ES2331 - Communicating Engineering

Type: Core Module

Difficulty: Easy

Workload: Normal

Continuous Assessment: Class Participation, CEP1, CEP2 and Reflection Project

This is a module where it focuses on presentations and panel discussions. One has to be pretty good up on stage to ace this module. I personally am not the kind who is comfortable with speaking on stage, hence I wasn't very pleased with this module in the beginning.

CEP1 was broken into 2 parts. First, we had to find an engineer (yes a real one) and interview him/her. Finding engineers can be quite hard if you do not have contacts. And you had to submit a voice recording and transcript of the actual interview so you cannot fake the interview. Second, with the knowledge gained through the interview and your own research, you'll be placed in a panel discussion with random classmates and a random topic which would be made known 10 minutes before the panel discussion. This is pretty tricky as in a panel discussion, you had to be impromptu. It is as if you're having a conversation with the other panelists.

* A Hint: Should you forget who to quote, even if its just your opinion, you may simply just say "My engineer mentioned XXXX in the interview previously"

CEP2 was a presentation. You had to present a product which has a certain technical component in it, in which only engineers can give that presentation (and not just by any business sales marketing department). Cue cards are frowned upon, and there is a hefty weightage in the style of delivery of this presentation. Hence a lot of practice is a must. My product happened to have a TED Talk related to it, so I ripped some pointers and ideas from them. Powerpoint styles are preferbly TED talk standards - Full Screen images per slide. You do the talking, slides should not have more than 7 words. I practised a lot a lot for this as I'm not a natural speaker. And I guess I pulled this off quite well due to my tutor's favorable comments afterwhich.

* A Hint: Find  a TED talk related to your product. It can give you ideas and hints on how to design and deliver your presentation.

Expected Grade: A-

Achieved Grade: B+