From the Nominator

The College of Engineering at Georgia Tech started a podcast that is hosted by the dean, Steve McLaughlin. The goal of the podcast was two-fold: 1) create a communications platform for the dean; and 2) showcase how the college and its research is making an impact in our world. The Uncommon Engineer podcast covers topics ranging from healthcare to the environment to data privacy in our digital world. In each episode, the host talks to cutting-edge engineers and discovers how their research impacts our lives. What sets The Uncommon Engineer apart is impact. It’s not just about the research, inventions, and accolades. It’s about how engineering makes a difference in our world, and in our daily lives. It’s about the why behind the research. Guests include research engineers from across all eight schools in the college. We start the episode off at a very high level, discussing a topic that is easy for most people to understand (e.g., healthcare or a current event) and then dive into the researchers work and how it’s impacting the industry.

From the Judges

Each episode shows clearly how the school supports each researcher, and what important work is being done within the university. Each episode starts with a brief overview of the subject’s research, then dives deeper. It doesn’t assume the listener knows about the topic. The host—the dean—is wonderful. He’s incredibly well-researched about each topic, yet sounds authentic in his excitement. For each episode, they included a “Geekout,” a shortened version of the episode. They were very creative in thinking of ways to re-purpose their content in ways that are digestible for everyone. On each episode page, a transcript of the podcast is posted, as well as a video of the podcast with captions. Each episode page also includes links to everything discussed in the episode, and provides links to each speaker’s bio.