EPC Event Archives - Page 2 of 20 - Engineering Professors Council

The Engineering Professors’ Council is launching a major project from its Education, Employability & Skills Committee. ‘Emerging Stronger: the 2026 Edition’ will be a comprehensive snapshot of how engineering educators are responding to multiple contemporary challenges and opportunities in the education of engineers, and AI will be a key lens through which we explore the current landscape together. This work will include concise overviews, good practice case studies, and student narratives.

In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, the original Emerging Stronger: Lasting Impact From Crisis Innovation responded quickly to capture issues, practice and student experience in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue aims to replicate the impact of that work in this new context of institutional financial precarity, high workloads, changing student demographics, new funding models, an evolving graduate job market, and AI.

The work is structured in 3 phases:

A webinar series from May to June on the following topics: assessment, curriculum futures, employability landscape, partnerships, and academic careers. We are excited to be working with colleagues from a range of universities and beyond, and hope to draw on input from a wide range of colleagues across the sector to understand different practices, responses and approaches.
Case studies and student voice, from May to August, to show how students are engaging with AI and how they feel it is impacting their education, and how educators are responding in their work
A publication, Emerging Stronger: the 2026 Edition, which will be released in October 2026

How you can get involved

Please, register for the webinars – this is a project where the community is listening and sharing rather than telling. Come and discuss how you are engaging with, and tackling, some of these challenges and opportunities. Register below to attend this webinar. Links to future webinars are listed below.

Friday 22nd May 12.30-13.30 – Assessment

Thursday 28th May 12.30-13.30 – Curriculum Futures

Tuesday 2nd June 12.30-13.30 – Employability Landscape

Wednesday 10th June 12.30-13.30 – Partnerships

Wednesday 24th June 12.30-13.30 – Academic Careers

There will be a meeting of the RA Committee taking place 1st June at 1pm.

There will be a meeting of the RA committee taking place Monday 27th April at midday.

There will be a meeting of the Inclusive Engineering Toolkit Expert Working Group Meeting on Friday 17th April 2026 from 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM . Please note this is for current members of the Expert Working Group only.

This year’s EPC free to attend Public Lecture will be delivered by one of the greatest living scientists, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell CH DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP HonMRIA HonFLSWn, the astrophysicist who, among her many accolades, discovered pulsars while still a doctoral student – a breakthrough that subsequently attracted a Nobel Prize for her supervisor.

Bell Burnell has worked tirelessly to support women scientists, donating and raising millions of pounds to fund scholarships. Fittingly, she will take ‘Women in science & engineering’ as her theme.

The lecture will be hosted by the University of Strathclyde as the opening session of this year’s Engineering Academics Network Annual Congress.

Free to attend, but registration required. Register here.

You do not have to register for the whole Congress to attend the lecture, but you can do so here.

If you do register to attend Congress, you do not have to register separately for the public lecture.

EAN Congress 2026: Evolution or revolution invites delegates to explore whether incremental change in engineering education is enough to make it fit-for-purpose in the face of significant global and sectoral challenges – or whether engineering education now demands something more radical. As global challenges intensify, disciplinary boundaries blur, and AI reshapes every profession, there is a broad consensus now that engineers of the 21st century must pair technical expertise with sustainability literacy, ethical awareness and an entrepreneurial mindset. This year’s EPC Congress explores what a truly “fit‑for‑purpose” engineering education looks like – one that harnesses AI while safeguarding against its risks, embraces interdisciplinary thinking, and expands the role of active and experiential pedagogies – and critically, how we can deliver this. Through provocative presentations and discussion, the congress will examine who engineering education serves and how institutions can reimagine their role in shaping future‑ready engineers.

We gratefully acknowledge our Congress supporters