Teaching the kinds of topics outlined in the second half of Explaining the Future can be difficult in an engineering context, especially with large classes. To improve, students need detailed feedback so that they can improve the next time. That takes time, energy, and money. At the IEEE Professional Communication (ProComm) conference in Aachen in July, I presented a paper on this to help other teachers to think about how to go about designing rich, meaningful writing assignments in a practical way. As a result of my experiences at ProComm, I decided it made sense to set up a resource to help teachers of science and engineering students to teach writing. Read More …
Category: Research
Book launched
It’s been a busy few weeks. The book was launched last Monday at UCL: really appreciated all the enthusiasm of past and present students and colleagues. Also wrote a short piece about why the Theranos scandal could have been avoided if more people had asked the right questions, and a blog post for the Engineering Professors Council on how we can teach students how to do better research. Read More …
Helping students with research
This post may be of interest to those of you trying to teach undergraduates.
My take on the Theranos scandal…
… and how it was entirely avoidable.
Research without the workout
Though sometimes exciting, my job is more grunt work than glamour. I was recently visiting UC Berkeley and walked by the Kresge Engineering Library. I couldn’t resist going in and having a quick look at this place where I had spent so much time in 1998/1999. This also got me thinking about other libraries where I’d probably spent a day a month: like the Robertson Engineering and Science Library at the University of Edinburgh and the Barker Engineering Library at MIT. It made me realize that, in more than five years back at Imperial College London, I’d probably made it into the library an average of once a year. The reason for the change, of course, is technology. Read More …