Elizabeth Blackert communicates the value of her research

“When I arrived at Rice University, I received the same message from two different sources: learn to communicate the value of your research,” said Elizabeth Blackert, a Ph.D. student in materials science and nanoengineering (MSNE) at Rice University. “My mentors stressed the importance of being able to explain the importance of my work.”
 
Blackert, who is researching a soft robot platform, took heed. Her work focuses on applications for internal medical devices, such as an implantable drug pump used to deliver insulin in the treatment of diabetes, and she has to communicate her research results to a variety of stakeholders.
 
She said, “In the medical treatment field, one of the greatest challenges is to control a device after it has been implanted in the body. The device must be powered and the control method has to span both space and time as it sends information to the implanted device. 
 
“We’ve fabricated a polymer material that bends and moves in response to laser light impulses. We hope to use this capability to control devices like a heart valve or to target the action of drug delivery within the body. Imagine using a wavelength of light that can penetrate skin to manage medical treatments within the body.”
 
Her easy-to-understand explanation of a complex solution took years to refine and began with her application for a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship. Funding applications for the fellowship would be judged on intellectual merit and the broader impact of the research. 
 
“The intellectual merit was no problem,” said Blackert. “As engineers, we focus on merit and the technical details. Developing new and interesting technologies is a given in Rice engineering programs. Of course, we are working on cutting-edge solutions.
 
“I had to spend more time thinking about the broader impact. Vanessa, my fellowship coach in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS), helped me realize — beyond the cool tech — the importance of the impact this type of research would have on the world.”
 
Blackert then started attending ACTIVATE Engineering Communication workshops led by Tracy Volz and Chris Lipp. Lipp startled the workshop participants by sharing with them the most persuasive word in the English language: you.
 
“Chris taught us that people care about something when it impacts them directly. If I can relate my work to things the audience cares about, then the people I am talking to are more likely to listen to the intellectual part of my work. It is not enough to just explain facts, you have to communicate value. I kept hearing that theme over and over at Rice,” said Blackert.
 
She was awarded funding through the NSF fellowship and continued honing her communication skills while working on her research. After completing a required seminar class, Blackert was asked to return as a teaching assistant (TA).
 
“In MSNE 501, the graduate students present our research and share our recent progress and goals with each other. Admittedly, when I first started going, most of us were not getting the core value of our research across. In a 30 minute presentation, everyone wanted to demonstrate all the hard work they were doing and all the details. The work was laudable, but difficult to follow along for people not in that specific field. Was it a valuable use of our time? Maybe.”
 
When Blackert agreed to TA the course, she reworked it to provide more value to the students on both sides of the podium. Lipp and Volz helped her realign the evaluation form so the audience could give feedback to the speakers, which was particularly helpful in identifying core points to make for an audience spanning different backgrounds. 
 
Blackert said, “Tracy and Chris talked to all of us in the class at the beginning of the semester. They stressed the importance of communicating how our research might improve the world and they gave us direct presentation tips on delivery and how to field questions. 
 
“The quality of the presentations improved as we learned how to get across the main ideas of our research and to sound knowledgeable, which makes a speaker more likely to be believed. We also reduced the time of each presentation to 10 minutes with an additional five minutes to answer questions. Forcing each speaker to focus only on their high point and a couple of novelty points helped the audience more easily discern their core message.”
 
Acknowledging the need to continually evaluate her own presentations, Blackert said she still combats the urge to tell everyone the whole story. Each time she prepares a presentation, she stops to identify the details that are most important for this specific audience. Completing the 501 seminar course for several semesters reinforces that practice.
 
“Graduate students in the Materials Sciences and NanoEngineering Department are required to take the course every semester for their first four years. The class is optional for fifth years and above because after eight semesters of the course, they will have developed a strong foundation of presentation skills. We still encourage them to attend every other week because their presentations and their questions are helpful to the newer students,” said Blackert.
 
She wishes more Rice engineering community members knew about the many professional development resources available to them. Through the seminar course, MSNE graduate students are introduced to the ACTIVATE program leaders, who offer semester-long ACTIVATE courses students can take to further develop their engineering communication skills. The Office of GPS supplies mentors who can help with application writing, like the coach who assisted Blackert with her NSF fellowship submission.
 
“I highly recommend the ACTIVATE program and GPS coaching,” said Blackert. “But I also asked my peers and more experienced grad students to proofread for me or listen to part of a presentation. Everyone I’ve asked has been happy to help, and we all need advice from a wide variety of sources. Everyone has their own spin on what’s important.”
 
Blackert has no plans to coast on her communication skills. She recently joined a Bioelectronics traineeship and the first semester is spent learning to communicate across interdisciplinary teams. 
 
She said, “Developing bioelectronics to address challenges in the healthcare field requires an assortment of skills - materials science, electrical engineering, systems and synthetic biology, chemistry, etc. We are learning to leverage the diverse expertise of the people in our group, so we can identify a solution to a complex healthcare challenge, produce a white paper to lay out our plan, and begin solving the problem.”
 
And of course, she’ll be communicating the value of that solution.