TEP5500 – Becoming a better communicator = better understanding of your research
With TEP5500, first year Bio-Med Engineering Masters student, Chantelle Shing improved the “essential skill” of communicating her subject matter and research focus to colleagues across disciplines and non-technical audiences.
Team learning and collaboration, exposure to other fields/disciplines, interacting with her colleagues, and nurturing career relevant skills were among the key takeaways for Chantelle Shing in taking TEP5500.
“One thing I really like about this course is, it’s a mix of everyone’s project – not solely focused on one specific type of engineering.”, Shing said. “[TEP5500] is not just about writing your thesis: it helps us develop and frame our problem, with a major focus on presentation skills and verbal communication.”
Shing took the course in the Winter term (January – April 2023) and was drawn to it by positive anecdotes from her lab mates in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and her supervisor, Professor Alison McGuigan, was a course instructor.
The communication content in TEP5500, was a natural fit for her career plans, because she plans to work in industry. “I think it’s great to learn how to communicate effectively with people in industry and the commercial world – it’s an essential skill”, she remarked. “I’ve been thinking of going into healthcare consulting, which has a lot of client-facing work, who are often not technical experts, like graduate students or professors.”
Shing highlighted an exercise where the class developed their project pitches – beginning at three minutes and winnowing them down to one minute. She also acknowledged networking was the biggest challenge for her as a new grad student and the course helped her.
“The network I built from this course is something I didn’t expect, but it’s a real bonus for me”, she added. “It helped me better articulate myself and made me feel more confident.”
In closing, she highlighted the very inclusive and welcoming classroom environment fostered by professors McGuigan and Lydia Wilkinson, and the strong bonding with her classmates.
[Please share this story with your colleagues and grad students. Learn more – pdf infographic and course page on the grad studies website]