The 2011 Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) Conference held at Peking University concluded on October 22, leaving its participants content that progress will be made.

During the two-day conference, speakers from top universities, engineering institutions and corporations discussed various perspectives on a common concern: how to promote engineering education in the world.

GEDC is the largest forum for engineering deans, drawing in nearly 250 deans from all over the world.

“This was really a good event for networking. Some of you think that if you are talking about engineering education, you can learn from the internet or from the research papers, but you cannot share the real experiences like this, and go into details like this,” said Dr. Hasan Mandal, Research and Graduate Policies Director at Sabanci University in Turkey.

Dr. Eng Soon Chan, dean of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Engineering and co-chair of a session on sustainability issues, concurred.  His fellow engineering deans were quite engaged and eager to share, Chan said.

Dr. David Garza-Salazar, chair of GEDC, said that the conference organization was excellent from the beginning. He noted that if the attendees had a problem there was always a volunteer coming to help. He thought it was one of the best events he had ever been to.

“The venue here at Peking University is just wonderful,” added Dr. David Beasley, dean at the Arkansas State University. “The host has done a superb job of putting together a very interesting and very busy two days. I am going to continue being a member of the global deans, part of that is because of the wonderful job Peking University has done and putting this on.”

Dr. Shiyi Chen, dean of the Peking University College of Engineering, hosted this year’s conference. In the past few months, Chen and his team at the College of Engineering made great effort to create  an energizing and rewarding experience, including a team of 30 student volunteers who were on hand to assist throughout the conference.