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Integrating the Professional and the Technical to Create a New Kind of Engineer |
The Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center empowers engineers with the professional skills that make knowledge work.
Through research, instructional support, and assessment, the VTECC fosters partnerships among faculty, industry, and students to operationalize professional skills in engineering. VTECC is a forum for raising the global professionalism of students, supporting faculty who integrate communication into their courses, and contributing to student retention efforts. Together, we are building a national center for collaborative research dedicated to determining the best methods of teaching communication skills in school and implementing effective communication practices in the workplace.
Our work includes:
Cutting-edge research that explores both the university and the workplace. Educators still have more to learn about how to best develop communication and collaboration skills in students, not only at Virginia Tech but across the nation. At the same time, companies need research to help develop best practices for communication and collaboration in globally distributed, technology-driven workplaces.
Consultations with departments to develop, integrate, and assess communication and collaboration skills targeted to the needs of the contemporary workplace.
Teaching support, including team-teaching arrangements, guest lectures, and training for faculty and graduate students on topics in communication and collaboration relevant to engineering students.
Workshops and lectures for faculty, teaching assistants, graduate students and the public on a wide range of topics, including:
- teaching and evaluating assignments
- facilitating teamwork and conflict management
- collaborating across disciplines
- applying for fellowships
- writing proposals
- presenting research orally
Multidisciplinary networks that create communities of first-year students, upper-class students, graduate students, and practicing engineers to foster professional development.
VTECC is an ISCE Affiliate
Featured Content
Making Academic Change Happen - A conference at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technolgy, supported VTECC, to help engineering educators transform their campuses.
The Center's Calendar is available online
NSF Engineering Education Awardees Post-Conference Resources:
From the Association of Institutional Research: Assessment of Writing - M.C. Paretti and K. M. Powell, Eds.
Special Issue: Communication in Engineering Curricula: IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication - M.C. Paretti and L.D. McNair, Eds.