ChE Seminar Series: «Highlighting your Technical and Communication Skills»

During most of our academic life we focus on the technical aspects that strengthen our scientific knowledge and skills. As we further progress in our fundamental understanding and depth of our technical field, we become passive in the development of our communication skills. Communication skills are not only limited to writing or speaking properly, they need to deliver a strong, clear, coherent, and convincing message to your audience that can help you achieve your goals. This level of effectiveness can be very challenging considering the complexity of the technical subjects and perhaps the general nature of the audience. Enhancing your communication skills as you further develop your technical abilities will be critical for your success, regardless of the career path you choose to follow. This presentation will guide you through some of the challenges encountered when highlighting your technical and communication skills. Some of the examples presented will also help you as you transition into an industrial experience (e.g., resume, job interviews, and presentations) or academia (e.g., research plan, proposal writing, publications, and presentations). Reinforcing your communication skills as you enhance your technical growth will also help you develop better interpersonal skills, as well as enable your multidisciplinary experiences.

Biography:

Dr. Suleiman received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He then received an MS and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Since then, he has been a Senior Research Engineer for DuPont, where he won the 2001 Engineering Excellence Award for his research and technology transfer implementation of a new Lycra® dry spinning process for global operations (e.g., Singapore, Northern Ireland, China, and Brazil). He has also worked for: Exxon, Colgate-Palmolive, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, NASA, Penn State, the DOD Army Research Labs, and the University of Washington. He has been a Chemical Engineering faculty at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) for about eighteen years. During that time he has received numerous awards including: the Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering (1997, 2002, and 2013), τβπ Teaching Excellence Award (1996), the Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumni Award (2003), the AIChE Minority Affairs Committee Leadership Award (2004), the PR-LSAMP Outstanding Mentor Award (2004), and the Best Teacher in Chemical Engineering Award (2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012). He has been Director of the Chemical Engineering Department at UPRM (2001-2003; 2007-2011) and Director of the Research and Development Center at UPRM (2003-2007). He is currently the Director of the Office of Accreditation Assessment and Continuous Improvement for the College of Engineering of UPRM (2012-date), where he led the ABET accreditation process for all Engineering programs in the College of Engineering of UPRM. He has received over $13M in research grants from: NSF, DOD, Induniv, PR Science & Technology Trust, BBraun, Merck and others. He has graduated 5 PhD and 13 MS/ME students, published over 30 peer reviewed research publications, and presented over 100 technical presentations in National and International Conferences. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Puerto Rico and an active member of AIChE, where he has held several leadership positions in the Minority Affairs Committee. Finally, he is currently the President of the Board of Directors of SESO and the Cub Master of Troop 39 in Mayaguez.

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