Trond Clausen. The following are highlights.
   • To save travel time, It may be necessary to hold the entire conference, including the pre- and/or post-conference workshops, in one city, possibly in Oslo, with Bergen included as an optional sightseeing destination.
   • T. Clausen indicated that he has made contacts with other societies to develop linkage and participation.
   • To encourage participation, a reduced rate for registration may be considered for the younger age group.
   • One or two sessions may be considered for presentation by industry participants.
   • Ed Parrish volunteered to contact potential participants from India.
   • Special sessions for ICEE-2001:
     It was agreed to explore the feasibility of organizing and convening special sessions and workshops that are especially relevant to the ICEE objectives. The topics and the volunteering session organizers are:
     1. Workshop/panel on accreditation and international standards – Parrish, Hicks, Roubicek.
     2. Workshop on Distance Education Related to International Collaboration – Pavani. She will forward a concept paper to Committee members.
     3. USA-Scandinavia Bilateral Workshop on Research and Education – Lee, Palmgren, Clausen.
     4. USA-Czech Republic-Poland Trilateral Workshop on Future Cooperation in Education and Research – Schutz, Roubicek, Zielinski.
     5. USA-Taiwan-Korea Trilateral Workshop on Future Cooperation – George Swisher, Wei, and Kim.
6. Status Report on ICEE-2002 Planning – P. Hicks submitted letters of endorsement for ICEE-2002 from Professor John Garside, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of UMIST, and the Hon. Hugh Barrett, Lord Mayor of Manchester. Hicks reported that ”Partnerships: Progress Through Intranational Institutional and International Cooperation” will be the main theme, with ”Partnership, Policy, Practice” as a focus. An emphasis will be on examining the role of entrepreneurship in engineering and how to embrace it in engineering education.
   Dates are set for August 19-21, 2002 with a one-day workshop on Aug. 22, 2002. Conference venue will be the Manchester Conference Center. Conference organizers are from a consortium of universities and colleges in Manchester having a combined student body of 75,000, with UMIST as main host. P. Hicks is General Chair. Brian Chalmers, Professor of Machines in the EE Dept. at UMIST, will lead the local organizing committee. Proceedings will be published in a CD-ROM, with a list of abstracts to be published in paper format.
   In his letter, Professor Garside states, in part: ”It is with great pleasure that UMIST looks forward to hosting the 2002 International Conference on Engineering Education. As a dynamic, lively city with world class universities, Manchester can guarantee an excellent conference and venue. UMIST will support the Conference as necessary with both academic and commercial expertise.”
   The Hon. Barrett also expresses full support and backing from the City of Manchester, emphasizing that the city is ”a commercial, educational and financial capital of the liveliest economic region outside of London. The City’s standing as a major European educational centre has created a high concentration of technological expertise, making it an ideal international conference destination.”
7. INEER Report – W. Aung reported on the development of the International Network for Engineering Education a Research (iNEER). Evolving from the International Steering Committee of ICEE, iNEER has been formed as a network by individuals around the world dedicated to working together to promote international collaboration. The main sponsor of ICEE, iNEER also facilitates the formation of partnerships involving academic, industrial and government funding organizations. Its virtual headquarters are currently located at Southern Illinois University and New Jersey Institute of Technology. It is governed by the iNEER Board comprising of representatives from sponsoring organizations. The current Chair of the iNEER Board is Prof. Vaclav Roubicek, Rector, Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. Prof. C.H. Wei, Vice President of National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC, is the Vice Chair. Prof. S.T. Mau, Dean of Engineering at NJIT, serves as Treasurer. Dr. W. Aung, Senior Staff Associate at NSF, is the Secretary General; he also serves as Secretary General of ICEE-ISC.

The iNEER website is located at: http://www.ineer.org. Aung expressed his appreciation to ICEE-ISC members and guests for their continued support for iNEER and ICEE, emphasizing that he would appreciate help from everyone in spreading the word about ICEE and iNEER. Membership in iNER is free and anyone wishing to receive regular updates of information relating to iNEER and ICEE should send an e-mail to him at <win_aung@altavista.com>.
8. Proposals for Future ICEEs – Proposals for ICEEs were presented by:
   • L. Sanchez Ruiz and A. Gimena, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Valencia, Spain;
   • K.S. Kim on behalf of Korea University of Technology and Education (KUTE), Chungnam, South Korea;
   • W. Zielinski, Silesian University of Technology (SUT), Gliwice, Poland;
   • Lueny Morell and Ramon Vasquez-Espinosa, University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Mayaguez, Puerto Rico (presented by W. Aung);
   • Timothy Anderson, University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, FL, USA (presented by W. Aung);
   • Joseph Tront, Virginia Polytechnic Institute University (VPI), Blacksburg, VA, USA (presented by W. Aung).
   Following discussion, the Committee made the following decisions:
   • ICEE-2003: Valencia, Spain
   • ICEE-2004: Florida, USA. The Committee recommends that UF include UPR and VPI as partners in ICEE-2004.
   • SUT and KUTE are encouraged to develop the proposals to include information spelled out in the ICEE Proposal Guide.
   • VPI and UPV are also welcomed to re-submit their proposals for consideration at the Committee meeting in Norway in August, 2001 and/or consider hosting future ICEE regional topical workshops.
9. Pan-American Information Technology Workshop – W. Aung reported that iNEER has received inquiries from several countries (Korea, Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic) to endorse regional workshops to promote more frequent contacts to enable the formation of regional partnerships without the long wait necessary for hosting an ICEE. The Committee approved the concept in principle and authorized W. Aung to explore such a feasibility.
10. Three proposals for Committee consideration were proposed by V. Schutz:
    • Sponsoring a mini-plenary session on accreditation.
    • Set up an award to recognize someone from outside of the ICEE community as a way of encouraging partnerships.
    • Set up a second award for someone in the ICEE community for sustained excellence in engineering education.
11. Next meeting date: August 5, 2001.
    Venue: Oslo, Norway.
12. The meeting was adjourned by R. Palmgren 6:00 PM.

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