Session Chairs
Dan CUPERMAN
Nadav BADRIAN
Strengthening the Engineering graduate Toolkit: Conscious Professional Skill Development
14:30 – 14:45
Yael FURMAN SHAHARABANI, Teaching and General Studies
A gap persists between most engineering undergraduate curricula and employers’ demands for diverse professional non-technical skills like teamwork, empathy, and critical thinking. These skills are vital for graduates’ employability, play a key role in multidisciplinary team success, and are essential for effective workplace integration. I’ll present a framework for promoting a wide range of students’ professional skills during undergraduate engineering courses.
Adaptation of Engineering Higher Education to Teaching Industry 4.0 Technologies: Faculty Perspectives on Opportunities, Challenges, and Needs
14:45 – 15:00
Ira RAVEH, Teaching and General Studies
This study investigates how engineering faculty members perceive their competencies in incorporating Industry 4.0 technologies into teaching practice and how they see the concomitant opportunities, challenges, and needs. Findings reveal that many faculty members recognize the value for students, but report on limited perceived competence and a lack of clear strategies for effective incorporation. The study highlights critical institutional measures that can support a successful incorporation.
Academic Faculty Preparedness for Incorporating Industry I4.0 technologies in Higher Education
15:00 – 15:15
Dan CUPERMAN, Teaching and General Studies
When digital technologies are dramatically changing Industry, the study addresses the measures higher education need to take to stay relevant. The research focuses on faculty familiarity and experience with I4.0 technologies and their intentions to incorporate them in future teaching. This work is a good opportunity to learn about the challenge, hear the faculty point of view, and get insights on practical measures to drive faculty to incorporate I4.0 technologies in their teaching practice.
Investigating Disciplinary Bias in Undergraduate Science Labs: Insights from an Autonomous Antibiotic Discovery Assignment
15:15 – 15:30
Nadav BADRIAN, Teaching and General Studies
My research focuses on cross-disciplinary methodologies in educational research, particularly the integration of humanities and social science approaches into science education. I investigate how course design and learning tracks perpetuate disciplinary boundaries. Through a case study in an organic chemistry lab for biotechnology engineering students, I examine disciplinary bias using blended, interdisciplinary learning environments.
Unwrapping Culture: A COIL Gift-Giving Task for Understanding Cultural Identity and Raising Cultural Awareness
15:15 – 15:45
Izabella ROSS-SOKOLOVSKY, Teaching and General Studies
My research explores how Virtual Exchange (VE) promotes intercultural communication, competence, and reflection among students from diverse backgrounds. I examine shifts in cultural perceptions, communicative norms (e.g., turn-taking, directness), intercultural curiosity, and English as a lingua franca use, highlighting VE as a space for developing awareness, adaptability, and critical engagement across cultures
Unprecedented Changes in Lecture Recordings: Exploring the Impact of Emergency Remote Teaching in Israel
15:45 – 16:00
Stephanie GLICK, Teaching and General Studies
Student engagement with lecture recordings across diverse educational contexts. Research encompasses usage patterns during emergency remote teaching, academic performance correlations, effects on classroom attendance, and comparative analysis of standard lecture recordings versus professionally-produced targeted video content.
