Celebrating the 2025 Susanne Ihsen Award for Diversity and Inclusiveness

We are thrilled to share that Eva Murphy, Mary Nolan, Mary Carden, Colin Keogh, and Lizbeth Goodman have been awarded the 2025 Susanne Ihsen Award for Diversity and Inclusiveness, presented by the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI).

The winning project, “Inclusive by Design: Embedding EDI in Engineering through Design Thinking Hackathons”, stood out for its innovative approach to making engineering education more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. By embedding Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) principles into collaborative hackathons, the team has created meaningful opportunities for students and practitioners to engage with complex challenges through creativity, empathy, and co-design.

This award is a tribute to the late Prof. Susanne Ihsen, a pioneer in gender and diversity research in engineering education. The recognition reflects the project’s alignment with her legacy—pushing for systemic change to ensure engineering becomes a profession where everyone belongs and everyone’s voice matters.

The award was officially presented in Tampere, Finland on September 18, 2025, by SEFI President Balázs Vince Nagy.

Why this matters:

• It highlights the importance of inclusive design thinking as a method for solving real-world problems in engineering.

• It shows how collaborative innovation spaces like hackathons can be powerful tools for equity and belonging.

• It celebrates a model of education that prepares engineers not only to solve technical challenges, but also to design with humanity at the center.

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Congratulations to the entire team for this outstanding achievement!