College of Engineering talks communication

Alumnus hopes that $1 million donation will improve engineering students communication skills

By: Nick Vardanega

Posted: 5/10/07

In the 1999 film Office Space, while Tom Smykowski was frantically attempting to explain his job duties to remain employed, he blurted out: "I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills!"

With a new endowment that OSU is set to receive, people like Smykowski may have a more trouble explaining "what it is that you do here."

Raymond Pederson, an OSU mechanical engineering alumnus of the 1941 class, has donated $1 million to help engineering students develop communication skills.

"He said when he was working in the (engineering) industry he clearly saw that people with good communication skills excelled," said Marnie Noble director of development and engineering for the OSU Foundation.

Pederson's donation will establish the Raymond Pederson Engineering Communication Collaboratory in the College of Engineering. The $40,000-45,000 per year interest from the $1 million endowment will go to integrating communication skills training into the existing curriculum.

Starting next fall term the college hopes to begin a pilot program in the mechanical engineering department that will include a graduate communication seminar, as well as several communication modules that will be threaded through the already existing undergraduate curriculum.

Tracy Ann Robinson, the mechanical engineering department's corporate relations coordinator said that the communication modules will probably include things like giving oral presentations, creating Power Points presentations and writing executive summaries.

"They'll get a chance to work on a different skill (in different required courses)," Robinson said. "It's sort of diffused and interspersed throughout the curriculum."

Ron Adams, the dean of the College of Engineering who spent 14 years working in the industry expressed the importance of these skills in the professional field.

"(Pederson) graduated from here many years ago and he found that the biggest challenge for him personally was being able to effectively communicate," Adams said. "... as engineers go through this same process they suddenly realize that a lot of there interactions are oral, face-to-face with people."

Adams also said that it was important for engineers to utilize these skills to sell their ideas to potential buyers.

Another of the communication modules will be having students create an electronic portfolio to showcase their communication skills.

Pederson who now lives in Casa Grande, Ariz., can no longer communicate via phone because of the lose of his hearing, but frequently responds to e-mails.

"It doesn't sound like much of change," said Ryan Evens a first year graduate student in mechanical engineering. Evens hadn't heard about the endowment but said that there are elements of public speaking and group work already in the curriculum.

Don Zylkowski, a sophomore in construction engineering management, acknowledged that communication skills are important.

"I think it's a beneficial skill to have," he said. "I think (current curriculum) is sufficient but it can always be better."