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National Symposium On Mathematics Education For 21st Century Engineering Students
In conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education

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.

Report on the project funded by the Carrick Institute

The mathematical sciences are fundamental to engineering. Service teaching is vital so that engineering remains current in this field. This project was a 1-year scoping study of how mathematics is being taught to undergraduate engineers, including the relationship between mathematics and engineering departments. It consisted of a literature review, a survey of engineering and mathematics departments, site visits, a seminar to report feedback and promote discussion and a detailed report on findings with recommendations for action.

The Principal Investigator was Prof. Phil Broadbridge, Director of AMSI. Ms Simi Henderson was the Research Assistant on the project. Ms Henderson holds a BSc(Hons)(LSE) and is a social scientist with experience in the housing industry.

The Advisory Board consisted of representative Heads of Mathematics from every state, some Heads of Engineering, an industry representative, and representatives from the Engineering Australia Accreditation Board and an Engineering Learning Unit. The project also worked closely with another Carrick-funded initiative on engineering education, with cross-representation on the advisory boards.

The project submitted its final report on 13th March 2008. After review by the Carrick Institute, it will be published here.

Final Report

There are two reports available.

The "official print" report


A "web - view online" report


Project Reports

Literature Review (web version)

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.

 

Time
Friday 7 December
Podcast
8:30 - 9:00
Registration
9:00 - 9:10
Official Opening: Prof. David Mainwaring
RMIT Acting Pro Vice Chancellor, Science Education & Technology
9:10 - 9:25
Philip Broadbridge
Some preliminary project findings (pdf 900KB)
9:25 - 9:50
9:50 - 10:15
10:15 - 10:25
Discussion
10:25 - 10:45
Morning Tea
10:45 - 11:35
Keynote speaker: Martin Harrison,
Associate Dean of Science, Loughborough University
 Providing real service to engineering students studying mathematics
 (ppt 9.9MB)
Quicktime movie 1 (48MB) Quicktime movie 2 (3.7MB)
11:35 - 11:50
11:50 - 12:05
Chris Barling (Swinburne)
Undergraduate mathematics at Swinburne in 2007
12:05 - 12:20
12:20 - 12:35
Discussion
12:35 - 1:30
Lunch
1:30 - 2:20
Keynote speaker: John Pelesko
 Director  of Mechanics and Computation Lab, University of Delaware
Mathematics learning in laboratory and small-group contexts (ppt 11.7MB)
2:20 - 2:35
2:35 - 2:50
Alina-Catalina Donea and Tony Lun (Monash)
Cherchez la physique: the physics behind (engineering) mathematics
(ppt 904KB)
2:50 - 3:05
3:05 - 3:20
3:20 - 3:40
Discussion
3:40 - 4:00
Afternoon tea
4:00 - 4:15
4:15 - 4:30
4:30 - 4:45
4:45 - 4:50
Patrick Tobin and Con Lozanovski (Swinburne)
Poster: computer-generated online formative tests in engineering mathematics (pdf 1.1MB)
4:50 - 5:15
Panel session (with wine and cheese at each location)
Martin Harrison, John Pelesko, Roger Hadgraft

 

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.