A Short-term QIP Course on "Communication Skills for Engineers", sponsored by the AICTE, was conducted between 18th and 23rd of October 2004 at IIT Kanpur. The course coordinators were Prof. Lilavati Krishnan and Dr. T. Ravichandran (Department of HSS). Twenty-five teachers of various engineering colleges and institutes of technology all over the country participated in the course. Prof. S. C. Koria, Head, CDTE / QIP of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, the Chief Guest at the inaugural function, delivered the inaugural address, highlighting the importance of the communication skills, as well as the role of the QIP in providing wide-ranging opportunities to teachers of engineering colleges. Prof. B. H. Boruah, the Acting Head of the Department of HSS, welcomed the participants and briefly described the objectives of the course.

The whole course was conducted in the form of a workshop with an interactive and participatory approach, and included the following sessions: "The Concept of Communication Competence" and "Communicator Styles" (Prof. Lilavati Krishnan, IIT Kanpur), "Reading Visual Media: A Demonstration"(Mr. Satyaki Roy and Ms. Neeru Chhabra, IIT Kanpur), "Technical Oral Presentations" (Dr. Durgesh Rai, IIT Kanpur), "Technical Writing for Papers, Reports and Theses" (Dr. V. Eswaran, IIT Kanpur), " Transactional Analysis" (Prof. H. S. Asthana, Lucknow), "Non-verbal Skills and Body Language in Communication Competence" and "Barriers to Communication/ Miscommunication" (Dr. T. Ravichandran, IIT Kanpur), "Active Listening and Empathy in Interpersonal Communication" (Dr. Komilla Thapa, Allahabad University), and "Communication Using Computers" (Dr. Rajat Moona, IIT Kanpur) Prof. B. H. Boruah, Acting Head of the Department of HSS, presided over the Valedictory Function, and gave away the certificates to the participants.