Effective communication skills, and most importantly the capacity to present effectively, are critical to an engineering student's ability to become an effective leader in their discipline. While students can be taught approaches and tricks to improve their presentation skills, it is not yet clear whether all training approaches are effective in helping students develop as skilled presenters. Tracking biometric or physiologic data, such as heart rate, can allow us to compare differences between skilled and unskilled presenters, and whether feedback and training on presentation skills can promote biometric changes among unskilled presenters. Smartwatch platforms provide a unique opportunity to track these data and use them to more successfully train our students to effectively present information.

*sponsored by the Earl P. Allabach Charitable Agency