Demetrios Koudoumnakis
Electrical Engineering Student
Phone:
647-467-3817
Email:
Education
York University
Beng. Electrical Engineering In Progress
LinkedIn account
Hello! I'm Demetrios
I am an Electrical Engineering student who is determined to become an effective communicator. I understand the importance of communication, especially in a profession such as engineering. Over the past year I have improved my communication skills through technical and verbal communication assignments. This is my communication portfolio showcasing my efforts towards becoming a better communicator.
SHOWCASE
Reverse Engineering the Brain
Brochure
This piece is a Brochure for one of the 14 grand engineering challenges, Reverse Engineering the Brain. It explains the challenge and why it is important to complete it. I enjoyed creating this piece as it challenged both my communication and creative skills. I selected this piece as it demonstrates communication in an unconventional way. Originally when I thought of communication I imagined presentations and written reports, especially in engineering. This piece has challenged me to think of communication in a different and more engaging way. This piece demonstrates my best work as I effectively made two different brochures for a high school and university audience. They are visually appealing and contain useful and entertaining information. These brochures effectively explain the challenge as I intended them to do so.
Tools for Replicating the Brain
Technical report
This piece is a Technical Report explaining a possible solution to a previously mentioned grand engineering challenge, Reverse Engineering the Brain. I chose to showcase this report as I found it to be the most challenging communication piece. This report has best reflected the engineering practice and what I intend on doing in my career. This piece has helped me to learn the importance of flow in a report. I decided on the topic of the report before becoming familiar with it. This put me in a position where I was near completion and realised that the topic did not fit the assignment’s criteria. I was able to preserve the report through extensive time and effort. The weight and length of this piece forced me out of my comfort zone. For such a large assignment it was difficult to maintain an overall clear and concise tone. It took me a while to write each section which caused me to forget the contents of previous sections, and disconnected the report. I believe I was able to reconnect the section after extensive editing and peer feedback. I do not believe this technical report is my best work. I did not focus the report around one feasible solution in detail. I mainly introduced possible solutions. I am looking forward to the next technical report as I have identified learning opportunities and will spend time ensuring my topic meets the criteria.
Explanation of Electrical Transformers
"Back of the napkin" video
This piece was a “back of the napkin” themed explanation video. I decided to showcase this communication piece as it outlines the fundamental communication skills. This short video demonstrates my ability to explain a scientific concept to a variety of audiences with the use of visuals. It has helped me understand the importance of explanation skills in my future career. Explaining future engineering designs is just as important as creating them. Considering I had a short amount of time to explain the concept, it challenged me to identify the most important aspects. It has improved my ability to be concise, concrete and courteous as a communicator. This piece was within my comfort zone as I love to explain fascinating topics such as transformers. I chose a topic that I was familiar with, to focus the piece on the explanation rather than the facts. This piece showcases my best work as I am proud of the final product. I spent an excessive amount of time creating this video in order to produce the best product possible. I made multiple attempts making this video in order to get my desired result.
Microcontroller Timer and Stopwatch
Technical report
This communication piece was a report on a stopwatch and timer microcontroller project that I designed and created in the fall of 2021. I chose to showcase this communication piece because it demonstrates the key quality in me becoming an effective communicator. This report showed me that my interest in the topic directly affects the outcome of the piece. I wrote the report on a project that I spent a lot of time and effort on and was more than happy with the final product. This made writing the report enjoyable. This piece gave me the opportunity to explain my own design and creation in detail. Not only did this project aid in my development as a communicator, but also as an engineer. I hope to create many electronic designs in my career, and writing reports on them will be essential to my job. This piece was within my comfort zone as I was familiar with the topic and enjoyed the creation of the report. This piece is my best report as I created a report that accurately represented the project and my communication skills.
Reflection On ENG2003
ENG 2003 Effective Communication for Engineers, has been incredibly informative and helpful. I have enjoyed this course and learned a lot about communication in a professional environment. Compared to the other ENG courses I had to take throughout my studies, this was the most organized and informative one. I have related many topics to the necessary career skills and goals. The tutorials were extremely helpful and helped me learn the course material in a fun and interactive way. Conducting mock interviews in a tutorial helped me practice the STAR method in a comfortable learning environment. Overall this course has prepared me for the sociotechnical work of engineering, and taught me the importance of communication in human development.
Going into this course I expected to learn basic communication skills, the course was not what I expected it to be. I started this course following the completion of ENG 2001. I did not enjoy ENG 2001 as I believe they did not replicate the project management experience effectively. This course succeeded in all areas where ENG 2001 failed. When the instructor gave an overview of the course I was excited to learn and develop the skills he outlined. The course provided relevant communication activities and projects that improved our communication skills. After we learned a new topic we had an in class activity where we were given the opportunity to practice the topic while engaging with our peers. For example, after we learned digital professionalism we had to identify the issues in figures and brainstorm ways to improve them.
Almost all of the topics in the course were useful and interesting. However, I found technical writing the most useful. As an engineer I will create many technical writing pieces to explain a design or proposal. I envisioned myself as an industry engineer while making the technical report. The editing and feedback content of this course was the most interesting topic in this course, as it made me think of giving and receiving feedback in a different way. Learning about the rhetorical tetrahedron was eye opening in how we perceive feedback. In a tutorial, we were tasked to edit our peers' technical report. I constantly thought about how I can provide concrete and constructive suggestions for improvement, while understanding the context of the situation. This was a rough draft and I had to keep that in mind while editing.
Throughout grade school and first year undergraduate, I had developed communication skills that had allowed me to create presentations, essays, and basic reports. In grade 12, I created a report explaining how power gets from a hydroelectric plant to our homes. I believe it to be the best written work in my entire high school career. Considering the structure and criteria of an engineering technical report, it was not so impressive. I mastered presentation skills early on, once I start presenting to a live audience I get a boost of confidence and enthusiasm. Before this course I had the basics and background knowledge of communication. After taking this course, I have the ability to apply that knowledge in a professional engineering environment. Identifying the axioms of communication and the 7 C’s have made the connection between communication and the professional world. I now have conversations while keeping the 7 C’s in mind. For example, I was helping a friend with math and I constantly thought of ways to explain the concept while being clear, concise, correct and concrete.
This course has improved my cover letter writing skills. This past semester I have applied to many co-op jobs with different cover letters. Before this course I had written around three cover letters with my previous knowledge. Once I learned how to write a proper cover letter in this course I realized how poorly made they were. I received a poor mark for the cover letter assignment and asked the TA for clarification. She helped me identify all of the faults in the cover letter and how I can approve. With her advice and the course material, I have written many impressive cover letters that continuously improve from the previous.
I have made some progress in my technical writing skills but have room to grow. We were tasked to explain how an emerging technology can solve a grand engineering challenge. I have learned that I need to focus on one solution in depth and be less general. I feel that I did not completely master that portion of this course. I am looking forward to the next report I will write.
This course has raised my expectations for the engineering course at Lassonde. The knowledge and experience I have gained from this course has forever changed the way I communicate. I believe that to become an effective communicator we must practice with the 7 C’s in mind. In the future I will communicate in a clear, correct, complete, concrete, concise, considered and courteous manner. I will create technical reports with the structure I have learned in this course. I will always create figures and provide feedback with the methods I have learned, in future courses and in engineering practice.
My Passion
As an electrical engineer I am interested in electronic systems, especially microcontrollers. The interaction between software and hardware components have always been interesting and enjoyable to me. Microcontrollers are pieces of hardware that can connect to other hardware elements with pins. We are able to control these hardware components with software. I was introduced to microcontrollers in highschool where I would control breadboard components to complete different functions. In university I explored microcontrollers and learned how they worked in depth. Recently I created a timer and stopwatch device with a microcontroller and breadboard components.
In this project I had to design a way to save microcontroller pins. With my existing knowledge with breadboards and logic gates, I was able to do so. I had spent multiple days creating this project. I am extremely proud of it and all of the skills I have learned in its creation. I had done extensive research and testing in order to make this project reliable and effective. I had to overcome many obstacles, where it seemed impossible. On completion of this project, I realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life and I ordered another microcontroller with new hardware and began creating a small project.