
“We know they are doing a lot of fascinating research that could have significant real-world impact. We think that marrying their technical skills with strong communication skills will help them promote this amazing research and bolster their impact,” said Thomas Fitzpatrick, one of the instructors for the boot camp.Dean of COE Tsu-Jae King Liu has made improving communication both internally and externally as one of her goals after she took office in June 2018. She attended a pilot of the boot camp and spoke highly of it.
“The session was very interactive, with personal attention to each student. The group oral exercises were stimulating, requiring active and energetic participation,” Tsu-Jae said.

“We welcome students of all levels whether you are an experienced communicator and presenter, or you need to build skills and confidence — we will meet you where you are at. This is a laboratory, a boot camp to help you get to the next level!” Susan said.


“The challenge for them is distilling subjects that they know inside out into bite-size chunks that various audiences are able to absorb and then bringing excitement into the way they share their research with others,” he explained.

“In order to have real-world impact, you need to be able to communicate to a wide range of people — policymakers, people in the industry, audience at conferences that are technical-savvy but don’t know their area of research, and in some cases, the general public. We want to help PhDs bridge that gap between them and the audience that they want to reach,” she said.



“This was fantastic and I learned so much; how to be effective in being a leader and also how to communicate your thoughts and ideas in a way that others understand — through logic and also emotions,” one student wrote in the post-class survey.
“The feedback I received during the coaching session was most valuable. The subsequent brainstorming was useful for figuring out how to improve my presentation,” another student commented.If you have any question about this boot camp, please contact Beth Leven, Director of Academics Affairs at the Fung Institute, at leven@berkeley.edu.
College of Engineering offers new leadership communications boot camp for PhDs was originally published in Berkeley Master of Engineering on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.