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HCC Locations

For Workshops and Weekly Groups: 4650 Seamans Center

For Individual Tutoring sessions: 2228 Seamans Center in the Engineering Commons

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Make an Appointment

Need help writing a lab report, a rhetoric assignment, or a presentation for class? Schedule a 30-minute tutoring session in person or online.

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Join a Weekly Group

Develop great communication skills by attending weekly groups aimed at honing writing and presentation skills and supporting students who want to build a habit of writing their science.

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Three Minute Thesis (3MT)

Check out this communication competition for graduate students in CoE

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Attend a Fun Activity

Spend time with your peers, explore your interests, and enhance your education outside the classroom by attending one of these events.

About HCC

The Hanson Center for Communication (HCC) is an endowed program generously created by Tom and Nancy Hanson to provide a comprehensive resource to help students develop communication skills as part of their engineering education. The HCC is an innovative communication training center that works closely with engineering faculty to train students in effective technical communication. HCC conducts hundreds of one-on-one and group tutoring sessions to help students develop their writing and presentation skills and support faculty in including communication practice across the engineering curriculum. The center offers a wide-range of writing and presentation training including individual tutoring, improv training, and weekly groups that provide technical writing, presentation, and dissertation coaching. The center also partners closely with the Lichtenberger Engineering Library to host communication-focused events and competitions such as Engineering Reads, Capture Your Research Image Competition, and Graduate Thesis Boot Camp. For questions, please email HCC Director James Ankrum at james-ankrum@uiowa.edu.

Events

HCC 3MT Workshop: 3MT Presentation Practice

Friday, October 18, 2024 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Seamans Center
3MT Presentation Practice with Dr. James Ankrum, HCC associate Kathleen Shaughnessy, and Programming Director Kristy Hartsgrove Mooers

CoE 3MT Final Competition Registration Deadline

Friday, October 18, 2024 11:59pm
Register for the College of Engineering 3MT Final Competition by Oct. 18.

Capture Your Research: awards ceremony and reception

Tuesday, November 12, 2024 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Old Capitol Museum
Capture Your Research is an image competition where students, faculty, and staff can submit one image that captures the essence of their research. They will be judged on originality/creativity, the appeal of the image, relationship between the image and their research, and the clarity of the written description. Suggested dress code: smart casual.
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HCC Success Stories

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Isaac Eigner-Bybee

The Hanson Center classes were an outstanding way to gain technical writing skills and become a part of a community of graduate students. The thesis/dissertation group taught me how to structure my story in a way that is both informative and engaging to my audience. The technical writing group gave me specific writing tools (don't bury the lede!), and the presentation group taught me how to create slides and graphs that convey the main message of the data. My only regret is not signing up for the classes sooner. The fear of not having anything written or the quality of the writing should not prevent anyone from signing up and getting help! The Hanson Center's classes were instrumental in allowing me to graduate on time and with a thesis that I am proud of. I can't thank Danielle, Kath, and Kristy enough for the time and care they put into helping me on my academic journey.

Project Highlight

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Comics to explain science

In the spring 2024 semester, the Communicating Data through Stories class took on a creative assignment that combined science and the use of comics to tell the story of each student’s research project.

People

Photo of HCC Director James Ankrum

James Ankrum

HCC Director

 

Kristy Hartsgrove Mooers

Kristy Hartsgrove Mooers

HCC Programming Director

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Kathleen Shaughnessy

Kath Shaughnessy

(she/they)

Danielle Land

Danielle Land

HCC Associate Programming Director

(she/her)

HCC Tutors 2024-2025

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Priyasha Apte

Miranda Basart

Miranda Basart

Hannah Vogts

Hannah Vogts

Avery Liss

Avery Liss

HCC Resources

For students

For faculty

Contact HCC

James Ankrum

Director, Hanson Center for Communication
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
email: james-ankrum@uiowa.edu
ph. 319.335.7512

Kristy Hartsgrove Mooers

Programming Director, Hanson Center for Communication
Lecturer, Department of Theatre Arts
email: kristen-hartsgrove-mooers@uiowa.edu
ph. 319-335-2799