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program CONNECT is a series of workshops in communication issues and skills for undergraduate engineering students at the Cooper Union in New York City. The program is primarily performance-based and uses actors and other performance professionals to facilitate the bulk of the workshops. CONNECT is non-judgmental and experiential: although workshop attendance is connected to selected classes as a course requirement, there is no grade attached to a student's performance in a workshop. Currently, freshmen attend an Individual Skills Workshop in which they intensively explore their personal communication styles in a series of one-minute impromptu speeches. Following the Individual Skills Workshop students attend workshops that form a module called "Elements of Communication". They include Vocal Expression, Physical Expression, Group Expression and Expression of Content. This approach closely parallels the conservatory model typically used in performing arts schools. Students build upon these experiences in various classes, for example, as laboratory or design teams that present their work both to other teams and to invited audiences. Juniors and seniors may also attend workshops on "Communication in Practice" that address either an applied skill (e.g., non-Verbal communication) or a professional scenario (e.g., communicating as an expert witness). The freshmen and sophomores attend workshops as a requirement of the Engineering Professional Development Workshops and Seminars, ESC000. Junior and senior students typically attend workshops designated by a professor of their major as a course requirement. In addition, CONNECT is often invited to develop special workshops held in class time to meet the needs of individual courses. This model for providing communication training to engineering undergraduates has proved to be efficient and effective. program philosophyCONNECT has been co-developed by an engineering professor, Dr. Richard Stock and a performance specialist, Dr. John Osburn. Not surprisingly, the program blends an engineering perspective on communication with a performance perspective. Traditionally, the engineering emphasis is on mastering content (accuracy, grasp of detail, etc.) and intellectual process (scientific method, analysis, theory, etc.). The performance emphasis tends to be on behavior (vocal, physical, social). CONNECT seeks to increase engineering students' awareness of the behavioral elements of communication while the regular curriculum continues to reinforce the importance of content and intellectual process. This dual emphasis (CONNECT = Engineering + Performance) is mirrored by a facilitation style that fuses observation and experience. Students in the workshops are encouraged to experience their communication behaviors, as well as changes in those behaviors as prompted by the facilitator. This can be a potentially transformative experience. However, students are also encouraged to learn by observation, rather in the manner of a scientific experiment. Consequently, the workshops include an emphasis on exercises that demonstrate a point about communication without necessarily requiring the "performer" to fully embody it. Thus, the act of observing becomes an intense experiential exercise for the audience. program historyIn 1994, Dr. Richard Stock and Dr. John Osburn, then with the Center for Writing and Speaking, devised a program in communication training for chemical engineering undergraduates. They pooled their knowledge and experience, Dr. Stock from several years in industry and Dr. Osburn from a career in performance and in journalism. The result was a program melding communication training typically given to professionals in the corporate and industrial worlds with a conservatory approach characteristic of theatrical training. The program was applied to a group of senior chemical engineering undergraduates as part of their laboratory class. Students were required to attend two four-hour workshops per semester in class time. However, there were no grades assigned and no specific credit given for this part of the laboratory course. Participants were free to learn, experience and observe what was of use to them as individuals. The approach was remarkably successful. Students demonstrated an improved ability to establish a dialogue with their audiences when presenting material and expressed their enjoyment in the exercises and the workshops in general. The program continued as part of a laboratory course and was refined over three years. Ultimately, Dr. Stock and Dr. Judith Lyczko, then Director of the Lefkowitz Center for Professional Development at the Cooper Union, prepared a proposal to expand the communication program schoolwide. This proposal was funded by the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education. Introduction of CONNECT (Cooper's Own No Nonsense Engineering Communication Training) into the engineering undergraduate experience at Cooper Union began in 1997. Since then the program has developed and grown in response to student and faculty needs. The flexibility of the program has allowed us to move away from the stereotype of engineers as poor communicators. Our experience has been that engineering undergraduates are quite talented communicators whose main need is an increased awareness of how to tap their natural abilities and apply them to communicating engineering material. Consequently, we provide a program that is advanced and challenging. Our students have uniformly risen to the challenge, demonstrating a new understanding and awareness of the social and behavioral aspects of effective communication. The program continues to develop, focusing on increasing students' awareness of the behavioral aspects of communication and how to use them to enhance effectiveness of their communication skills. program scheduleStudents participate in CONNECT as part of the freshman and sophomore Engineering Professional Development Workshops and Seminars. The first stage of the CONNECT Program takes place early in the Fall semester of the freshman year when students in the incoming class attend their first CONNECT workshop on Individual Skills. In their Spring semester freshman students begin the "Elements of Communication" sequence, which continues through their sophomore year. Students needing information about their scheduled workshops or assistance should check the CONNECT noticeboard in the main lobby hallway or contact Dr. Osburn or Dr. Stock. In the junior and senior years workshops are scheduled as requirements of individual courses. Students will be informed by their professors about the time and location of their workshop and the information will be posted on the CONNECT noticeboard. All workshop schedules are posted on the CONNECT noticeboard in the main lobby hallway.
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