BUET CORNER/NEWS & EVENTS
Technical
Writing and
Presentation
Workshop
Kazi Bayzid Kabir
Engineers always have to work in
a multidimensional environment
and deal with administrators,
executives, vendors, scientists,
architects as well as with other
disciplines
of
engineers.
Communication skills in written
and oral forms are therefore
essential for technical personnel.
In
addition,
technical
communication skill is necessary
to
disseminate
acquired
knowledge
and
experience
among various audiences.
Engineers are generally taught to
solve engineering problems and
usually
lack
proper
communication skills. Need for
technical communication as a
part of engineering curricula was
first realized by Society for the
Promotion
of
Engineering
Education (SPEE) in 1901 and
expressed
through
the
statement: “The writing skills of
engineering
students
are
deplorable and need to be
addressed by the engineering
colleges”1.
Colleges
and
universities worked on the
comment and introduced courses
1
Blicq, R and Moretto, LA, Technicallywrite!. 6th Edition, Prentice Hall (2004),
p. 1
Kazi Bayzid Kabir graduated
from BUET in November 2004
and received MSc from the
same institution in 2009. Mr
Kabir has been working as a
faculty in the Chemical
Engineering
Department,
BUET since 2005.
on
technical
writing
and
presentation. However, we are
still standing almost hundreds
year behind and lacking any form
of formal education on technical
communication.
Dr. Mohidus Samad Khan from
Monash University, Australia
(currently working in the
Department of Chemistry in
McGill University, Montreal,
Canada) came forward with a
praiseworthy offer of a day-long
workshop for the students and
fresh graduates of Chemical
Engineering department.
The workshop was jointly
organized by ChemicalBUET,
BUET
Chemical
Engineering
Forum and Department of
Chemical Engineering, BUET.
About the Instructor
Dr. Mohidus Samad Khan is a
Chemical/Biochemical engineer
and scientist working as a Post
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Doctoral
Fellow
in
the
Department
of
Chemistry,
McGill University, Montreal,
Canada. His current research
project is on ‘Bioactive Papers’
which aims to develop high
quality bioassays and paper
diagnostics for health and
environmental purposes. Dr.
Khan has received his PhD from
the Department of Chemical
Engineering, Monash University
in 2009. While working in
Monash University, Dr. Khan and
his co-researchers developed the
first
‘dipstick’
test
for
instantaneous blood typing; it is a
paper diagnostics, which costs
just
a
few
pennies
to
manufacture and can promote
health in developing countries.
He won Australian national
award (AusBiotech-GSK Student
Excellence Award, 2009) for his
PhD research in life science and
biotechnology. He completed his
BSc Chemical Engineering from
BUET in 2004. Dr. Khan’s
research interest extended to
Engineering
Education
and
Environmental Engineering; he
worked as an environmental
engineer and consultant in his
professional career. Dr. Khan has
authored
several
research
publications
in
prestigious
journals
and
international
conferences. He has also
authored few industrial reports,
international patents, book-let
and book-chapter.
Workshop Focus
In the workshop the instructor
essentially focused on the
September, 2010
conference and journal article
preparation
method
and
publication. Article structures,
manuscript preparation, writing
style, citation and bibliography
were
covered.
Differences
between different types of
articles (e.g. review, short
communications, letters, new
articles etc.) were presented.
Later on, he lectured about
conference poster and podium
presentation methods.
Rahman Chowdhury, one of the
arranging such workshops on
Available softwares (Endnote®,
Bibus etc) for citation and listing
were also discussed in the
workshop. Endnote® and it’s
applications
for
preparing
bibliographic
database
and
managing different bibliographic
styles for various journals and
conferences
articles
were
demonstrated in the workshop.
The workshop ended with
focusing on thesis writing since
most of the attendees were third
and fourth year students.
Samples of different types of
articles were provided as
workshop material.
Post-workshop
evaluation
showed that the lecture was
overwhelmingly appreciated by
the attendees. “This initiative
helped many of us to realize the
differences between different
academic publications and there
implications relative to higher
studies”, said Md. Maqsudur
Fig: Workshop evaluation
participants. B. M. Sirajeel Arifin
added, “An important outcome
of the workshop is that now we
understand the significance of
publishing in time along with
performing the research”. The
participants also requested for
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regular basis. Few participants
requested to upload workshop
lectures and supporting materials
available
on
ChemicalBUET
website for future references.
September, 2010