Communicating Design

Six years ago, our engineering school implemented a mandatory design and communication course for all first year students. The course exposes students to interdisciplinary approaches to design with the assistance of engineering professors, a writer and an artist in residence. In addition to this teaching team, the course employs 32 teaching assistants from all areas of engineering and the faculties of Communication and Culture, Environmental Design and Fine Arts. This paper discusses the many communication strategies that have been explored: oral communication via one-minute engineer, project presentations and design open houses; written communication via a variety of reports, personal reflections, descriptive writing (including poetry) and design documents; and visual communication via automated slide shows, drawing videos, drawing demonstrations and practice sessions with all 750 students. Examples of student work and the growth in student work will also be shown and discussed. (By: Marjan Eggermont, University of Calgary and Sarah Lockwood, University of Calgary, Canada)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Design Conference
• Marjan Eggermont
• Sarah Lockwood
• Commonground
• 2009