Transcript pptx - Purdue College of Engineering

Communication
Yung-Hsiang Lu
Purdue University
1
Importance of Communication
• Research means solving difficult and important
problems.
• It is necessary describing the problems clearly.
• Discuss ideas and design solutions
• Explain the progress and the steps you have
taken for solving the problems.
• Explain your solutions and the evaluation results
• Both speaking and writing are important.
2
3
4
5
What Does "Sunday" Mean to You?
Clean my room
Cooking
Go to farmer's market
Can get up late
Watch sports (baseball, basketball, soccer, football ...)
Play sports (baseball, basketball, soccer, football, tennis ...)
BBQ with friends
Shopping
See a Movie
Date
Catch up coursework
Update social network
Laundry
Eat at a restaurant
Call parents
Plant flowers
Return books to library
Back up computer files
6
Does it surprise you that the same
word has different meanings to
different people?
The meanings may change over time
for the same person.
7
How many words do you speak in a minute?
If one word has different meanings for
different people, how many interpretations
can people have after one minute?
8
A Game about Communication
• A person writes an expression in words
• The next person draws a picture for the words
• The next person write words to describe the
picture
• The next person draws a picture for the words
• ....
• Let's see an example by Purdue students
9
Understand the Audience
• Who are they? Students? Professors? Experts in
your field? Teachers? Policy makers?
• What do they know?
• What do they want? Details of your solutions?
High-level ideas? Investment opportunities?
• When? Morning? Lunch? Dinner? Midnight?
• Where? Conference? Hallway? Classroom?
Court? Airplane?
10
Understand the Audience (2)
• How? In person? Video call? Voice call? Email?
News release? Research paper?
• How many? Dialog? Small group? Dozen?
Hundreds?
• Visual aids? Projector? Whiteboard? Paper?
• How long? Less than one minute? A few
minutes? One hour? Continuous discussion?
• Which structure?
• Which language?
11
How to Communicate?
• Set clear goals in advance, e.g.,
–
–
–
–
–
explain the requirements
discuss design
explore directions
review progress
identify bugs
• Ensure that everyone understand the goals
12
How to Communicate? (2)
•
•
•
•
Understand the differences among people
Accommodate textual and visual thinkers
Define terms, spell every acronyms
Write down keywords (because people may
pronounce the same words differently)
• Do not ask people "Do you understand?".
Instead, ask people to explain back to you
• Encourage interactions. Do not talk for more
than 5 minutes.
13
Make sure you give people many
chances to interact and ask questions.
14
Ask questions if you do not
understand.
15
Improve Communication Skills
• Few people are natural born communicators.
Most are trained with great efforts and countless
practices.
• Form or join study groups for specific topics
(history, music, sport ... engineering)
• Cultivate social interactions with your team
• Practice to a mirror or to a camcorder
16