Contributing to the development and the enrichment of the European dimension in Engineering Education (EE), constituted the global goal of TREE. In other words to enhance the compatibility of the many diverse routes to the status of Professional Engineer which exist in Europe and, hence, to facilitate greater mobility of skilled personnel and integration of the various situations throughout Europe.
The activity of the TN TREE, made up by some 110 higher education Institutions and Associations, has been developed along four main lines:
A. the tuning line
B. the education and research line
C. the attractiveness of EE line
D. the sustainability line
This volume, accompanied by a CD Rom, presents the results of three years of works in the frame of the Thematic Network TREE which was activated and financed in the frame of the SOCRATES Programme in the period 2004-2007.
Claudio Borri, full professor of Computational Mechanics of Structures, University of Florence (Italy), is immediate past President of SEFI (2005-07), President of IFEES (2006-08) Vice-Dean for International Relations and President of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Building & Environmental Aerodynamics. Prof. C. Borri has been awarded in 1994 with the "M. Plank Research Award" in Structural Mechanics by the M. Plank/A. von Humbold Found in Germany, and in 2001 with "Honorary Doctor Degree in Engineering Sciences" by the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering & Geodesy of Sofia, Bulgaria. Prof. Borri has been President and Legal Representative of E4 Thematic Network and is presently President and Legal Representative of TREE Thematic Network.
Francesco Maffioli is Professor of Operational Research at the Politecnico di Milano since 1980. He was also visiting professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) during the second semester of each year from 1994 to 1997. His fields of scientific activity are: combinatorial optimisation, mathematical programming, computational complexity, and telecommunication network design. He is very active within SEFI and was President from 1995 to 1997. Within the SOCRATES II programme of the European Commission, he co-ordinated the Thematic Network "Enhancing Engineering Education in Europe" (E4), has chaired the Synergy Group on Engineering of the TUNING project, and is now the Scientific co-ordinator of TREE Thematic Network.
