ASSETs+ at EDUCON 2023

The conference, organized by the American University of Kuwait (AUK), was held in Kuwait, last May 1-4.

EduCon 2023 saw two ASSETs+ representatives take the stage to present some of the defence training innovations which have come out of the project:

• Baptiste Pesquet (Bordeaux INP University) presented the paper “Artificial Intelligence for Defence in an EQF6 Training and Education Program, From the Design to the Execution“, (authored by Éric Grivel, Baptiste Pesquet, Tudor-Bogdan Airimitoaie and Akka Zemmari), which ended with a video featuring the seasonal schools and feedback from students who participated in the courses.
• Éric Grivel (Bordeaux INP University) presented the paper “Sharing Our Positive Experience About the ASSETs+ European Defence Challenge” (authored by Éric Grivel, Mateo Burgos, Dorota Stadnicka and Gualterio Fantoni) which focused on the European Defence Challenge and the role of challenge-based learning in defence technology training. The conclusion of his presentation incited participants of the conference to spread the word about the challenge as well as the ASSETs+ project itself. Both presentations were met with positive feedback and interaction with the other conference attendees in the audience.

The ASSETs+ representatives also attended the plenary sessions which touched on issues of inclusion and diversity in engineering education, as well as the impact of Metaverse and generative AI on education. In addition, different tracks were addressed which included “Infrastructure and Technologies for Engineering Education”, “Innovation, Methods, Teaching and Learning Experiences in Engineering Education”, and even tracks on gaming in education with topics such as “Serious Games, Game-Based Learning and Gamification for Engineering”.

Overall, the ASSETs+ experience at EduCon 2023 was a success and a great opportunity for the project consortium to present its innovations and results in defence training while also taking part in discussions of current themes in education on an international stage.