John Cline

Background

About John Cline

When most undergraduate engineering students show up to the first day of Engineering Communication, they're understandably skeptical about the relevance that a writing course has for their chosen field. In my seven years at the UT Cockrell School of Engineering, I have invested my energy into redesigning the curriculum to not only reflect industry standards, but to show students why engineers need excellent communication skills. Ultimately, engineering and professional communication are about problem-solving. Whether trying to improve charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, or writing specifications for those vehicles, engineers and writers both have to think about how to best address the issue in order to meet the needs of the user (or reader). With the way the industry is changing, young engineers can't assume that there will be in-house technical writers to translate their work into plain English. In the world of multitasking, engineers have to create and communicate. Curriculum design is its own sort of problem-solving. As I developed new assignments and activities, I consulted with the rest of the engineering faculty to ensure that course content was aligned with the rest of the major, especially the drafting courses and the senior design program. Not only is curricular alignment a best practice, but when students could see how ME33T fit into the rest of their program, they became more engaged and interested in becoming better writers. The most meaningful part of my time at UT, though, has been leading study abroad programs to Chile and Denmark. Translating into a study abroad course allows me to incorporate ethics, history, and cultural studies in a new way. In their travels, students have the ability to see first-hand how engineering decisions impact local cultures and environments and witness firsthand the consequences-both positive and negative-that engineering decisions have to people and places. In the span of 4-6 weeks, I witness study abroad students becoming not just stronger writers, but more nuanced thinkers about the role that engineering plays in society. As I make the move to St. Louis, Missouri, I am most interested in innovative teaching opportunities, as well as instructional or administrative positions in international education. I look forward to this next phase of my career, and the new problems I get to solve.