The Engineering Communication Podcast

We’re thrilled to welcome Hannah Carroll, P.E. to the next episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast!

Hannah brings a fascinating blend of engineering expertise and forensic insight to the conversation. With a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree from Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech, she’s built a career that bridges biomechanics, mechanical systems, and the legal world. Currently a Mechanical/Biomechanics Engineer at S-E-A, Hannah reconstructs accident scenarios and analyzes injury mechanisms using physics, lab testing, and simulation. Her work supports forensic investigations and safety evaluations in high-stakes environments.

What happens when engineering meets health equity? In our latest episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast, we sit down with Ashley Taylor, Ph.D., MPH, a powerhouse in interdisciplinary research and inclusive education.

Ashley brings a unique blend of expertise—holding degrees from Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, and Virginia Tech Engineering Education—and is currently a Collegiate Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. Her work centers on community-based partnerships that aim to reduce educational and health disparities, and she’s passionate about amplifying the voices and lived experiences of marginalized communities.

Tune in to hear how Ashley is reshaping engineering education and global health through equity-driven research, and why centering community voices is essential for meaningful innovation.

#EngineeringCommunication #HealthEquity #InclusiveEducation #STEM #Podcast #VirginiaTech #BiomedicalEngineering #GlobalHealth #CommunityEngagement

Ever wondered how an octopus or a snake could inspire the future of robotics? In our latest episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast, I sit down with Noel Naughton, Assistant Professor in Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering department, to explore his fascinating research in soft robotics—designed for hard-to-access environments.

We dive into: 🔹 How nature’s movers (like octopuses and snakes) are shaping robotic design🔹 Why data visualization isn’t just pretty—it’s powerful (shoutout to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign!)🔹 And the most important section of a research paper (spoiler: it’s not the conclusion 👀).

Whether you're into engineering, communication, or just love a good interdisciplinary convo, this episode is packed with insight and inspiration.

In this season's final episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast, Aleem Ahmed talks with Eszter Anna Varga, a graduate of both Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering. She's currently an Aerospace System Safety Engineer at Honeywell. This episode has it all: working as an Aerospace Engineer in Europe (an uncommon field in Hungary); dealing with success, rejection, and failure as an engineer; and the importance of writing in engineering. Bonus feature: hear her behind-the-scenes story about her recent Ted Talk (hosted by TEDxDebrecen)!

We have another episode ready for you! In this episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast, we talk with Jim Hess. Jim has an impressive resume, holding management and leadership positions at companies like Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., and Saft. He now spends his time as an Instructor for Engineering Capstone Programs in the Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering department. If you're interested in how to be an effective mentor over the course of your engineering career, you'll want to listen to this episode.

We're back with another episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast! In this episode we talk with Yedhartha Sai Chinnasani, E.I.T, a Rolling Stock Engineer at Mott MacDonald. Tune in to learn more about effective documentation skills and the benefits of volunteering for FIRST Robotics Canada!

In this episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast, we talk with Walter Lee, an Associate Professor in the Virginia Tech Engineering Education Department. Dr. Lee is also the Director for Research in the Virginia Tech Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity and serves as the Interim Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering. If you're looking for great research, publication, and writing tips (especially about professional correspondence and grant writing endeavors), this is the episode for you!

In this episode of The Engineering Communication Podcast, we talk with Gurbinder Kaur, PhD, a Senior R&D Engineer at Mitra Chem. Dr. Kaur earned her doctorate at Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and was a post-doctoral fellow in the Virginia Tech Materials Science and Engineering department. A prolific writer, Dr. Kaur has published numerous journal articles and three books (and edited four more!). Join us to learn more about the differences between short-form and long-form STEM publications, particularly when it comes to framing your argument. And, as an added bonus, you’ll get to hear us geek out over the importance of writing outlines.

In the Season 3 premiere of The Engineering Communication Podcast, we talk with Durgesh Chandel, Ph.D., a Software Research Engineer/Scientist at Intel Corporation. Join us to learn more about Durgesh's career path that led her from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to becoming the founder of WeLEAP Aerospace - Global, a nonprofit that supports women in Aerospace Engineering. Along the way, we learn not only about her engineering research but also the communication required in each position.

In our final podcast of the season, Johan J. interviews Dr. Jonathan Boreyko, a graduate from Trinity College-Hartford and Duke University, is an Associate Professor in Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering. Tune in to learn all about the innovative research he and his grad assistants are conducting in his Nature-Inspired Fluids and Interfaces Lab at Virginia Tech and how they translate their lab work into published journal articles (teaser: it involves intensive writing workshops!). 

Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast! We’ve received a lot of great accolades from you all, and we have a great line up of guests for our upcoming episodes. We’re going on a summer hiatus, but we’ll return for our next season of The Engineering Communication Podcast in September 2024, so stay tuned!