13 Search Results for %23perspectives

  • A Talk Outside the Tower: EECS Communication Lab in the news

    Walking into MIT can feel like entering a foreign country—one with a number for every building and an unwieldy acronym for every organization. Deeper conversations are even more opaque, as fields and subfields command their own complex scientific argot. But if the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that bridging the gap between scientists […]

  • When science doesn’t have all the answers

    Demarcating science in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis By Maria Eugenia Inda, EECS Communication Fellow It matters enormously if I alienate anyone from the truth. — C. S. Lewis   In 2020, life was crushed by an invisible enemy that stopped everything… or rather, almost everything, since people’s fears, worries, and questions have only […]

  • A Designer’s Perspective on Data Visualization

    Strategies scientists can use when creating graphics for a broader audience By Craig McLean, Yerri Portillo, Tianna Rivera, Tui Calvette, and Christine Lopez Craig McLean is a Communication Fellow in the MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering Communication Lab. All of the authors are members of the Unofficial Committee: a collective of artists and scientists who […]

  • Let’s not make it viral!

    Help flatten the curve of misinformation As the numbers continue to rise in the evolving coronavirus pandemic, the amount of information is also increasing exponentially. News and speculation are spreading so fast that the normal mechanisms for releasing information supported by the scientific consensus may fail for a number of reasons: lack of reliable data, […]

  • How to Be Clear When Nothing Else Is, Part II

    Reading Responsibly During a Pandemic by Sarah Schwartz, Biological Engineering Communication Fellow Science communicators—and the general public—have professional and ethical responsibilities when writing or sharing information. That is especially true during stressful, high-stakes situations—for example, a pandemic. But communication is not one-sided; it relies upon engagement between the communicator and the audience. As readers, we […]

  • How to Be Clear When Nothing Else Is

    Communicating Science During a Pandemic by Sarah Schwartz, Biological Engineering Communication Fellow In the last month, coronavirus has rapidly rewritten the rules for how we engage with each other. Science communicators play a crucial role as they investigate, clarify and contextualize incoming data. Communicating complex concepts is a standard challenge that researchers, journalists, physicians, and […]

  • BE Communication Fellow Alumni Spotlight: Scott Olesen

    Dr. Scott Olesen was one of the founding cohort of Biological Engineering Communication Fellows, who joined when the Lab was established in 2013. He was a BE PhD student in Prof. Eric Alm’s lab and developed quantitative and statistical methods for microbial ecology and clinical trial design. Scott graduated with his PhD in 2016 and […]

  • Two Communication Fellows report back from ComSciCon 2018

    Written by Lisa Volpatti, Chemical Engineering Communication Fellow, with contributions from Josh Peters, Biological Engineering Communication Fellow “Science is chocolate. Science is not broccoli. We don’t need to trick people into liking it,” insists Liz Neeley, Executive Director of The Story Collider and keynote speaker for ComSciCon 2018. Over two jam-packed days in downtown Boston, graduate students […]

  • Follow the Comm Lab on Twitter

    For science communication and STEM professional development events, articles, and resources, follow @MITCommLab ! #announcements

  • Talk science to me: EECS Comm Lab in the MIT News

    In the spring of 2015, graduate students communicated a clear message to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS): They needed help communicating. Specifically, they wanted to give better pitches for research and startup ideas and make presentations that wowed their colleagues and senior scientists. They also wanted to impress recruiters, who saw plenty of candidates with technical […]