Poster Presentations by Engineering Students (April 2014)
Forty-three teams of engineering junior year students will present posters based on multidisciplinary projectswhich investigate topics as diverse as: Wireless Applications for the Visually Impaired; Nano Materials: Efficiency in Performance; and Use of Waste for Power Generation. The event is an opportunity for teams to exhibit their work to educated, non-specialist audiences and demonstrate their professional communication skills.
To produce these posters, students work in multidisciplinary teams drawn from civil, chemical, mechanical, electrical, computer engineering and undertake project work. The student teams are taught to conduct effective meetings, to set planning goals and meet deadlines as well as to document their work. Managing themselves and their peers, showing leadership and evaluating self and team members form part of this work. The pedagogic aim is to build the sense of a community of professional practice with application to the workplace.
The work is conducted in ENG 207, a language and communication course specifically designed for undergraduate engineers. There is strong focus on profession-oriented, collaborative communication and academic skills. The course has been developed to address industry requirements for engineers to graduate with competencies beyond technical knowledge, engineering skills and technical writing ability.
Recent engineering industry-based research in the United States, Europe and Australia has identified communication and behavioral deficiencies in graduating engineers. Emphasis on communication and teamwork informed by attributes of self-management, problem solving and mutual accountability are recognized as important needs by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET and are now required in engineering undergraduate programs.
For more information, please contact [email protected].
