Join us as we discuss engineering education in India, with a focus on the career path of Dr. Rucha Joshi, an Associate Professor at Plaksha University. Dr. Joshi shares her journey into engineering education, her current research projects, leadership role, and her perspective on the focus of the engineering education community in India. We also discuss the importance of collaborations, priorities in the community, and conferences in India that may be of interest to the broader engineering education community.

Name Drop

Dr. Rohit Kandakatla

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitkandakatla/?originalSubdomain=in

Dr. Preethi Baligar -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-preethi-baligar-18596415a/?originalSubdomain=in

Dr. Bill Oakes (William Oakes) -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-bill-oakes-12072113/

Dr. Shannon Chance -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonchance7/?originalSubdomain=ie

Siara Isaac -

https://people.epfl.ch/siara.isaac?lang=en

Dr. Joelyn de Lima -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelyndelima/?originalSubdomain=ch

Recommended Conferences in India:

https://ictiee.org/ictiee2026/

Compute : https://isigcse.acm.org/compute/2025/

IIT Bombay, IIT Chennai

https://www.et.iitb.ac.in/

For Engineering Education Research & Pedagogy: IUCEE is the most established choice in India. https://iucee.org/annual-conference/

For Education Technology Research

International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E): Technology For, Of, In, Across Education, 13th. Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Organized by the EdTech Society, India and hosted by IIT Madras. T4E 2025 will be held in Chennai, India. https://etsociety.org/t4e-2025/ or https://etsociety.org/product-category/event/

iSIGCSE conference - Compute - https://isigcse.acm.org/compute/

https://isigcse.acm.org/compute/2025/

Other broader engineering conferences with Educational Tracks often happen at IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Chennai, and IIT Gandhinagar, etc. premier institutes.

Summary: This beautiful conversation was so rich we have split it into two episodes. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Join us for a conversation between a recently retired mentor, Dr. Bevlee Watford and their recently promoted mentee, Dr. Walter Lee. While their faculty careers at Virginia Tech started decades apart, their stories are woven together by a shared interest in developing the systems and programs that support engineering students who hold marginalized identities. In this episode, they share what led them to careers that center student support and their unique approaches to decision making while leading CEED. Their enviable mentoring relationship includes strategies anyone can adopt; and their wisdom on navigating the shifting landscape is timeless.

Name Drop:

Center for Engineering Excellence and Discovery (CEED)

Susan Lasser

Hassan Aref

Malcolm McPherson

Lynn Nystrom

Kamyar Haghighi

Rising Scholars and their scholarship:

Carol Geary

      Peer Mentoring Programs Survivability: How Programs React When Bad

Things Happen

Tasha Zephirin

      Persistence through community: An exploratory study of student support in

Purdue University's NSBE chapter

Malini Josiam

      An Investigation of the Perspectives of Women of Color on the Cultures of       Undergraduate Engineering

Taylor Johnson

      "You Have to Focus on School...You Can't Focus on Getting Paid": A Multi-

Study Exploration of Perspectives on and Experiences of Engineering

Students Who Work

Article mention:

Su, L. K. (2010). Quantification of diversity in engineering higher education in the United States. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 16(2).

https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/00551c876cc2f027,69ab3d9d13586e06,0e19b121603f0805.html

Department of Education degree reclassification (referenced in Part 2) -

https://azat.tv/en/degrees-redefined-nursing-engineering-and-more-lose-professional-status-under-new-federal-rules/

Summary: This beautiful conversation was so rich we have split it into two episodes. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Join us for a conversation between a recently retired mentor, Dr. Bevlee Watford and their recently promoted mentee, Dr. Walter Lee. While their faculty careers at Virginia Tech started decades apart, their stories are woven together by a shared interest in developing the systems and programs that support engineering students who hold marginalized identities. In this episode, they share what led them to careers that center student support and their unique approaches to decision making while leading CEED. Their enviable mentoring relationship includes strategies anyone can adopt; and their wisdom on navigating the shifting landscape is timeless.

Name Drop:

Center for Engineering Excellence and Discovery (CEED)

Susan Lasser

Hassan Aref

Malcolm McPherson

Lynn Nystrom

Kamyar Haghighi

Rising Scholars and their scholarship:

Carol Geary

      Peer Mentoring Programs Survivability: How Programs React When Bad Things Happen

Tasha Zephirin

      Persistence through community: An exploratory study of student support in Purdue University's

NSBE chapter

Malini Josiam

      An Investigation of the Perspectives of Women of Color on the Cultures of Undergraduate

Engineering

Taylor Johnson

      "You Have to Focus on School...You Can't Focus on Getting Paid": A Multi-Study

      Exploration of Perspectives on and Experiences of Engineering Students Who Work

Article mention:

Su, L. K. (2010). Quantification of diversity in engineering higher education in the United States. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 16(2).

https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/00551c876cc2f027,69ab3d9d13586e06,0e19b121603f0805.html

Department of Education degree reclassification (referenced in Part 2) -

https://azat.tv/en/degrees-redefined-nursing-engineering-and-more-lose-professional-status-under-new-federal-rules/