Integrated engineering communications

Based on observations of students' difficulties in communication and in engineering courses, the authors devised an integrated course to bring students together through a project to develop many useful professional problem-solving skills and strategies. The approach is based on the following assumptions: engineering and technical communication involve problem-solving activities best experienced within a team; learning the strategies for effective technical communication and for creative engineering design requires practical experience and constructive feedback from appropriate real-world audiences; and student would benefit from a nontraditional course structure that demands open-ended problem solving. The result was a project-oriented engineering course integrated with a technical communications course which provides students with the environment to develop the desired strategies for problem-solving in a team environment.<>