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Fall Highlights Dr. Penny Hirsch Shares Innovative Ideas With Rice Faculty Penny Hirsch, PhD, Associate Director of the Writing Program at Northwestern University, spent two days at Rice this fall consulting with science and engineering faculty to discuss integrating communication into engineering courses. She also gave a lecture on “Engineering Design and Communication: An Interdisciplinary Approach to First Year Seminars.” Dr. Hirsch was instrumental in developing an innovative course that introduces first-year students to fundamental aspects of the design process, including creative problem solving, user-centered design, writing, speaking, and graphics. This course is part of Engineering First, a two-year sequence of courses that integrates math, programming, and engineering analysis. Engineering and communi-cation faculty team teach sections. Dr. Hirsch’s joint appointment with Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences as well as with Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science makes her admirably suited to cross-disciplinary collaborations. She especially enjoys helping students understand the consulting role they play as designers for real clients and adapt for specific audiences in their communication. In addition to teaching at Northwestern, Dr. Hirsch and a partner run a communication consulting firm that serves clients in engineering, health care and waste management. As a result, her pedagogical approach is informed by her knowledge of best practices in actual workplace communication. The Cain Project has scheduled a return visit on February 11th -14th, 2003 to give faculty further opportunities to meet with Dr. Hirsch. Please contact Julia Amborski, the Cain Project coordinator, at Ext. 6141 to schedule a consultation.
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