Communication in undergraduate research

Engineering education agencies, such as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), National Academy of Engineers (NAE) and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), all point at the increasing importance of communication skills for the graduating engineers. Undergraduate research has gained significant popularity in many, if not most, of engineering schools in the past few years. Engineering research includes the aspect of pursuing a scientific topic, a hypothesis or an idea in a systematic rigorous fashion, and applying critical thinking in order to answer questions or to produce new and original knowledge, as well as describing the activity and communicating the new knowledge both orally and in writing. Such a program demands that the students struggle with new knowledge and apply new format and structure in their reporting of the results, and to argue effectively. This paper describes a research program that was conducted by several undergraduate mechanical engineering students at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez during the past three and a half years. It also describes the communication activities and assesses the communication skills of the students during the course of the research experience. The students had to communicate in several ways with many parties including, other students, professors, university administrators, staff and technicians, manufactures and suppliers, application engineers and the scientific community in general. Communications included oral conversations, electronic mail, short progress reports, final comprehensive reports and presentation in engineering conferences. A survey of eighteen questions was administered to the students to assess the impact of the research experience on there communication skills. The students agreed that the research experience enhanced their communication skills in science and engineering and in general. They also agreed that the enhancement was permanent and would be used in the future. The participating students felt that the undergraduate research experience provided them with communication training that was not encountered in other engineering courses, and hence they communicated better compared to other students. The improvement in the students' communication skills was gradual and sometimes subtle.