2-3 april 2025 | Prioritet Serneke Arena | Gothenburg

5 keys for successful communication in technically advanced projects!

1400 answers to the question “what is the biggest challenge in your day-to-day work” resulted in a overwhelmingly large number of responses that related to communication in technologically advanced projects and especially between technically knowledgeable staff and decision makers. 

The question was given to visitors at Advanced Engineering 2019 who received it because the treatment of the heart issues and challenges of product development companies in the manufacturing industry is one of the main missions in arranging the meeting place Advanced Engineering.

Insitutes are taking notice of the increased need for communication in businesses.

Magnus Gustafson is an associate professor and has worked with technical communication at Chalmers for a good 20 years and has seen the field develop together with communication channels. Today Magnus meets the industry mainly through student degree projects, the work done by industry doctoral students and in the design and planning of professional training courses in collaboration with Chalmers Professional Education. The courses that focus on technical communication at the department are mainly focused on specific technical disciplines. However, many different types of technical communication tend to attract mainly international students with a fairly solid educational career towards engineering or the sciences as targets.

In connection with this, the Institute Chalmers sees a very great need to prepare students for complex, advanced and interdisciplinary projects. Currently, much of that effort is taking form of project-based and / or challenge-based learning where there is an obvious need to also work with technical communication across different disciplines and cultures.

Magnus Gustafson highlights why so many are challenged by communication in technologically advanced projects:

– The reason for this need is simply a reflection of the constant development of glocal technology and work. The global work environment is reality to many researchers and engineers, and communication needs to work, says Magnus Gustafson. 

Professor duo sew together workshop on the subject in March 2020 
Together with Charles Keeling, a professor of English who has worked at universities in three countries, run companies in two and lived in seven, Magnus Gustafsson has put together a workshop for engineers and decision makers, tailored for product development companies in the manufacturing industry at Advanced Engineering 2020. Keeling worked with and for the Volvo Group for 15 years, both with decision makers and technical staff with communication both externally and internally throughout the global group, and he sees a continuing need for education in the subject, and it much do to the development of digital communication. 

– The digital revolution has not only increased the need to communicate, but more importantly to understand communication, says Charles Keeling.

5 keys to successful communication in technical projects:

  1. Visualize more and work with graphics.

  2. Test your disciplinary statements and arguments with colleagues from distant as well as tangent fields.

  3.  Ask questions, don’t pretend to understand what you’re reading!

  4. Sender. Message. Receiver. Understanding and reflecting on communication begins critically with these three component categories.

  5. It is the soft force that runs the human world. We are animals of communication.

Workshop about communication in technically advanced projects

Start Making Sense – real-world collaborative communication for decision-makers and technical staff. Bring your colleagues and look forward to a half-day of well-invested time. Everyone who influences and decides on technical projects is welcome.

Start Making Sense – real-world collaborative communication for decision-makers and technical staff
  • Real-world examples of communication for peer-to-peer assessment and review
  • Group multimedia projects to effectivize projects
  • Group projects featuring decisionmakers and technical staff for real-world context
  • Gamification to enhance collaborative and interpersonal communication
  • Take-home product for presentation of Chalmers workshop to own organization

The workshop will be held in English during Advanced Engineering 2020 at Åbymässan on March 25 at 1pm.

Register for the workshop via the button below. Don’t forget to also register to attend Advanced Engineering 2020

Charles Keeling & Magnus Gustafsson, Chalmers School of Technology.

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