Quote Intepretation by Xuan Yi and me

“Without clear lines of communication, our ideas would stay within our own small development teams instead of becoming mature products. While this is obvious to those of us who have become experienced engineers, the real question is: Why is it lost to us when we are engineering students?”

-Akbar R Khan, Software Systems Engineer, USA, “Good Communication Is Essential...” (2014)

The above quote emphasizes the importance of communication in turning ideas into reality. It implies that clear communication is critical for disseminating and developing ideas beyond small, isolated groups. While experienced engineers recognize this requirement, the remark raises the issue of why this awareness is absent among engineering students.

Engineering students may not completely recognize how important communication is in the product development process, likely because they are typically focused on technical skills and may not yet understand how teamwork and transparent information sharing generate creative thinking and achievement in their respective expertise. 

Additionally, a student's focus may have been pivoted from mutual understanding to self-understanding from a young age due to most conventional education systems stressing individual work, such as examination rather than group work. This is evident as individual assessment holds more significance than group assessment in terms of grading.

In a nutshell, the quote highlights a disconnection between academic learning and real-world applications and we think that the lack of experience and the conventional education system may have contributed to the issue.