Category: Conferences

To be honest, my interest in attending the IEEE EDUCON2024 conference in mid-May was definitely heightened by its location on the Dodecanese island of Kos. Though I took some extra holiday with my partner to enjoy this small Greek island, the commitment to attending and presenting at the 4-day conference (which hosted over 400 people from across the world) was still very daunting. What’s more, I was the only researcher attending from Bristol.

This was my first conference since beginning my PhD, and I was to present a co-authored paper about evaluating the Student EERG with Becky Selwyn. I was apprehensive to say the least; I didn’t know of anyone else who was attending. The presentations on the first two days related less to my teaching and research than I had anticipated, so it was a challenge to engage with other presenters by asking questions about their work. I felt a little lost on the first couple of days, but assured myself that I would “find an in” to connect with someone properly.

When I found among the presenters listed in the conference app the name of a co-author for another conference proposal I recently submitted, I was delighted and relieved. A tentative email asking whether I could introduce myself in-person was sent. They near-instantly replied with “Yes, let’s meet. Shall we say (during the coffee break), next to the IEEE Education Society booth?”.

Introductions with their contacts and friends snowballed from there. I worked up to courage to be more open, reciting my new line “what’s your area of expertise?” to make acquaintances at almost every opportunity. And, over the next two days, I grew more confident to engage in deeper conversations about my own teaching and research with others.

By the end of the final day, I had been invited to at least two other conferences, enthusiastically asked to collaborate on projects about student research, and had made a plethora of new contacts who were keen to keep in touch. While networking itself lies very much within my comfort zone, the uncertainty of whether other attendees would be keen to connect with me – especially as someone new to the field – made me a little unsure of myself. Trying and succeeding to network on my own has built up my confidence much more, and I am very excited to see some of these new connections at other conferences in the future.

 

Hosting Horizons

In June 2024, the University of Bristol hosted the Horizons in STEM conference. It was organised by a local committee, led by Dr Alice Robson, which included representatives from across the STEM disciplines, including members of the EERG Becky Selwyn, Joel Ross, Jemma Rowlandson, and Jude Bramton. We reached the Bill Brown Design Suite’s maximum capacity of 150 in-person delegates, with a small number of online delegates in addition.

EERG were able to fund 15 group members, including 3 students, to attend this conference. There was a mix of members presenting posters, papers, and workshops, as well as a number of people attending a pedagogical conference for the first time.

Highlights from delegates

In case you need more inspiration to investigate the Horizons in STEM conference in 2025, which will be hosted by Aston University, here is what some of the EERG-sponsored delegates described as their highlights of the conference:

Jemma Rowlandson, Senior Lecturer, EEME:

“There were many, many highlights! One of mine was the short talk format. It was great to hear about the work being done across the HE sector and the 15 minutes talks meant we got to listen to a real breadth across a range of disciplines. The conference was really inspiring and I came away with so many ideas of things we could do with our courses here in Bristol. Along a similar line, another highlight was the chance to connect and speak to people all over the UK. It was absolutely fascinating the different approaches between Universities and disciplines and as someone still quite new to this area I feel like I really picked up on a lot of top tips and look forward to implementing them later on.”

Yani Berdeni, Lecturer, SEMT:

“An excellent talk on outreach in chemistry in deprived parts of Liverpool by Andrea Mallaburn. As well as being full of interesting ideas to promote scientific engagement, it was fascinating to see their analysis of the data they had obtained on the efficacy of the outreach programme.”

Hugo Lindskog, UG, EEME:

“To me the highlight of the conference was presenting the workshop. As one of the few undergrads at the conference, I found it to be a very exhilarating experience and a great opportunity to practice public speaking.”

Erin Brady, PGR, EEME:

“I think that the nature of the conference meant that even some very rigorous research was presented in a playful way – which really helps to get across how pedagogic researchers want to engage students!”

Simon Lock, Senior Lecturer, CS:

“Informally, the best part of the conference was the posters. I basically wandered around with a cup of tea chatting to people; I came away with concrete ideas about how to solve the two main problems I am facing in the coming academic year (namely what to do about Plagiarism and how to deal with generative AI). Not bad for one afternoon shooting the breeze”