HCC Locations
For Workshops and Weekly Groups: 4650 Seamans Center
For Individual Tutoring sessions: 2228 Seamans Center in the Engineering Commons
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.
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.
Three Minute Thesis (3MT)
Check out this communication competition for graduate students in CoE
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.
HCC Success Stories
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
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
HCC Tutors 2024-2025
HCC Resources
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