OU professor visits Hong Kong for educational leadership summit

Dr. Shannon Flumerfelt, professor in Educational Leadership at Oakland University, recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong on behalf of the university, where she attended an educational leadership summit.

Flumerfelt was invited to be a speaker for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). She spent nine days in China taking part in the 2011 International Leadership Summit on Mechanical and Multi-disciplinary Engineering Education.

The summit gathered engineering educators and deans, and university presidents from around the world to present at the conference hosted at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in collaboration with ASME and the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society.

“This is a very important time for engineering education,” Flumerfelt said. “ASME is providing thought leadership on an international level to promote the best instructional practices and improve engineering education pedagogy.”

Picture of Hong Kong taken from Flumerfelt's trip.

This summit comes at an important time.

According to Flumerfelt, in the future, China will provide engineers from 25 percent of their work force, putting Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University at the heart of engineering education.

Along with the conference, Flumerfelt also spent her time in Hong Kong working on a new book, with three other authors, focused on Lean education.

The book will discuss sustainability, systems thinking and ethics through Lean engineering.

Still in the early stages of production, a publication date is yet to be set for the book.

Co-authors of the book include Dr. Franz-Josef Kahlen, Mechanical Engineering, associate professor, University of South Africa; Dr. Anna Bella Siriban-Manalang, Industrial Engineering, associate professor, director Center for Lean Systems Management, De La Salle University, Philippines; and Dr. Anabela Alves, Industrial Engineering, assistant professor, University of Minho, Portugal.

Flumerfelt has worked extensively with the ASME. She discussed Lean engineering at their 2010 Vancouver International Engineering Conference and has worked on numerous projects for the society.

She has also co-authored an article for the December issue of Mechanical Engineering Magazine, as she works to help address systems failure through crowd sourcing.

For more information, visit oakland.edu/lean.