The Background and Motivation of First-year Engineering Students in Relation to Gender

Christel Heylen obtained her master’s of science in materials engineering in June 2000 and the academic teacher training degree in 2004, both from the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven (Belgium). She is a member of the tutorial services of the engineering faculty and is responsible for the implementation and daily coordination of the course Problem Solving and Engineering Design in the first year of the bachelor’s of engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, with a special focus on the didactic interpretation. Regarding this subject, she obtained a Ph.D. in engineering in Aug. 2010 from the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven. She is a member of LESEC (Leuven Engineering and Science Education Centre), where she coordinates one of the four sectors, namely project-based learning.