Traci Nathans-Kelly, Ph.D., currently teaches for both eCornell and on campus in Cornell University’s College of Engineering. As a member of the Engineering Communications Program, she interacts daily to help engineers to hone their technical messaging, whether it be via presentations, on paper, in meetings and teams, or online channels. Dr. Nathans-Kelly has worked with practicing professional engineers, technical experts, scientists, and related field experts for over 20 years, helping them to strengthen their abilities to become impactful contributors in their organizations. She served as the editor for the IEEE Professional Communication book series for Professional Engineering Communication, with 12 books on the shelves for the series. Dr. Nathans-Kelly’s book, Slide Rules: Design, Build, and Archive Presentations in the Engineering and Technical Fields, was co-authored with Christine G. Nicometo. Aside from campus teaching, Dr. Nathans-Kelly conducts workshops and training for such entities as The Boeing Company, Flad Architects, IEEE-USA, Wolters Kluwer, and a host of others. In the past, she has trained practicing engineers and technical experts at At&T, CN Railroad, FedEx, GE, Google, Harley Davidson, IBM, Intel, John Deere, Johnson Controls, Kohler, Kraft, Lockheed Martin, Medtronic, Mercury Marine, Motorola, NASA, Ocean Spray, Sanofi Pasteur, Sirius, SkullCandy, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Department of Defense, the US Army, the US National Security Agency, the US Navy/Nuclear Submarines, and many more.
Technical
Presentations
Overview and Courses
Knowledge is power but it’s only half the battle. Sharing knowledge — that is, effectively communicating even complex concepts to your audience — is the real strength.
This certificate program is designed to help you design, build, and deliver impactful in-person and virtual presentations to an array of internal and external audiences. The courses will provide you with an opportunity to examine, reevaluate, and collect rich insights into best practices for engineering, technical, and scientific presentations. Throughout this program, you will reevaluate current and past presentation practices that do not achieve the intended goals in order to help you refine your ability to deliver an effective message. You will practice techniques that can be adapted to meet specific technical communication needs. Most importantly, you will have many opportunities to apply and experiment with the course concepts in your work.
Though this program is especially focused on how to deliver specialized or technical information in presentations, the practices presented in these courses work well in business, marketing, and other contexts.
You will be required to purchase Traci Nathans-Kelly’s book “Slide Rules” to complete your coursework. For the best experience in this program, it is strongly recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear.
As a person working in a technical field, you most likely have to give talks or presentations to different audiences, some of whom will be non-experts or decision makers outside your sphere of expertise. In this course, you will look at your own current practices for giving talks as a technical expert and establish a set of action items for improvement. You will look closely at your old habits and establish new ways to design, build, and deliver effective in-person and virtual presentations for an array of internal and external audiences. You will also examine, reevaluate, and apply best practices for engineering, technical, and scientific presentations, and explore current and past presentation practices that do not achieve the intended goals and results. This examination will help you refine your ability to deliver an effective message.
Specifically, you will perform an assessment of presentation techniques, both personal and at your workplace. From that starting point, you can reengineer your presentations to meet specific technical communication needs. Most importantly, you will have an opportunity to discover and articulate your organization's presentation culture, identify areas for improvement in your own slide design and presentation skills, set goals for leveraging effective new presentation habits, and formulate a detailed action plan for improvement. Throughout this course, you will read various selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” which contains helpful insights and examples that you can apply in your own presentations.
Furthermore, you will prepare for a specific work-related talk and define the needs of co-presenters, audience members, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.
Since the advent of presentation software like PowerPoint, presenters have been led astray by the design of slide templates. The software applications were originally created to help presenters outline their talks, but the slideware's design did not account for the needs of audiences nor factor in cognitive research. As a consequence, the templates have ingrained poor presentation habits that often confuse and disengage the people who are meant to benefit from these talks.
In this course you will have an opportunity to begin challenging the norm and break this cycle of "slide deck drudgery." By replacing old presentation habits with new best practices that you gain from this course, you can shift your focus to the needs and interests of your audience, and you can begin to use your slides to communicate your ideas more clearly and effectively. You will explore new techniques that will help you to improve the flow of your talk and keep your audience focused on your main ideas. You will then study effective presentation design and development practices as you read various selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” which contains valuable insights and examples that you can apply in your own presentations.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Redesigning Slides for Impact” or have equivalent experience.
When giving a presentation, you want to ensure you communicate all of your critical ideas while you have your audience's attention. There are more effective ways of doing so beyond the standard large amounts of text and bullet points.
In this course, you will have the opportunity to rethink the way you design your presentations and slides. You will discover that there are straightforward ways to use your slide decks to serve two purposes: support your technical and business presentations while making your slide decks reusable and valuable resources inside your organization. You will then examine the life cycle of your presentations and begin to document who uses your slides, when they are used, and what clearances are needed to share and use them. You will also consider legal issues or proprietary concerns that may exist. Finally, you will start to build a process to help you protect proprietary information before you share it with external parties. As part of your study, you will review various selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” which provides helpful insights and enlightening examples that you can apply in your own presentations.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Redesigning Slides for Impact” and “Engaging Presentation Techniques,” or have equivalent experience.
Your work in a technical field likely means that you periodically interact with colleagues, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders who live in a different part of the world, speak a primary language different from your own, or have expertise in a different or non-technical field.
As a technical expert, your ability to anticipate the needs of audiences from diverse backgrounds and communicate effectively with them is essential.
In this course, you will have an opportunity to explore how you can prepare to meet the needs of audiences with differing backgrounds, primary languages, and levels of expertise, and even varying degrees of receptivity to your message. You will examine principles of persuasion and consider how and when to apply them both effectively and ethically. As part of your studies, you will also review pertinent selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” and you will look at how you can prepare for the unexpected in your talks and maintain your composure when disruptions occur.
By the end of this course, you will have gained techniques and insights that you can apply as you prepare and develop presentations for a wide range of audiences with varying needs and interests.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Redesigning Slides for Impact,” “Engaging Presentation Techniques,” and “Designing Slides for Live and Legacy Use,” or have equivalent experience.
Effective communication skills are the hallmark of a professional no matter what the profession. In this course, you will begin to parse the ways in which you present yourself to others as a technical expert. In any presentation or talk that you give, whether face to face or online, you want to project expertise, confidence, and professionalism. The idea of professionalism, however, can vary. Everyone expects professionalism, but the definition and perception of professionalism differs greatly among individuals, organizations, nations, and cultures.
In this course, you will delve into the concept of professionalism in presentations and explore how it varies depending upon the context, the participants, and their expectations.
You will study effective practices for designing, developing, and delivering professional-grade online meetings and team presentations. Additionally, you will have an opportunity to examine the importance of your body language, eye contact, and voice in projecting confidence in your talks, regardless of the setting or delivery medium. You will then record a talk and take an inventory of your expert presence in the video. You will also investigate the nuances and complexities of developing and delivering team presentations. In the final part of the course, you will complete the process of preparing to deliver a professional-level team talk.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Redesigning Slides for Impact,” “Engaging Presentation Techniques,” “Designing Slides for Live and Legacy Use,” and “Strategizing for Audiences With Different Expertise,” or have equivalent experience.
Thanks to ongoing advances in communication technologies, you can collaborate in real time with colleagues, customers, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders around the world. That reality presents both exciting opportunities and potential challenges. You can share ideas and receive information with great ease, but your message could encounter cultural and language barriers as you communicate with diverse audiences.
In this course, you will explore effective ways to deliver high-impact content that meets the needs of multinational audiences in live, online, and face-to-face presentations. Using practical insights studied in this course, you will strategize and prepare for high-impact presentations in formal settings. You will scrutinize how to design and adapt your slides and delivery techniques to meet the needs of international audiences speaking multiple languages. You will also see how you can leverage your slide presentations to create custom videos that address the needs of your target audience.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed “Redesigning Slides for Impact,” “Engaging Presentation Techniques,” “Designing Slides for Live and Legacy Use,” “Strategizing for Audiences With Different Expertise,” and “Projecting Expertise and Confidence During Presentations,” or have equivalent experience.
How It Works
Faculty Author
- Create slide decks that support your live presentations to your target audience and act as a secure knowledge/information repository for stakeholders after your talk
- Identify shortcomings in your presentation skills and formulate a plan for improvement
- Replace old presentation habits with new best practices, shifting your focus to the needs and interests of your audience
- Engage with audiences that have differing expertise when presenting
- Strengthen your delivery methods and techniques
- Modify and deliver presentations appropriate for a multinational audience

Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
- Technical Presentations Certificate from Cornell College of Engineering
- 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)
Who Should Enroll
- Engineers
- Technology professionals
- Business leaders
- Entrepreneurs
- Educators
- Consultants
- Anyone interested in effectively conveying ideas to a professional audience

{Anytime, anywhere.}