Communication Mechanics: A Podcast for Engineers

In this episode, Jill Fennell speaks to Russell Ford, Chairman and CEO of StandardAero and Georgia Tech alumnus, about the importance of communication in leadership. Using Mister Ford's Top Ten Rules for Technical Leadership as a framework, the two discuss strategies for effectively communicating and growing in leadership roles as an engineer.

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Show Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:43 Introductions and Guest introductions
• 01:21 Communication’s importance in leadership
• 03:14 Evolving views on communication upon entering leadership roles
• 06:48 Helpful communication habits and tools
• 08:29 Introduction to Russ Ford’s Top Ten Rules for Technical Leadership
• 10:48 The rules as they relate to technical communication
• 17:25 The Rule of Engagement
• 20:18 The Rule of Focus
• 22:41 The Rule of Time Management
• 29:14 The Rule of Responsibility
• 34:13 Tips for Developing leadership habits early
• 37:12 Common mistakes early career engineers make
• 39:12 One Rule that resonates most
• 43:03 One thing you wish every engineer understood about communication and leadership
• 43:27 Thanks and outro

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Click here for the full list of Russ Ford's Top 10 Rules for Technical Leadership.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Episode edited by Lee Hibbard.

In this episode Dr. Jill Fennell has a conversation with Kathryn Woods about the principles of confident communication in high stakes scenarios, sharing important strategies for giving effective presentations and forming positive public speaking habits. 

Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:43 - Introduction and Guest
• 01:14 - Transition from SLP to Coaching Professionals in Public Speaking
• 02:34 - How personal experience influences teaching
• 04:31 - Background in SLP and the Science of Communication Confidence
• 08:04 - Physical reaction to nerves and public speaking
• 11:57 - Strategies for staying calm during high stakes speaking situations
• 14:40 - Voice, Tone and Pacing in presentations
• 24:31 - Presentation habits that undermine confidence and correcting them
• 31:43 - Making improvements to long term struggles
• 40:36 - Final Tips and Notes 

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

Episode edited by Lee Hibbard.

In the season 3 premiere of Communication Mechanics, podcast host Dr. Jill Fennell is joined by  Laura Garcia, Director of Undergraduate Career Education at Georgia Tech. Together they discuss navigating different aspects of Career Fairs from a communication standpoint, detailing information to help students before, during, and after their career fair experience. 

Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:43 Introduction to Topic and Guest
• 01:51 How Students should prepare for the career fair
• 03:44 Details for students to include beyond the basics at fairs
• 09:07 How do students research different communication norms in different industries
• 09:59 Mapping out career fair day
• 11:41 The balance between authenticity and tailoring
• 12:51 What to know about Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Scorecards
• 16:06 The importance of networking skills and non technical skillsets
• 22:56 Building Rapport quickly at the Career Fair
• 26:37 Importance of Attire and Dress
• 29:11 Tracking accomplishments, experiences, and self-reflection
• 31:14 Addressing Failure and the STAR method
• 34:57 Followup after the career fair and the importance of thank yous
• 36:48 Prepping for followup and making notes post conversation with recruiters
• 38:07 Timeline between fair and interviews
• 40:06 Underrated communication tips and importance of resources
• 41:10 Wrap up and access to support and workshops

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Podcast edited by Lee Hibbard.

In the Season 2 Finale, Jill sits down with Dr. Alena Alamgir, Director of Technical Communication for Materials Science at Georgia Tech. The two discuss preparing documentation and application materials for the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, or NSF GRFP. 

Show Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:54 Intro and Welcome
• 01:33 The Basics: What is NSF GRFP?
• 04:07 How many years does the Fellowship fund?
• 04:59 Restraints on who can apply
• 05:59 Documentation and Composing Required Documents
• 13:48 Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts as Criteria in Practice
• 18:00 Practicing Framing Research Problems to Align with NSF Priorities
• 20:38 Questions for advisors before applying
• 22:14 Considering and soliciting recommendation letters
• 30:13 Preparing for Applicant Workshops and Primary Purpose of Workshop Attendance
• 36:05 How to get the most out of attending the workshops and actionable steps for applying
• 39:43 When the solicitation comes out and episode wrap up

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

We will return for Season 3 of Communication Mechanics in the Fall of 2025. 

Episode edited by Lee Hibbard. 

In this episode, host Dr. Jill Fennell sits down with Mark Ligler, Vice President of Factory Automation Systems in Georgia and member of the Woodruff School Advisory board, to talk about the importance of communicating safety in engineering. 

Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:54 Introductions and guest introductions
• 01: 33 Importance of safety to future engineers
• 04:32 Helping others communicate safety needs
• 08:04 Poor safety communication leading to issues
• 11:15 Building a safety culture
• 13:55 Effective safety communication
• 18:30 Leaders and Managers communicating the importance of safety
• 20:37 Safety communication in high vs low risk fields
• 22:45 Common mistakes in safety communication
• 24:46 Common mistakes in safety signage
• 28:18 Role of the engineer as a safety communicator
• 36:08 Challenges engineers can fix by anticipating them
• 40:48 Final thoughts and advice on learning engineering safety

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

Podcast edited by Lee Hibbard.

In this episode, host Dr. Jill Fennell sits down with Dr. David Torello, Director of the Clark Scholars Program and the College of Engineering's Dean's Scholars Program in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. The two discuss code commenting, an oft overlooked communication genre in Engineering, and consider best practices and use cases for creating effective code comments. 

Show Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:54 - Introducing guest
• 02:02 - Code Commenting as Communication
• 03:14 - Purpose of Code Commenting
• 05:44 - Mapping out Communication for Code Commenting
• 09:17 - Genre Expectations for Code Commenting
• 15:33 - Audience needs and Usability of Code Commenting
• 23:02 - Code Commenting Ethos and Impact of Code Comments
• 24:53 - Trustworthiness of Code Comments
• 30:29 - Quality of Code Comments
• 34:15 - Student Perspectives on Code Commenting
• 37:56 - What David wants to see from Code Comments
• 42:04 - Advice for students wanting to keep their skills fresh
• 46:14 - General advice for code commenting and understanding communication

A transcript of this episode is available here.

Episode edited by Lee Hibbard.

In this episode, host Jill Fennell talks to Dr. David Smith, lecturer in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Scott Elliot, manager of the Machine Shop at the Montgomery Machining Mall about the importance of creating technical drawings that communicate information effectively between engineers and machinists. 

Show Notes and Timestamps:

• 00:54 - Welcome and Introductions
• 02:56 - Thinking about technical drawing as communication
• 05:40 - what engineers need to know about the role of the machinist
• 07:43 - examples of students not knowing the machinist’s needs
• 11:45 - Importance of anticipating communication needs between engineer and machinist
• 13:39 - Contracts and Machinist’s response to questions or uncertainties in a drawing
• 16:18 - Information that should (and should not) be included in technical drawings
• 21:34 - Machine Design assignment David gives to refresh specific skills
• 27:26 - Advice for students in ME 1670 to best understand the genre
• 32:02 - what is the most important aspect of technical drawing from the machinist’s point of view
• 34:28 - what is and is not the machinist’s job?
• 38:36 - recommendations for students working with Montgomery Mall for the first time

A transcript of this episode is available here. 

Edited by Lee Hibbard

In the first episode of Season Two of Communication Mechanics, Dr. Jill Fennell is joined by Dr. Andy Frazee, Director of Writing and Communication in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. Lending his expertise in the first year writing sequence of English 1101 and 1102, he offers strategies and connections between required communications courses and technical courses for early career engineering students. 

Show Notes and Timestamps:

• Introduction to Topic and Guest: 00:56
• Learning transferring skills in English 1101 and 1102: 2:37
• Understanding Audience, Purpose, and Genre: 6:08
• How Decision and Design courses in ME are similar to 1101 and 1102: 11:34
• ME 1670 and English 1101/2 and maximizing transfer between the two:  14:04
• Importance of collaboration and intersection between collaboration and communication: 16:53
• Transferable concepts and the importance of process: 20:09
• Scaffolding design reports and process work in ME and English: 24:01
• Revision skills and internalizing process: 26:05
• Transferring basic writing skills from 1101/2 to ME 1670: 33:13
• Communication decisions and the power of intentional decision making in your communication: 40:34
• Final advice on transfer, intentionality, and communication decisions: 43:56

A transcript of the episode is available here.

Episode Edited by Lee Hibbard

In Part 2 of the final episode of Season 1 of the podcast, Dr. Jill Fennell speaks to three members of the team that won in the category of Best Mechanical Engineering Project at the Spring 2024 Capstone Engineering Expo, the Mechkiwis. Seniors Isabelle Gustafson, Miguel Daly, and Sana Hafeez share the experience they and their fellow teammates - Claudia Vitale, Lena Moller, and Maxwell Gart - had creating communication materials for their project and designing a successful expo presentation.

Shownotes and Timestamps:

• 01:11 Third category: Innovative nature of the team’s solution
• 09:38 Fourth category: Presentation energy at the Expo
• 13:01 Team’s delivery during pitch and how it contributes to audience investment
• 16:40 Presentations and matching the energy levels between presenter and audience
• 23:09 Unexpected challenges or successes
• 27:48 Advice and Tips for future presenters and engineering students
• 29:46 Wrap up and outro

Thanks for listening to season 1 of the podcast. Season 2 will begin in early 2025. 

In Part 1 of the final episode of Season 1 of the podcast, Dr. Jill Fennell speaks to three members of the team that won in the category of Best Mechanical Engineering Project at the Spring 2024 Capstone Engineering Expo, the Mechkiwis. Seniors Isabelle Gustafson, Miguel Daly, and Sana Hafeez share the experience they and their fellow teammates - Claudia Vitale, Lena Moller, and Maxwell Gart - had creating communication materials for their project and designing a successful expo presentation. 

Part 2 will be posted next week on Monday, November 11th.

Shownotes and Timestamps

• 01:08 Episode Introduction and Guest Introduction
• 03:30 Capstone project introduction
• 05:10 Working on a Medical Project in an Engineering Context
• 07:25 Adjusting to different communication demands for the project
• 10:35 Team distribution of audience analysis and communication choices
• 13:27  Communication challenges in different parts of the project
• 18:25  Introduction to The Expo Judging Rubric
• 19:22 Team’s consultation of Judging Rubric and Expo preparations
• 26:57 First category: the Problem the team is solving
• 32:54 Second category: Solution to the problem
• 41:37 Usage of cadaver photos during the Expo and how to show them appropriately