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Session 2557

Improving Audience Analysis of Real-World Clients in Industrial Engineering Senior Design

Judith Shaul Norback, Lisa DuPree McNair, & Garlie A. Forehand

School of Industrial and Systems Engineering School of Language, Communication & Culture Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

Since ABET requirements have increased, more colleges and universities are focused on enhancing students’ communication skills. At Georgia Tech, workforce interviews conducted with industrial engineers, supervisors and senior executives have been used to conceptualize the engineering audience and develop audience analysis instruction. The instruction has been used with five semesters of Senior Design students working with real-world clients. Our team will share the instructional tool and demonstrate how it improves students’ awareness of audience and their ability to research audience information. Student and faculty experience and instructional results will be presented.

I. Introduction

Partly because of the recent Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET 2000)1 criteria, communication skills have become more important to engineering undergraduates than ever before.2 In this paper we will explore one part of the communication skills needed by practicing Industrial Engineers: the communication problem-solving needed to conceptualize the engineering audience. This problem-solving is one part of the engineering problem-solving and focuses on identifying and understanding the engineering audience. The instruction is based on interviews conducted with industrial engineers, supervisors, and senior executives of organizations who employ many industrial engineers. The information these professionals provided was used to build instruction for undergraduates in Senior Design. It has been used for five semesters; four semesters were part of a two-semester Senior Design course and the most recent semester was a one-semester course.

In this paper we look in depth at the data from the one-semester course and discuss major conclusions based on our experience using the instruction. The instruction is expected to be useful as a starting point for undergraduates in courses other than Senior Design and in other engineering disciplines.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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McNair, L., & Forehand, G. A., & Norback, J. (2005, June), Improving Audience Analysis Of Real World Clients In Industrial Engineering Senior Design Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14670