1. Communication Yung-Hsiang Lu Purdue University 1

2. Importance of Communication Research means solving difficult and important problems. It is necessary describing the problems clearly. Discuss ideas and design solutions Explain the progress and the steps you have taken for solving the problems. Explain your solutions and the evaluation results Both speaking and writing are important. 2

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6. What Does "Sunday" Mean to You? 6 Clean my roomCooking Go to farmer's marketCan get up late Watch sports (baseball, basketball, soccer, football...) Play sports (baseball, basketball, soccer, football, tennis...) BBQ with friendsShopping See a MovieDate Catch up courseworkUpdate social network LaundryEat at a restaurant Call parentsPlant flowers Return books to libraryBack up computer files

7. Does it surprise you that the same word has different meanings to different people? The meanings may change over time for the same person. 7

8. How many words do you speak in a minute? If one word has different meanings for different people, how many interpretations can people have after one minute? 8

9. A Game about Communication A person writes an expression in words The next person draws a picture for the words The next person write words to describe the picture The next person draws a picture for the words.... Let's see an example by Purdue students 9

10. Understand the Audience Who are they? Students? Professors? Experts in your field? Teachers? Policy makers? What do they know? What do they want? Details of your solutions? High-level ideas? Investment opportunities? When? Morning? Lunch? Dinner? Midnight? Where? Conference? Hallway? Classroom? Court? Airplane? 10

11. Understand the Audience (2) How? In person? Video call? Voice call? Email? News release? Research paper? How many? Dialog? Small group? Dozen? Hundreds? Visual aids? Projector? Whiteboard? Paper? How long? Less than one minute? A few minutes? One hour? Continuous discussion? Which structure? Which language? 11

12. How to Communicate? Set clear goals in advance, e.g., –explain the requirements –discuss design –explore directions –review progress –identify bugs Ensure that everyone understand the goals 12

13. How to Communicate? (2) Understand the differences among people Accommodate textual and visual thinkers Define terms, spell every acronyms Write down keywords (because people may pronounce the same words differently) Do not ask people "Do you understand?". Instead, ask people to explain back to you Encourage interactions. Do not talk for more than 5 minutes. 13

14. Make sure you give people many chances to interact and ask questions. 14

15. Ask questions if you do not understand. 15

16. Improve Communication Skills Few people are natural born communicators. Most are trained with great efforts and countless practices. Form or join study groups for specific topics (history, music, sport... engineering) Cultivate social interactions with your team Practice to a mirror or to a camcorder 16