Changing all or most of the conversations that take place across the engineering education community cannot be accomplished by a single engineering education coalition or even by all of the engineering education coalitions acting together. Therefore, the FC has sought to form partnerships with many different allies who are interested in improving engineering education. Primarily, the partnerships take one of two forms.

• Share the Future Conferences The FC has worked with the other existing engineering education coalitions-SUCCEED, Greenfield, and Gateway-to sponsor an annual Share the Future Conference. The heart of each Share the Future Conference is two-hour workshops during which participants have opportunities to interact with the facilitators and each other to acquire a more in-depth knowledge of the workshop topic. Gateway and SUCCEED led the way and offered the first Share the Future Conference in 2000. Foundation joined in offering the second conference in 2001, and the third conference was presented by all four coalitions as Greenfield contributed in 2002. Share the Future IV will be held in Tempe, Arizona, in February or March 2003. More information on the Share the Future Conferences can be found at /events/conferences/index.html
• Focused dissemination FC partner institutions have hosted small, focused conferences (colloquially referred to as miniconferences) at which participants interested in a narrow set of issues and innovations meet to describe what they have done, what they would like to learn, and what they plan to do before the next conference. These miniconferences offer an excellent opportunity for participants to learn about the accomplishments of the FC partners because the conversations occur in an environment in which participants are trying to learn how they might improve programs that are offered on their campuses. Specifics about past miniconferences and planned mini-conferences are provided in the following paragraphs.

First Miniconference on Freshman-year Innovations

The University of Wisconsin Madison (UW) hosted the first miniconference on Freshman-year Innovations. It was held on the UW campus on 14-15 May 2001. Representatives from the University of Michigan, Purdue University, Smith College, the University of Wisconsin Madison, and the Foundation Coalition participated. Each campus shared innovations that they have implemented and solicited ideas for making further improvements. Participants were encouraged by the results of sharing information and agreed that another conference should be held. More information about the miniconference can be found at http://www.foundationcoalition.org/events/news/miniconference2001_uw.html.

Planning for the Southeastern Engineering Schools Conference

The associate deans for undergraduate programs from the schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) that offer engineering met in Atlanta on Thursday, 21 February 2002. They identified three issues that would be the common foci for the larger meeting to be held in May 2002. The three issues were diversity, foundation/first year in engineering curricula, and information technology.

Second Miniconference on Freshman-year Innovations

The University of Michigan will host the second miniconference on Freshman-year Innovations on 9-10 May 2002. The focal topics will be learning communities, freshman design/introductory courses, faculty development, integration with curriculum, and integration with writing and engineering. The agenda will cover the following issues:

More information about the second miniconference can be found at http://www.foundationcoalition.org/events/news/freshman_innovations_conf.html.

Undergraduate Educational Issues in SEC Engineering Schools Meeting

The schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) that offer engineering will meet at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, on 13-14 May 2002. The conference will focus on three issues (diversity, foundation/first year, and information technology) and has the following goals:

• Establish a dialogue among SEC engineering schools
• Share experience and concerns regarding the three issues
• Identify important, common, unresolved questions
• Identify specific collaborative efforts for resolving these questions and the "deliverables" resulting from these efforts (perhaps involving proposals for external funding)
• Share conclusions with the deans
• Plan a follow-up meeting to report progress and to explore additional issues
  More information about the SEC Engineering Schools Meeting can be found at http://www.foundationcoalition.org/events/news/undergraded.html.

Miniconference on the Energy Stem in Mechanical Engineering

On 16-17 May 2002, the University of Wisconsin will host a miniconference to bring together some of the schools that have been involved in experimenting with mechanical engineering curricula, particularly the energy stem. There are many new ideas surfacing in this area, and bringing together selected faculty from schools that have been involved in making changes would be valuable. The goal is to provide a forum for an interchange of ideas that would then foster change on the campuses. The miniconference will focus on two major issues:

• Integration of courses across the energy curriculum (including the conservation approach)
  
• Concept inventories for thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer

More information about the conference can be found at http://www.foundationcoalition.org/events/news/miniconference_uw.html.