In engineering departments, technical communication is often taught by non-specialist academics on an ad-hoc basis. This paper shows the benefits-to students, employers, and universities-of taking a more programmatic view of such teaching. Specifically, we show how more thoughtful design of assignments and the rubrics and markers for assessing these can allow a single technical communication professional to effectively teach 1000 students or more.
Anyone who has driven in heavy fog knows how difficult it is to see things clearly in a medium that scatters light. Yet fish appear to move with ease through a dense aquatic fog of swirling algae, plankton, sand, dirt, and all sorts of plant and animal debris. Now, after studying the retina of the green sunfish (
Lepomis cyanellus
), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, think they know how this creature, at least, accomplishes the feat. And they are trying to copy the sunfish's presumed strategy, known as polarization difference imaging, to improve the vision of cameras in murky conditions.
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