The GELS network

Global Engineers Language Skills

The Global Engineers’ Language Skills (GELS) network is a common initiative between the University of Cambridge, KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm and a French research laboratory (Institut Mines-Telecom – Didalang). The objective of GELS is to enhance our future engineers’ language skills in order to prepare them for the increasingly challenging demands of a globalised market.

We asked engineers across Europe (and beyond) to fill in a survey and we shared the results, our findings and further outputs through events and publications. 

One of our key objectives is to design and make available a CEFR-based guide for
language teachers who work with engineering students in HEIs across Europe. 

The first step towards the creation of this guide was to design a CEFR-based grid for engineering students and engineers. The most recent version of this "GELS Framework" can be found here.

As a follow up to our GELS Training week hosted by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the network also produced a document outlining some EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) guiding principles. This can be accessed here.

In order to achieve its objectives, the project relies on an informal network of engineering schools and departments throughout Europe. The GELS network includes the following institutions:

• The University of Cambridge Engineering Department, U.K. (contact: David Tual from the Centre for Languages and Inter-Communication, CLIC)
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (contact: Jamie Rinder from the Language and Communication Unit)
• École Nationale Supérieure des Mines d'Albi-Carmaux (contact: Najoua Grégoire) and Laboratoire Didalang (contact: Teresa Geslin), France 
• Aalto University, Finland (contact: Isabella Fröjdman from the Language Centre)
• PUT Poznan University of Technology, Poland (contact: Katarzyna Matuszak from the Centre of Languages and Communication)
• TUM Technische Universität München, Germany (contact: Dorothea Hartkopf from the Sprachenzentrum)
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (contact: Vassilia Kazamia from the Centre for Foreign Language Teaching)
• Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain (contact: Cristina Pérez Guillot)
• Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic (contacts: Dita Gálová and Jolana Tluková)   
• CentraleSupélec Paris, France (contact: Julie McDonald)
• University of Pavia, Italy (contact: Maria Freddi)
• Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia (contact: Mimi Nahariah Azwani binti Mohamed)
• Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany (contact: Christoph Merkelbach)
• Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania (contact: Saule Petroniene)
• Volga State University of Technology, Russia (contact: Olga Filipchuk and Zhanna Kuzminykh)
• Bordeaux INP (Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux), France (contact: Emilie Paillard)
• Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg, Germany (contact: Katherine Gürtler)
• Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, Germany (contact: Eric Koenig)
• Bjelovar University of Applied Sciences, Croatia (contact: Ivana Jurković)
• Harz University of Applied Sciences, Germany (contact: Jutta Sendzik)
• AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland (contact: Anna Krukiewicz-Gacek from the Department of Foreign Languages)
• The National Technical University of Athens, Greece (contact: Goni Togia)
• Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia (contact: Inese Ozola)
• The Technical University of Crete, Greece (contact: Emma Seiradakis and Anne McKay)
• ENTPE (International Programs Office), France (contact: Brendan Keenan)
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain (contact: Ismael Arinas Pellón)
• Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, France (contact: Jörg Eschenauer)
• Imperial College London, U.K.(contact: Felicitas Starr-Egger from the Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication) 
• Ecole Polytechnique, France (contact: Chantal Schütz from the Département Langues et Cultures)
• Université de Toulouse 3, Laboratoire LAIRDIL, France (contact: Nicole Lancereau-Forster)
• Clausthal University of Technology, Germany (contact: Klaudia Böhlefeld and Jessica Schulze-Bentrop)
• L'Institut Agro Montpellier, France (contact: Jean-Marc Dépierre)
• ENAC (Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile), France (contact: Scott Stroud)
• University of Hong Kong (contact: Ken Ho from the Centre for Applied English Studies) 
• ENSICAEN (National Graduate School of Engineering and Research Centre, Caen), France (contact: Hilary Shadroui Cornet)
• Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany (contact: Anja Häusler and Juliane Michelini)
• Klaipeda University, Lithuania (contact: James Mc Geever)
• INSA Toulouse (part of the INSA group), France (contact: Katja Auffret)
• Afeka College of Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel (contact: Rachel Wohlfarth) 
• Azrieli College of Engineering, Jerusalem, Israel (contact: Daniel Portman)
• Polytech Sorbonne, Sorbonne Université, France (contact: Jennifer Chaumont-Sturtevant)
• National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Kiev, Ukraine (contact: Olha Pavlenko)

If you would like to join this network, please contact us.

Publications:

Tual, D., Geslin, T. and Rinder, J. (2016). A case for LSP (Language for Specific Purposes).

Rinder, J., Geslin, T. and Tual, D. (2016). A framework for language and communication in the CDIO syllabus. 

Geslin, T., Rinder, J. and Tual, D. (2016). Le projet GELS. (In French)

Rinder, J., Ritcher, T., Sweeney Geslin, T. and Tual, D. (2020). The Global Engineer Language Skills (GELS) network: an update in Proceedings of the 16th International CDIO Conference, hosted on-line by Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, 8-10 June 2020 (pp.26-36).

Past events:

The GELS team organised the following events:

• A training day at Cambridge University (U.K.) in June 2016
• A training day at Poznan University of Technology (Poland) in April 2017
• A training week at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) in April 2018.
• A training week at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece): 24th-28th June 2019
• A two-day online event (BADGE annual meeting) in June 2020

Participants at KTH Training Week (April 2018)

Participants at AUTH Training Week (June 2019)

Update 2019: 

14 institutions from the GELS network are currently collaborating on the BADGE project (Becoming A Digital Global Engineer).  This is a three-year Erasmus+ KA2-funded project, with the ultimate aim of inspiring language and communication education at engineering schools and departments. BADGE members will design teaching and learning materials for engineering students, and share these materials on an Open Educational Resources (OER) platform.

For more details about the BADGE project, please refer to its website.

GELS in a nutshell:

This document provides a 2-page recap of the project past and future.

GELS in the press:

An article published in Lithuania.