Executive Committee

President’s Message

“You’re on mute” is one of the dominant phrases from the tumultuous year that was 2020!

While some engineering programs across Australasia have been planned and designed for online delivery, most programs weren’t and untold time and energy was expended by engineering academics in responding to emergency remote teaching. 

Many of us now are looking at what practices we used last year that worked well and could be continued in our future teaching toolbox.  AAEE is a community to share these practices with kindred spirits committed to teaching and learning of our future engineering professionals – and now more than ever we need to support each other as engineering academics.

AAEE has multiple ways and means for people to participate in our community and I encourage you to explore the website to find ways to connect with other engineering education professionals.  The annual conference is traditionally the highlight of the year and we look forward to the joint conference in 2021 with REES.  The Winter School is another annual event which brings members together to support educational research, along with the HDR symposium, and our journal the Australasian Journal for Engineering Education is the space to disseminate our research.  The Early Career Academy is a network to support early career academics – this groups benefits from the insights of mentors as well. The AAEE webinars are listed in the Newsletter, along with details of other events inside and outside AAEE – this is emailed to members so join if you are not already a member. 

The AAEE Executive are volunteers who provide this platform for collaboration, but the community is enriched by the resources and activities of members, so if you have an idea for a group or event, or want to be more involved in the Associations activities, please contact me on: Anne.Gardner@uts.edu.au – don’t be mute.

Anne Gardner MIEAust, CPEng, EngExec

President, 2021 and 2022

The 2021 Executive Committee

The Executive guides the direction of AAEE and undertakes the day-to-day operations of the Association. The Executive consists of 9 members elected by the membership, plus representatives of aligned bodies including the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, Engineers Australia, Chair of the next AAEE Annual Conference Organising Committee, and Engineering New Zealand. Office bearers are elected from within the Executive. The executive is elected by a vote of members online before the annual general meeting held during the AAEE annual conference each year.

Bernadette Foley (Engineers Australia)

Brett Williams (Engineering New Zealand)

Sally Male (Australasian Journal of Engineering Education)

Scott Smith (Australian Council of Engineering Deans)

Governance Roles

The Executive has a number of roles and portfolios in which members serve:

• Leadership (President, Vice-President, and Immediate Past-President)
• Executive Operations (Treasurer, Secretary, EA Executive Officer)
• Communications and Engagement
• Education and Excellence
• Conference and Publications

Communications and Engagement

The Communication and Engagement portfolio oversees the internal and external communication and engagement of the association with its members, AAEE Champions, EA community, academic community and the community at large. It is responsible for developing and implementing a communications plan and protocols. Communication channels include online newsletters, AAEE website, Facebook, EA Magazine, EA online news and when opportunities arises, wider external media sources. The portfolio also oversees the archiving of past communication material. This also currently includes AAEE Networking Events.

Education and Excellence

The Excellence and Education portfolio oversees AAEE affiliated capacity building initiatives and AAEE run recognition and reward programs. This portfolio is about promoting excellence in the field and providing pathways for professional development. There are generally two coordinators within this portfolio with one overseeing awards and other recognition activities and the other managing professional development activities. Specific responsibilities include – AAEE annual conference awards, direction setting and coordination of professional development and recognition programs. This also includes the AAEE Academy of Early Career Engineering Educators.

Conference and Publications

The Conference and Publications portfolio oversees all aspects of AAEE conferences, as well as the publications of the association (AJEE and Conference Proceedings). The conference activities include support of the current conference, awarding of future conferences and overseeing quality processes. The conference coordinator oversees the conference operations in the portfolio, serves as a liaison and mentor to the current year’s organising committee, and facilitator of the bidding process for future conferences. The publication activities include overseeing the major publications of the association to ensure they are aligned with the rest of the organisation’s activities and direction, and are quality outputs of AAEE. The Publication coordinator oversees these activities, and works closely with the AJEE editor.