The EECS Communication Lab provides support for any kind of technical communication, including writing, speaking, and visual design. This free resource is available to anyone affiliated with the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) or an MIT EECS lab.
Set up a free coaching appointment to receive feedback on a wide range of communication tasks, including:
- Grad school or fellowship applications
- Job applications
- For faculty positions, industry jobs, internships, and more!
- Theses and thesis proposals
- Journal or conference papers
- Talks and elevator pitches
- Posters or figures
- Abstracts
- Any other scientific or technical communication task
As engineers and scientists, the Communication Fellows focus on high-level issues such as motivation, audience, and clarity. They are not intended to be used as line-editors for grammar or English. For example, a Fellow can help you:
- understand what your readers expect to see from application documents
- make your writing more accessible and impressive to your readers
- improve the clarity of your presentations and posters
- brainstorm what content to include in a research statement to get your readers excited about your proposal
- polish a paper before initial submission or at the camera-ready stage
- design a figure that clearly communicates your main message
- tailor a talk for the appropriate audience and practice delivering it with confidence
The EECS Communication Lab offers targeted workshops
In addition to 1-on-1 coaching, the Communication Lab hosts workshops on a range of topics related to technical communication. The goal of these targeted workshops is to provide timely, hands-on support, aligned with relevant deadlines. For example, the Comm Lab has previously offered workshops on NSF GRFP applications, MEng thesis proposals, Research Qualifying Exams (RQEs), and faculty job talks.
We welcome collaborations and suggestions
The Communication Fellows and staff partner closely with EECS department leadership, faculty, staff, and student leadership groups. We love to hear input on how we can best support the EECS community in learning important writing, speaking, and visual design skills. If you have a workshop idea, know a group of students or postdocs who want support on a particular topic, or want to partner in another way, please reach out at eecscommlab@mit.edu.
Interested in being a Communication Fellow?
MIT EECS-affiliated PhD students and postdocs are eligible. We recruit new Communication Fellows once per year with applications typically opening in January or February. Fill out this interest form if you’d like to be contacted when applications open.