CDTL is delighted to be able to work with the Faculty of Engineering (FoE) and School of Computing (SoC) in organising the first in the series of discipline-specific symposia on teaching and learning. The idea for this series presented itself after our 2002 International Symposium on Teaching & Learning in Higher Education. The feedback indicated an interest in follow-up sessions that would build on the generic discussions and focus on pedagogical principles and practices in specific disciplines. Computing and Engineering felt they have sufficient in common to share a symposium and today’s programme is designed to meet the interests of both.

The programme has been built around the theme of ‘Emerging trends in ICT in Engineering and Computing education’. We are privileged to have as an invited speaker Dr Cesar Nunez-Lopez, Director of the Mechatronics Engineering Programme at ITESM campus, Monterey. But equally important, we have ‘local’ speakers, colleagues who not only have a great deal of expertise but also knowledge of the local context and our institutional culture. The combination of external and internal inputs should yield highly productive information-sharing and interactions.

Both the Faculty of Engineering and School of Computing are sizeable faculties, each with responsibility for a large number of students. Clearly, the quality of their educational programmes will have a tremendous impact on the professional competence of their students and their ability to meet the ever-growing demands of the workplace. Mindful of that, both FoE and SoC make continuous efforts at ensuring quality. Hopefully, this symposium will contribute significantly to such efforts in promoting good teaching and achieving optimal learning outcomes. Hopefully, too, participants will find the proceedings stimulating and personally enriching.

Daphne Pan, Director
Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning