Carnegie Mellon University
December 20, 2012

Suguru Ishizaki receives Joenk Award at 2012 IPCC Conference; CMU to host 2014 Conference

By David Golebiewski

Suguru Ishizaki receives Joenk Award at 2012 IPCC Conference; CMU to host 2014 Conference

Suguru Ishizaki, Associate Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, received the IEEE Professional Communication Society’s Joenk Award for Best Paper in the Transactions at the 2012 International Professional Communication Conference in Orlando, Fla. The Joenk Award recognizes an outstanding article published in this past year’s IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on empirical studies in the field of technical and professional communication.


Ishizaki presented his award-winning paper, “Assessing Typographic Knowledge Using Time Tests,” at the conference. Ishizaki measured the typographic skills of his students to tailor his class structure to their needs. The paper is available on IEEE's digital library [subscription required].


“The theme of the conference was 'Communicating Vision' – either visual communication of communicating vision," Ishizaki said. “It was very nice for me to get to know how [other researchers] view visual communication, and get to talk to them about it.”


Carnegie Mellon will host the 2014 International Professional Communication Conference. The IPCC is held by the IEEE Professional Communication Society, which has over 800 members worldwide. The conference brings together researchers, technical communication professionals, and engineering professionals interested in communication for scholarly presentations and workshops.


 “This will be a great opportunity for our students in technical and professional writing programs to get to see the latest research in technical and professional communication,” Ishizaki said. ”We are hoping to create some volunteering and assistantship opportunities for students, too.”


Carnegie Mellon plans to host a one-day parallel workshop with the university’s satellite campus in Doha, Qatar, with live connections between the two locations. Ishizaki also hopes to involve Carnegie Mellon alumni working in technical and professional communication around the region.


“The importance of communication has been recognized by many on campus, with one recent
example being the creation of the Global Communication Center,” Ishizaki said. “We are hoping to find some opportunities for the campus community to participate.”