Skills for Presenting Engineering and Applied Knowledge (SPEAK) is a cross-college collaboration between faculty and students in the Department of Communication and the Grainger College of Engineering to bring the insight and expertise of world-class researchers and teachers in Communication to students in engineering at the most timely moment. Presentation and communication skills can propel an engineer from being technically excellent to being a thought leader in the field. Students involved in project-based and project-oriented classes across the Grainger College of Engineering participate in SPEAK through either a Communication Talk or a Just-in-Time Workshop.

Through Communication Talks, a communication instructor attends a scheduled class time to present on best practices for working in groups, structuring a presentation, delivering a presentation, or other communication topics relevant to the course content. Through Just-in-Time Workshops, communication instructors run clinics with the engineering students to review example slides from the engineering students’ own presentations and provide critical feedback on their presentation skills. Peer review and group discussions in workshops provide an opportunity for students to learn while helping others. Overall, SPEAK has proven highly effective in quantifiably improving student outcome.

Our website also provides a variety of resources for students looking to improve their public speaking skills on their own time or for instructors preparing to assign or assess the communication skills of their students. Our services are customizable to fit the needs of individual engineering courses, so please contact us today about integrating Engineer SPEAK content into your own course!