Aims

This course aims at initiating a reflection by the student on how to communicate efficiently scientific results, orally or in a written form. After following the course, the student should understand the principles of efficient communication and be able to put them in practice.

Main themes

The first part of the course introduces the main principles underlying scientific communication. More precisely, it focuses on the parameters of an efficient communication process.
The second part of the course consists in applying the principles learned in the first part : the students are asked to communicate the results of a research of their own (usually a chapter of their master's thesis), orally and in the form of a short written abstract.

Content and teaching methods

The first part of the course introduces the theory of communication : what is a message, how to deliver the message, relation between the source and the recipient of the message, what is a text, an image, a graph.
Theory is alternated with the analysis of documents. The aim is to introduce a reasoned practice of scientific communication and to introduce some techniques of presentation.

For the second part, consisting of a presentation of scientific results by the student, the theme is elected by the student, usually in the context of his Ms or PhD thesis. The presentation consists of two parts : an oral, and a written presentation.
The first consists of a 20 minutes oral communication, followed by a discussion on the scientific content (the promotor of the thesis is in invited to participate), and on the form of the presentation (discussion with the titulars of the course and with the fellow students).
The second is a written abstract, one page long, respecting the classical rules for a short communication in a scientific congress.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisite : degree in bio-engineering, or in biology
Evaluation : based on the written and oral presentations
Support : the student's notes
Pedagogical staff : two experts in sciences, one expert in communication

Other credits in programs