Publications by Helena Kovacs | EPFL Graph Search

SORTING SKILLS: CURRICULUM PROFILES AND THE FORTHCOMING SEFI HANDBOOK

Building on the coherency of activities within the Special Interest Group (SIG), Engineering Skills SIG proposes a workshop with three distinct goals: (1) explore the usefulness of a method for determining the relative importance of different skills for fu ...

European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)2024

Teaching assistants' contributions to creating inclusive and equitable learning spaces in engineering

Siara Ruth Isaac, Helena Kovacs, Joelyn de Lima

Sustainable engineering education requires us to address discrimination and inequity of experience, thereby contributing to a renewal of the engineering profession that reflects a rich diversity of experiences and perspectives. Many students experience dis ...

Taylor & Francis Ltd2024

Accreditation processes and implications for ethics education at the local level

Helena Kovacs

Routledge2024

SEFI SIG Workshop: Eager to further develop the field of engineering ethics education?

Roland John Tormey, Helena Kovacs

European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)2024

An overview of the professional skills encountered through capstone engineering projects

Helena Kovacs

We present an analysis of the professional competencies encountered by engineering students during their capstone projects. We collected weekly reflective journals from 32 students completing their capstone projects at ETH Zurich. Through a deductive quant ...

European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)2024

SECURING FELLOWSHIPS FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION RESEARCH

Helena Kovacs

This workshop was geared toward educators seeking to enhance their research capabilities, explore new areas of inquiry, and expand their professional networks through collaborations with colleagues from institutions beyond their national borders.The facili ...

European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)2024

Planned, taught, learnt: analysis of transversal skills through curriculum using portfolio

Helena Kovacs, Alexandra Corina Niculescu, Tamara Milosevic

There is an everlasting effort in education to successfully ensure that the intended learning objectives are clearly taught and effectively learnt at the end of the educational cycle. This has been especially difficult in teaching and learning complex sets ...

TU Dublin2023

Inclusive engineering classrooms: student teaching assistants' perspectives

Siara Ruth Isaac, Helena Kovacs, Joelyn de Lima

Inclusive teaching is the intentional practice of recognising biases, working to mitigate their impact, and ensuring that students have equitable learning opportunities. In addition to improving students' sense of belonging and self efficacy, inclusive tea ...

TU Dublin2023

A Research-Practice Partnership to Introduce Computer Science in Secondary School: Lessons from a Pilot Program

Francesco Mondada, Jean-Philippe Pellet, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno, Helena Kovacs

Context: Introducing Computer Science (CS) into formal education can be challenging, notably when considering the numerous stakeholders involved which include the students, teachers, schools, and policy makers. We believe these perspectives should be con ...

2023

From University to Work: Alumni Viewpoints

Patrick Jermann, Helena Kovacs, Iris Capdevila Tristan

Alumni studies are often overlooked in engineering education research, despite holding great potential for improving engineering programmes and creating the links that are missed when it comes to university-workplace transitions. Besides better understandi ...

NTNU SEED2023

Teaching under lockdown: the change in the social practice of teaching

Patrick Jermann, Roland John Tormey, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Helena Kovacs

Due to the unprecedented situation caused by a global pandemic, the traditional way of teaching that is reliant on face-to-face interaction between teachers and students has been dismantled. This article looks into university teachers’ experiences of teach ...

Springer2022

A case for co-construction with teachers in curricular reform: Introducing computer science in primary school

Francesco Mondada, Laila Abdelsalam El-Hamamsy, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Barbara Bruno, Helena Kovacs

With the introduction of Computer Science (CS) into curricula worldwide, researchers have investigated whether CS could be introduced transversally, as a support other disciplines. Few however consider both student learning and the teachers’ perspective in ...

ACM2022

What is the role of ethics in accreditation documentation from a global view?

Helena Kovacs

Ethics in engineering has long been an important element in engineering programmes, however these subjects are often taught at a basic learning level with little attempt to connect to demonstrative learning outcomes. In recent years there has been a step c ...

University Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC)2022

A Game-Based Approach to Develop Engineering Students’ Awareness About Artificial Intelligence Ethical Challenges

Patrick Jermann, Roland John Tormey, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Cécile Hardebolle, Ester Simkova, Maria Carla Di Vincenzo, Helena Kovacs

The past few decades have seen important efforts to introduce more ethics into engineering education programs around the world, while adapting to the evolution of ethical concerns, notably in relation to digital technology and artificial intelligence. Even ...

2022

Students' learning strategies, motivation and project-management skills during interdisciplinary projects in Covid times

Siara Ruth Isaac, Julien Delisle, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Helena Kovacs, Marc Lafuente Martinez

In this study, we investigated an interdisciplinary project-based learning program. Students were confronted with interdisciplinary challenges in the form of complex and authentic problems, like building a racing car or making a mobile laboratory for genet ...

Technische Universität Berlin2021

Surviving but not thriving: Comparing primary, vocational and higher education teachers' experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown

Caroline Pulfrey, Helena Kovacs, Emilie-Charlotte Monnier

In this paper we examine the impacts of the global pandemic in 2020 on different levels of education system, particularly looking at the changes in teaching practice. The health emergency caused closure of schools, and online distance education became a te ...

2021

Students' Perceptions of Master Programmes: Ready for Work in 2021?

Helena Kovacs, Iris Capdevila Tristan

Educating engineering graduates to confidently tackle issues in their future jobs demands a well-balanced curriculum that integrates development of essential conceptual knowledge, professional skills and attitudes for ethical conduct. Often, it is the case ...

Technische Universität Berlin2021

What is the role of ethics in accreditation guidelines for engineering programmes in Europe?

Helena Kovacs

The Washington Accord emphasises the role of ethical and societal considerations in the practice of engineering. Increasingly, national accrediting bodies are also expecting to see evidence in the delivery and assessment of ethics throughout engineering pr ...

Technische Universität Berlin2021

Teaching Transversal Skills in the Engineering Curriculum: the Need to Raise the Temperature

Pascal Vuilliomenet, Roland John Tormey, Jessica Elke Dehler Zufferey, Lucille Delisle, Mirjam Mekhaiel, Helena Kovacs

Engineers and architects today are dealing with great social, technical and environmental complexities, and the demand for having broadly educated holistic engineers will only continue to grow in the future. Being able to manage and lead diverse teams, und ...

University of Twente2020