Teaching communication skills in the engineering college: the Texas/Swedish experience

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin now incorporates the teaching of technical communication at all levels within its degree program. A similar program recently initiated at MidSweden University shares many of the precepts and techniques of the Texas program largely as a result of a Swedish faculty visit to the UT program. Particularly successful are (1) the ways in which both programs incorporate communication training within the larger engineering context, and (2) the approaches both use to reverse negative student attitudes towards communication skills