edX Online
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Lydia Kavanagh

Professor at The University of Queensland

The University of Queensland

About me

Professor Lydia Kavanagh is a chemical engineer who has worked in many teams over the course of her career. These teams have ranged from large wastewater treatment plants (an industry team) to project-centred curricula for accredited engineering undergraduate degrees (an institutional team), to workshops disseminating global initiatives in the field of eLearning (a research team). Lydia was a principal engineer for a large environmental consultancy before returning to teach the next generation of engineers. In her immediate past role of Director of First Year Engineering at The University of Queensland, Lydia worked with a cohort of over 1100 students and developed their teamwork skills by requiring them to work in multi-disciplinary teams to design, build and demonstrate solutions to real world problems. Currently she is leading a team of academics to establish shorter form credentials at The University of Queensland. In addition, Lydia has run workshops worldwide on how to proactively ensure team success. This experience, plus Lydia's own working knowledge of teams, has given her a unique insight into what helps students work well in teams,​ and she has captured this knowledge in this MOOC.