Join us on Friday, July 26^, and Saturday, July 27 for the annual Symposium on Education in Entertainment and Engineering at Purdue University.

The live entertainment industry presents increasingly complex challenges for technicians—whether in small community theatres or in large theme parks. At the same time, the shape of post-secondary education is changing—with an increasing emphasis on hands-on learning and outcome-based instructional design becoming the norm. At the convergence of these threads is the need to effectively prepare and educate students to enter the rapidly changing world of live entertainment technology.

The annual Symposium on Education in Entertainment and Engineering highlights advances, challenges, and trends in curricular design, instructional design, academic research, and cross-disciplinary work related to the intersection of engineering and live entertainment. This symposium is specifically aimed at building bridges between two exceptionally different academic and professional cultures and practices; presentations come from many different backgrounds and academic experiences. Symposium topics explore the interstitial spaces amongst the disciplines of engineering, theatre technology, and education, including the following topic areas:

• Industry-relevant curricular development (including novel curricular design, bridging academic silos, and developing strategies for success, etc.)
• Curating professional development approaches for the workforce of the future in this industry sector.
• Creating and navigating academic/industrial partnerships
• Navigating academic accreditation processes and concerns
• Exploring the relationship between “traditional research” and “creative endeavor”
• Engaging in industry standards development and embedding standards, ethics of care, and sustainability in our practices.
• Offering exemplars of research design/case studies, instructional design, and novel pedagogy in interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary fields (Art+ Engineering, Technology…)
• Promoting K-12 and Post-Secondary education(STEAM), summer and extra-curricular programming, and diversity/inclusion outreach
• Examining the relationship between traditional instruction, engineering design, and production/performance work
• Introducing technology - AI, VR, drones, etc.…conceptualizing their impact on the future of the entertainment industry at large
• Unpacking disciplinary needs, unique languages/practices, and managing interdisciplinary/cross-disciplinary challenges to grow this emergent interdisciplinary field.

For more information, and to register, visit their website here!