2025 Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)
Moving the dial “Towards socially responsible, post-normal and reflexive engineering ethics education”, Professor Shannon Chance co-delivered a keynote address at the 2025 Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), a conference that TU Dublin hosted in 2023.
The keynote was delivered collaboratively by Aalborg University Associate Professor Tom Børsen and TU Dublin Lecturer Shannon Chance. The keynote is proceeded by a launch of the Routledge International Handbook of Engineering Ethics Education which Shannon and Tom lead edited.
The address drew extensively from the handbook and from panel discussions conduced at the 2025 SEFI Ethics Spring Symposium, which Shannon hosted on behalf of TU Dublin in Dún Laoghaire last March.
The speakers called for a bold transformation in engineering ethics education—moving beyond traditional, individual-focused approaches to embrace collective responsibility, reflexivity, and social justice. Addressing the urgent challenges of our complex world, the Shannon and Tom advocated for “post-normal engineering,” which recognizes uncertainty, diverse perspectives, and the need for engineers to critically reflect on their roles within broader social and ecological systems. They urged the community to expand research, integrate non-Western and AI ethics, foster transdisciplinary collaboration, and revolutionize assessment and teaching methods—empowering engineers to challenge power structures and cultivate an ethics of care for people and the planet.
While at the conference, Shannon also co-facilitated a full-day pre-conference Doctoral Symposium to support early career researchers. She collaboratively presented a research paper (that won the 2025 Best Research Paper award) as well as a practice paper. She led a workshop on integrating ethics into course delivery. Working collaboratively, she also co-facilitated a workshop for journal peer reviewers and additional workshops on research methods and the ethics of care.
Shannnon serves on the Board of Directors for SEFI and Deputy Editor of SEFI’s journal, the European Journal of Engineering Education, and she represented TU Dublin at board meetings for these during the conference. She is working to tie the European University of Technology more closely to SEFI, an effort that builds upon TU Dublin’s traditional strength and leadership in SEFI.
TU Dublin’s Janet McKennedy, Una Beagon, Stephen Harper, and PhD graduates Daian Adela Martin and Darren Carthy also presented work and provided leadership at the conference.