NICKEL VII Conference: Pulling Together – Fresh Perspectives on Leadership Learning

Join NICKEL VII at UBC on August 17-18th, 2022!

NICKEL – the National Initiative on Capacity building and Knowledge creation for Engineering Leadership – is running its annual, interactive conference in-person at UBC August 17-18, 2022.

NICKEL is a community of faculty, staff and instructors interested in furthering engineering students’ leadership capabilities. This community gathers to learn from each other, share insights and wisdom from teaching practice, and collaboratively build our capacity to support our students. Through enhancing our students’ leadership, we enable them to increase their positive impact on the world around them.

NICKEL VII will involve in-person workshops, classroom simulations, reflective activities, and great conversation! The conference theme this year is “Pulling Together” and is inspired by the BC Indigenization Guides for post-secondary institutions (link below). The Guides’ Indigenization Project “can be described as an evolving story of how diverse people can journey forward in a canoe”, pulling together to learn and share (Foundations Guide). Through the conference, we hope to draw on the diversity in NICKEL and beyond in our own shared journey of engineering leadership.

This conference is designed for university faculty, staff and instructors from Canadian universities with a personal interest in, and passion for engineering leadership education. If you are interested in joining, and learning with this welcoming community of educators, you should attend NICKEL VII this year. No experience in teaching engineering leadership necessary — just an interest to learn and share your perspectives with others.

Check out the Pulling Together BC Indigenization Guides for Post-Secondary Institutes

Objectives for NICKEL 2022:

  • Build relationships between individuals engaged in engineering leadership education.
  • Form a network of learning and action.
  • Demonstrate and experience active leadership learning.
  • Share best practices and greatest challenges.
  • Integrate new ideas into university programs.
  • Stimulate interest in research on engineering leadership and its pedagogy

Program

The program will begin at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday August 17 and conclude at 5:00 pm Thursday August 18. There will be a conference dinner Wednesday evening. Details can be found on the program page.

How to Register: 

Registration can be accessed through the UBC Conferences registration portal here

Cost: 

The conference fee is $250 CAD + $12.50 in GST which includes light breakfasts, lunch and a conference banquet. Accommodations may be booked separately with details on the Travel page of this website.

More Information: 

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to the conference co-chair, Jonathan Verrett (jonathan.verrett@ubc.ca). 

Conference Committee:

  • Co-Chairs
    • Patricia Sheridan, University of Toronto
    • Jonathan Verrett, University of British Columbia
  • Program Chair
    • Jannik Eikenaar, University of British Columbia
  • Representing the NICKEL Steering Committee
    • Doug Reeve, University of Toronto