2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work in progress describes how we deeply integrate communication in the training of scientists and engineers, starting with every member of our faculty. Building on the recent calls to expand knowledge around science communication and charged with starting up a new bioengineering program at our institution, we have built our curriculum on a bedrock of great science, thinking in systems about how that science impacts the world and improving the ways that science connects with the people it will be useful to. That connection means building communication into the ways of doing and training science at every opportunity, and to do that, we started with and remain committed to ongoing communication training for our faculty that is strategic, systematic, and compelling.
Communicating findings is central to doing science, but developing better communication in the sciences is under emphasized. And often that lack of emphasis is further limited by overly narrow goals for scientific and science communication. Thus, we have had a rare opportunity with the creation of our program to explore doing scientific communication differently: a way that would make communication to a variety of stakeholders more integrated to the process of doing science and would build a community around that shared approach. To that end, our efforts are guided by a few principles that are reflected in the institution’s strategic plan.
• We are all responsible for telling the story of scientific impact.
• Everyone gets communication training as soon as possible — because it’s a pillar of what we do — and we keep the pressure on with regular check-ins with faculty and students.
• Communication and story training is diversified and tailored to individuals and small groups.
• We have developed an advanced group of strategic communication thinkers and storytellers who share their skills with peers and trainees.
Our next step is to enable expansion and scaling, broadening our approach and developing materials that support our work internally while also reaching out to external audiences. We believe that we have a scalable integrated approach to strategic science communication that will be valuable for many programs that see a need for such training but don't have the infrastructure to develop it themselves. I would like to present this as a lightning talk.