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GeCon 2023
Berlin, Germany 2-4 August 2023

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Keynotes

Keynote 1: Re-thinking engineering for inclusiveness​​​​

ABSTRACT: One of the most transformative social phenomena in the last decades has been the effective incorporation of women into the workforce. This has a profound impact on the way we live and the roles that men and women have both in the personal and professional spheres. Women have increased their presence in many fields of knowledge and are beginning to gain positions with more decision power. Yet, in engineering degrees and in mostly in every technological field, women’s ratios of participation, far from increasing have declined in many countries. This has deep implications since technologies shape our everyday lives more and more.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to answer several questions in this regard: what is the responsibility of the educational system in girls not choosing engineering degrees? And in particular, what is the responsibility of the engineering schools? Should we rethink the way (the methods) and the substance (the contents) that we teach in engineering curricula? Moreover, is it possible to make engineering more inclusive to attract more female and diverse students?
In this talk, I will invite the audience to rethink engineering from its inception, this is, from the way it is taught and conceptualized from the universities’ standpoint. Even though universities should be inserted into society and respond to its needs, they also have the power and the responsibility to ignite positive changes in a virtuous spiral. First, we will inquire into some of the possible causes of this lack of balance. Then we will present some experiences in trying to reverse the situation.

Prof. Carmen Peláez-Moreno is currently an associate professor in the Signal Theory and Communications department of the Univ. Carlos III Madrid. In 2019, she earned the Full Professorship National Habilitation from ANECA and is the academic secretary of the Institute of Gender Studies of the University Carlos III of Madrid. She has also served as a scientific collaborator on the ICT panel for the Spanish Research State Agency (2018-2021). She was a visiting researcher in several institutions: Univ. of Westminster, London, Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow, the International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, Univ. of Trento, and the University of Vienna, including two maternity gaps in 2005 and 2007.
Her research interests include speech and audio technologies recognition, affective computing, multimedia processing, machine learning, data analysis, information theory, and education where she is interested in bringing new methodologies that improve engagement and inclusiveness. Her work has been recognized with various prizes and awards: Best Ph.D. Thesis, Spanish Official Telecommunication Engineering Association, 2002, Best Journal paper (2nd position), 2002, Aula Uni2-Univ. Carlos III prizes, Best Conference Paper, ECIR co-located workshop FCAIR, Moscow 2013, Best Conference paper, 2015, ICFCA or Winner project in the XIII Edition of the Vodafone Innovation Awards ‘Connecting for Good’, 2019.

Keynote 2:
Digital Laboratories as Open Educational Resources
Challenges and Solutions

 
ABSTRACT: Web-based digital labs, which can be simulated, video-recorded, or installed remotely, significantly support knowledge transfer focused on the individual learner. With the advantage of omnipresent availability, the learner can set the pace of the learning process himself. At the same time, however, installing these systems presents the teacher with considerable technical and didactic challenges. The (few) open-source projects and commercial offers always define web-based simulations, remote labs, etc., as a closed learning environment. The teacher generates his materials - the actual digital laboratory and the associated materials - accordingly for a tiny circle of learners. Cooperative re-use of the elaborate setups is not possible in this way.
Implementing the core ideas of Open Educational Ressources (OER) - providing editable and disseminable content - defines solutions for the mentioned challenges. The talk addresses the state of the art on this track, discusses promising developments and identifies future challenges.
 

Sebastian Zug is a Professor for "Software Development and Robotics" at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany) since 2018. He studied mechanical engineering and received his Ph.D. in computer science from Otto-von-Guerike Universtät Magdeburg (Germany) in 2012. His research interests are focused on outdoor robotics and self-describing, intelligent components. He develops new concepts for practically-oriented engineering courses based on a broad experience in bachelor and master courses in programming, robotics, and embedded systems. This includes new open-source course materials, including interactive programming sessions, simulation tools, and remote access to laboratory equipment.
 

Keynote 3:
The German National Education Infrastructure: Myths and Reality

ABSTRACT: Since the announcement of the German federal funding program for the "National Education Platform" in spring 2021, there has been much praise for this ambitious project, but also some criticism. One reason for this may be questions that have so far remained unanswered around such a digital networking infrastructure for education. This presentation traces the myths surrounding the National Education Infrastructure that can be found in various sources, identifies the information deficits behind them and offers a reality check.




 

Ulrike Lucke is a Professor of Complex Multimedia Application Architecture since 2010 at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Potsdam, Germany. She obtained her Ph.D. with work on educational technology at the University of Rostock, Germany, in 2006. Her research activities include institutional infrastructures for education, research, and administration. Until 2018, she was responsible for IT strategy and e-learning as the Chief Information Officer of the University of Potsdam. She was a founding member and vice chair of the German University CIO Association until 2020. Since 2020, she has been Vice President of the German Informatics Society (GI).

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