Commencing with preliminary registrations and a meeting of the WIETE International Academic Advisory Committee (WIETE-IAAC), the 5th Mediterranean Seminar on Engineering and Technology Education, under the principal theme Educating – Networking – Evolving, was held at Piraeus University of Applied Sciences (PUAS), formerly Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus (TEI-Piraeus), Piraeus-Athens, Greece between 11 September and 15 September 2017. The main objective of the Seminar was to celebrate the work and achievements of the PUAS-based Mediterranean Centre for Engineering and Technology Education (MCE&TE), the WIETE’s satellite centre.

About thirty WIETE members, associates, sympathisers and accompanying persons registered for the Seminar, with more than twenty attending. The Opening Ceremony was held on Tuesday, 12 September 2017, the second day of the Seminar, with the Seminar General Chairman, WIETE Director, Professor Zenon J. Pudlowski and the General Co-Chairman, Professor George Metaxas, MCE&TE Director at PUAS, Vice-President at the WIETE International Academic Advisory Committee (WIETE-IAAC), presiding over the Ceremony. Welcome speeches were delivered by Professor Andrew Nafalski of the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, President of the WIETE-IAAC; Professor Derek O. Northwood of the University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada, the Inaugural President of the WIETE-IAAC; and Professor Robert Špaček, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia, Vice-President, WIETE-IAAC. A special welcome address on behalf of PUAS was presented by Professor Savvas G. Vassiliadis, Vice-Rector, who also officially opened the Seminar.

Subsequently, addresses were presented by senior international academics; namely, Associate Professor Anthony Rhodes, Associate Dean, University College, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Assessing students’ foundation skills prior to the STEM majors); and Professor Ľubica Vitková, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia (The current topic of practice and research and its reflection in the pedagogical process), with Professor Andrew Nafalski, presiding over this Opening Addresses Session.