Incorporating design into class teaching technical communication skills

A technical writing class is a perfect vehicle for giving students the opportunity to be creative designers and to learn more about the engineering profession as well. In order for our students to have more experience in brainstorming, teamwork, and product development, we have incorporated into our technical communication class participation in Suffolk University’s Business School’s New Product Innovation Competition. Students were divided into teams and spent one month of class time brainstorming product ideas and dividing work among team members. After every class, a student was required to submit a one-page journal entry about what was accomplished during the team meeting, what issues came up, and anything else that was noteworthy about the team meeting. Students were graded on the quality of their writing as well as on their content. Before the contest entries were due, which was one month after the semester began, students were required to submit their proposals to the instructor, who would critique them, and to give oral presentations to the class. The students then would submit their re-written entries to the contest. Students were very engaged in this assignment, which forced them to be active learners, and, in written evaluations, were very positive about this activity. This past year one of our teams placed as a finalist for a design of a watch that monitors vital signs, winning $1000 and the opportunity to meet with venture capitalists to discuss bringing their product to market beating out more than 200 other entries. This class gave students the opportunity to develop other important CDIO skills. Other assignments include the design of an original experiment, and summarizing talks given by visits from a Suffolk alumnus of the department who works at Canon Design Inc and a group leader from a local defense laboratory. They also explored the ethical consequences of engineering decisions in an assignment on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.