SEFI has renewed its Memorandum of Understanding with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). It was signed on the 10 September 2026, at the SEFI Annual Conference in Prague, by presidents Agnieszka Miguel (ASEE) and Emanuela Tilley (SEFI).
The SEFI Francesco Maffioli Award is given to teachers in recognition of open-minded development of curriculum, learning environments or tools, novel didactics, methods, or systems in engineering studies. This year, the team of Lynn Van den Broeck and Sofie Craps (KU Leuven) was awarded in recognition of their contributions showing how engineering education research can be translated into meaningful, lasting educational development. At a time when the engineering profession is changing rapidly, and when graduates are expected to navigate complex, interdisciplinary, and ethically demanding environments, Lynn and Sofie have shown genuine leadership in advancing the professional competencies of future engineers.
Within the multi-campus Faculty of Engineering Technology at KU Leuven, they have played a pioneering role in designing, coordinating, and implementing learning paths that embed professional competencies across the Bachelor in Engineering Technology curriculum. Their work brings together research-based tools, seminars, faculty-wide coordination, professional development for teaching staff, and close collaboration with multi-campus teaching teams. In doing so, they have not treated professional competencies as an add-on, but as an integral part of student learning and engineering formation.
The Maffioli award committee particularly valued the strong foundation of their work in research-backed practice, its documented impact, and its clear implementation in real teaching contexts. Their approach stands out by combining scholarly rigour with practical relevance: publications and evidence support the methods, while the outcomes are embedded in authentic educational settings across campuses, disciplines, students, and teaching staff.
Equally valuable is the way they have worked together. Their collaboration, sustained since their doctoral phase, reflects commitment, consistency, and genuine team synergy. Through perseverance, enthusiasm, and a shared vision, they have helped build an innovative and future-oriented model for learning and teaching — one that connects students, faculty, institutional structures, and educational research in a coherent whole.
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