Introducing a new face at CEL: Gillian Saunders-Smits

Gillian Saunders-Smits is an Associate Professor at Aerospace Engineering who is visiting the Centre for Education and Learning for the coming months to work with Professor Marcus Specht and the rest of the team on creating a MOOC in Research Methodologies for Multi-Disciplinary Teams.

Dr.Ir. Gillian Saunders-SmitsAbout Gillian
Gillian is a passionate lecturer and researcher in engineering education and has over 20 years of experience in teaching a variety of courses using a plethora of methods. She believes that education can always be better and has built a reputation in managing and organizing education as well as teaching at Aerospace Engineering, be it in project education, online education or coordinating a master track. She currently teaches Research Methodologies at Aerospace Engineering and runs the online MOOC Introduction to Aerospace Structures and Materials on edX. Internationally she is a member of the Board of Directors of SEFI, the European Association for Engineering Education.

Why did you come to CEL?
“Already early on in my career I was interested in education, my PhD was on Aerospace Engineering Education and I have continued to research engineering education in part to ensure that my teaching and my teaching methods are evidence based and thoroughly evaluated. However, I have always wanted to spend time in an Educational Research Group. Hence, I approached CEL to see if it was possible to do a sabbatical. Thankfully they said yes!”

What will you be doing at CEL?
“I am looking forward to spending time at CEL and work with the team to create the MOOC on multi-disciplinary research in teams and learn more about the non-engineering sides of multi-disciplinary research and how we can stimulate cooperation. In view of the societal challenges that lie ahead of us, it is important that we educate learners towards a unified  approach and common language in multidisciplinary research. I believe this MOOC will greatly assist by offering this course based on the expertise that CEL has to offer!”