28 IEEE POTENTIALS0278-6648/14/$31.00©2014IEEE T his question is posed to experi- enced engineers: Do you recall during your days as an engineering student when you discounted the importance of English and other com- munication courses and instead gave all of your attention to your technical courses (e.g., electric circuits, program- ming, or thermodynamics)? But all of us would realize as we graduated from engineering school and started working in the real world that communication is absolutely critical to making sure that our engineering projects are a success since we depend on many different members of our organization (e.g., bud- get personnel to get required funding or seek guidance from field support people on how sys- tem will be used by customers) and outside our group (e.g., cus- tomers who tell us what features are important to them). Without clear lines of communication, our ideas would stay within our own small development teams instead of becoming mature products. While this is obvious to those of us who have become experienced engineers, the real question is: Why is it lost to us when we are in engineering students? Fortunately, in recent years, there has been a tremendous new emphasis on enhancing communi- cations at the engineering school level. A quick Google search on communications programs in engi- neering colleges yields some inter- esting results: • North Carolina State Uni- versity—two professors from the Industrial Engineering and English De- partments have formed a partnership to cross-train their classes to bring the importance of communications in tech- nical projects to the students. • State University at Oswego—in creating a new electrical/computer en- gineering program, the college is using the opportunity to set up new commu- nications requirements. • University of Southern Califor- nia—the college has set up a new writ- ing program that has been integrated to all programs from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. These new initia- tives are a vast improvement from the “good old days” when technical profes- sors stressed almost exclusively the im- portance of solving difficult engineering problems while the liberal arts faculty would be almost apologetic on the im- portance of their own communication- intensive classes. Clearly, what was needed was a clear assertion from the entire school that engineering students need to be “well rounded” and have the ability to not only solve technical prob- lems but to be able communicate about it as well. Taking the first step My purpose in writing this article was not to criticize my professors (I believe that they did an excellent job in educating my generation of engineers and the need for robust instruction in communication had not been fully realized when I was in school) but to encourage my fellow sea- soned engineers to help the next genera- tion of engineers communicate more effectively. One simpl ...

1. 28 IEEE POTENTIALS0278-6648/14/$31.00©2014IEEE
T
his question is posed to experi-
enced engineers: Do you recall
during your days as an engineering
student when you discounted the
importance of English and other com-
munication courses and instead gave all
of your attention to your technical
courses (e.g., electric circuits, program-
ming, or thermodynamics)? But all of us
would realize as we graduated from
engineering school and started working
in the real world that communication is
absolutely critical to making sure that
our engineering projects are a success
since we depend on many different
members of our organization (e.g., bud-
get personnel to get required
funding or seek guidance from
field support people on how sys-
tem will be used by customers)
and outside our group (e.g., cus-
tomers who tell us what features
are important to them). Without
clear lines of communication, our
ideas would stay within our own
small development teams instead
of becoming mature products.
While this is obvious to those of

2. us who have become experienced
engineers, the real question is:
Why is it lost to us when we are
in engineering students?
Fortunately, in recent years,
there has been a tremendous new
emphasis on enhancing communi-
cations at the engineering school
level. A quick Google search on
communications programs in engi-
neering colleges yields some inter-
esting results:
• North Carolina State Uni-
versity—two professors from the
Industrial Engineering and English De-
partments have formed a partnership
to cross-train their classes to bring the
importance of communications in tech-
nical projects to the students.
• State University at Oswego—in
creating a new electrical/computer en-
gineering program, the college is using
the opportunity to set up new commu-
nications requirements.
• University of Southern Califor-
nia—the college has set up a new writ-
ing program that has been integrated
to all programs from the undergraduate
to the doctoral level. These new initia-
tives are a vast improvement from the
“good old days” when technical profes-

3. sors stressed almost exclusively the im-
portance of solving difficult engineering
problems while the liberal arts faculty
would be almost apologetic on the im-
portance of their own communication-
intensive classes. Clearly, what was
needed was a clear assertion from the
entire school that engineering students
need to be “well rounded” and have the
ability to not only solve technical prob-
lems but to be able communicate about
it as well.
Taking the first step
My purpose in writing this article was
not to criticize my professors (I believe
that they did an excellent job in educating
my generation of engineers and the need
for robust instruction in communication
had not been fully realized when I was in
school) but to encourage my fellow sea-
soned engineers to help the next genera-
tion of engineers communicate more
effectively. One simple first step would be
to serve as mentors to recently graduating
engineers in transitioning from communi-
cating from the college experience to the
manner expected in the real world. My
own experience in mentoring young
engineers has been very rewarding as I Date of publication: 30
April 2014

4. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2013.2261371
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Good communication is
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challenged their college-driven notions of
effective communications (writing long
treatises to justify their meticulous analy-
ses) to develop writing and oral presenta-
tions favored by managers (being con-
cise, giving actionable recommendations,
and having a result-oriented outlook).
I recall one engineering intern that I
mentored who was particularly challeng-
ing because of his early rejection of all
my efforts to improve his writing of
required weekly summaries. It took many
months of collaboration to change this
young man’s perspective that the ability
to communicate is essential
in getting one’s ideas across
to peers and to receive credit
for work well done from
one’s superiors. Almost six
years later, he attributes his
quick rise to the position of
p r o j e c t m a n a g e r o f a n
important program to his
robust ability to communi-

6. cate. Today, I remain friends
with this young man in spite
of my having acted as his communica-
tions “drill sergeant” earlier in his career.
He even invited me to his wedding as a
result of our relationship.
Let me reiterate the central point of
this article: communications paves the
road to success for any project, and
this is amply supported in the appli-
cable business literature. For example,
in checking an excellent reference,
What Every Engineer Should Know
About Business Communication by
John X. Wang, the author states that
“Engineers must possess a range of
business communication skills that
enable them to effectively communi-
cate the relevance of their idea, pro-
cess, or technical design…[in order to]
market ideas, write proposals, generate
e n t h u s i a s m f o r [ t h e i r p r o p o s e d ]
research, deliver presentations [to
varied audiences], explain a design [to
technical and nontechnical audiences],
organize a project team, coordinate
meetings, and create technical reports
and specifications.”
Along these lines, the American Soci-
ety of Mechanical Engineers references a
course called “Technical Negotiation”
that goes a step further in teaching
young engineers not only to communi-

7. cate effectively but also empowers them
to negotiate effectively with decision
makers in corporate America. My pur-
pose in referencing these venerable
sources is to confirm that the theme of
this article—that effective communica-
tions is essential to surviving in the real
world of business—is a worthy goal and
is being recognized not only in academia
but in industry as well.
Therefore, the net result is that
young engineers need to learn to com-
municate in flexible and differing ways
that depend entirely on the business
forum in which they are engaged: con-
sider the need to “sell oneself” during
job interviews, the criticality to speak in
understandable terms during business
meetings to nontechnical clients, or the
urgency to focus clearly and to speak
with relevant data to skeptical col-
leagues during technical presentations.
All in all, the key to effective communi-
cations remains having clarity, maintain-
ing brevity, staying relevant, having
good supporting evidence, and remem-
bering to speak/write with the audi-
ence’s/reader’s point of view in mind.
In the end, who would have known
that my old English professor would have
had the last laugh as I learned through
hard experience the importance of speak-

8. ing and writing clearly in the real world?
Read more about it
• P. Cheimets. (20 09, Aug. 30,
2013, Apr. 30). Business communica-
tion in engineering. ASME Mech. Eng.
Mag. [Online]. Available: www.asme.org/
engineering-topics/articles/business-
communication/negotiation-for-engineers
• E. Kristen. (2013, Apr.). AC 2010-
218: Infusing communication skills in
an engineering. SUNY Oswego Amer.
Soc. Eng. Educ. Web. [Online]. Avail-
able: search.asee.org/search/fetch;jsess
ionid=1gopui4abbvql?url=file%3A%2F%
2Flocalhost%2FE%3A%2Fsearch%2Fcon
ference%2F32%2FAC%25202010Full218.
pdf&index=conference_papers&space=1
29746797203605791716676178&type=appl
ication%2Fpdf&charset=
• P. Edward. (2013, Apr. 29). ISE
improving communication skills. Fitts
Dept. Ind. Syst. Eng., North Carolina
State Univ. Raleigh, NC. [Online]. Avail-
able: http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/news/
improving-communication.php
• C. M. Vest. (2009, Apr. 29).
“Educating Engineers for 2020 and
Beyond—Engineering Challenges.”
Grand Challenges for Engineering. N.p.,
n.d. [Online]. Available: http://www.
engineeringchallenges.org/cms
• X. J. Wang, What Every Engineer
Should Know About Business Communica-
tion. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008.

9. About the author
Akbar Khan ([email protected]
com) is a software systems engineer with
25 years of experience and is licensed as
a professional engineer in the states of
New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.
He received his B.S. degree in industrial/
systems engineering from the Polytech-
nic Institute of New York University and
his M.E. degree in systems engineering
from Stevens Institute of Technology. He
is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in infor-
mation technology at Towson University.
Fortunately, in recent years, there has
been a tremendous new emphasis
on enhancing communications at the
engineering school level.