With the goal of boosting scientific collaboration between Denmark and California, the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has entered into a partnership agreement with the interdisciplinary research centre Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR) at Stanford University. As a part of the partnership agreement advanced PhD students and scientists employed by a Danish university or a Danish public research institution are invited to submit applications for visiting scholarships at H-STAR.
Sanne Haase, PhD student at the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy (CFA), is one of the selected few who have been granted an H-STAR visiting scholarship of 2 months in the autumn of 2011 at Stanford University, which currently according to ARWU 2010 is ranked as the world's third best university.
Sanne Haase's stay includes a collaboration with Professor Sheri Sheppard, a capacity in engineering education. The purpose of the visit is primarily to make comparisons between Sanne Haase’s Danish study and American studies in the field for the purpose of publishing joint research publications.
Sanne Haase is organizationally anchored at CFA and working in the research alliance "Program of Research on Opportunities and Challenges in Engineering Education in Denmark" (PROCEED), which is a large multi-institutional project funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research. Sheri Sheppard is associated with this research project as an international adviser, and she has previously participated in numerous research projects on engineering education.
Sanne Haase’s research concerns the role of sustainability in engineering education in Denmark. She is currently conducting a major study of how engineering students are experiencing societal challenges such as sustainability and the role sustainability plays in the professional identity they establish during their training. The engineering field is particularly relevant in relation to sustainability, because engineers largely are expected to play a crucial role in how we as a society can address a range of social, economic and environmental challenges we face today.