About

Niveen AbiGhannam is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a science communication researcher and educator whose work centers around the strategic and inclusive communication of technical knowledge. Her research seeks to understand individual, organizational, and social factors that can drive or hinder public engagement with STEM behaviors. She also examines the identities of publicly engaged scientists and engineers and the meanings that they associate with their engagement experiences. On the teaching front, Dr. AbiGhannam has taught Engineering Communication at UT since 2015. Her teaching goals are for her student engineers to develop strategic communication skills that would allow them to communicate technical knowledge in a mindful and inclusive manner with different expert and non-expert audiences. She holds a Ph.D. in Science Communication from the University of Texas at Austin and has received degrees in Environmental Policy (M.S.) and Biology (B.S.) from The American University of Beirut.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Business
• Sociology
• Information Retrieval
• Artificial Intelligence
• Engineering
• Public relations
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Data science

Selected publications

• Exploring ChatGPT's Ability to Classify the Structure of Literature Reviews in Engineering Research Articles

  IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies · 2024 · 5 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Information Retrieval

  ChatGPT is a newly emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that can generate and assess written text. In this study, we aim to examine the extent to which it can correctly identify the structure of literature review sections in engineering research articles. For this purpose, we conducted a manual content analysis by classifying paragraphs of literature review sections into their corresponding categories that are based on Kwan' model, which is a labeling scheme for structuring literature reviews. We then asked ChatGPT to perform the same categorization and compared both outcomes. Numerical results do not imply a satisfactory performance of ChatGPT; therefore, writers cannot fully depend on it to edit their literature reviews. However, the AI chatbot displays an understanding of the given prompt and is able to respond beyond the classification task by giving supportive and useful explanations for the users. Such findings can be especially helpful for beginners who usually struggle to write comprehensive literature review sections since they highlight how users can benefit from this AI chatbot to revise their drafts at the level of content and organization. With further investigations and advancement, AI chatbots can also be used for teaching proper literature review writing and editing.

  PublisherDOI

• Understanding high-achieving publicly engaged scientists' commitment to engage: push, pull, and drag forces

  Journal of Science Communication · 2022 · 3 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Public relations

  This paper takes an ecological approach to examine the public engagement with science (PES) pressures and expectations perceived by publicly engaged scientists. Interviews with high-achieving, publicly engaged scientists reveal that unidirectional factors within science (‘push forces’) and engagement (‘pull forces’) contexts drive them towards PES. Running counter to those are ‘drag forces’, or pressures not to engage. Our analyses reveal that high-achieving publicly engaged scientists mitigate those pressures through employing certain engagement strategies, such as by overproducing academic research and selectively sharing PES news with institutions and colleagues. Findings enrich our understanding of the complex operation of norms in the ever-changing PES landscape.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Improving Students’ Soft Skills in an Engineering Lab Course: Developing and Testing a Discipline-Specific Approach

  2022-07-01

  article

  Technical writing is an essential communication skill for engineers. Professionally and academically, engineers need to communicate their work to their peers, clients, and managers. However, technical writing is generally not well addressed in the engineering curriculum. The goal of this study was to enhance the writing skills of chemical engineering B.Eng. students who took two core laboratory courses at an international engineering school where English is spoken as a second language. Our approach was to train the undergraduate students, train the graduate students in charge of grading the lab reports, revise the grading rubrics, and provide constructive feedback on the lab reports. To assess the success of our approach, we asked students to submit two writing assignments before and after our intervention, and submit their responses to our surveys at the end of the semester. The results showed that the majority of students and graduate assistants agreed on the positive impact of the intervention on students’ communication skills.

  PublisherDOI

• Developing, Pilot-Testing, and Evaluating an Approach to Teach Technical and Professional Communication Skills in an Introductory Engineering Course

  2022-07-01

  articleSenior author

  In an English-speaking international engineering school, a need was identified to integrate professional and technical communication content to better prepare students for communicating about technical content throughout their programs. To help build a common foundation for all students from different English backgrounds/levels, such content might be included in a first semester required course. This paper describes how we developed, pilot-tested, and evaluated a strategy to integrate communication content into an online introductory engineering course of ~500 students. We developed an asynchronous curriculum covering micro (words and sentences), macro (paragraphs, overall documents, and evidence-based writing), and professional (netiquette and tonality especially in emails) writing skills. Assessments’ results show that students mostly understood and applied macro and professional skills, and to a slightly lesser extent, micro writing skills. This indicates that they were more engaged in modules relevant to their engineering disciplines than basic English writing skills. Our analysis thus suggests that the integrated modules in this introductory course are essential to introduce discipline-specific communication skills to engineering students.

  PublisherDOI

• Examining the perceived value of a prestigious science engagement award: views of applicants, finalists, and awardees

  International Journal of Science Education Part B · 2021 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Psychology

  Recent public engagement with science (PES) scholarship has discussed the importance of designing and implementing extrinsic reward systems to recognize the scientists involved in PES work and potentially induce further engagement. This study examines the perceptions of the applicants, finalists, and awardees of a prestigious PES award. Although the award is perceived highly by all three groups, we found that it only has major impacts on the careers and PES work of those who had actually won it. Upon winning, the awardees experience internal and external validation in the form of increased confidence, recognition from others, and further PES and career opportunities that would not have been available to them otherwise. The rest of the applicants perceived no direct or indirect benefits from applying to the award. Our results suggest that more sustainable and far-reaching reward systems should be designed in order to support and reward more publicly engaged scientists.

  PublisherDOI

• Two-way communication between scientists and the public: a view from science communication trainers in North America

  International Journal of Science Education Part B · 2017-07-26 · 71 citations

  article

  The current study explores the degree to which two-way communication is applied in science communication contexts in North America, based on the experiences of science communication trainers. Interviews with 24 science communication trainers suggest that scientists rarely focus on applying two-way communication tactics, such as listening to their audiences or tailoring messages based on their audiences’ needs. Also, although trainers generally recognize the value of two-way communication, it is seldom addressed in science communication trainings. The importance of two-way communication in fostering interactive dialogical communication between scientists and the public, and thus the importance of emphasizing it more during science communication training, is discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Three Pink Decades: Breast Cancer Coverage in Magazine Advertisements

  Health Communication · 2017-02-02 · 18 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Breast cancer advocacy has experienced tremendous success since the 1980s. Yet, the quality and authenticity of breast cancer information in the media are sometimes questionable. Using a content analysis, we examined the informative (donation information, breast cancer advocacy content, etc.) and persuasive (appeals used, cues to action, etc.) contents of magazine advertisements relevant to breast cancer. While ads offered minimal informative content about the disease or about ways by which sales will contribute to the breast cancer cause, they integrated "breast cancer appeals," such as the color pink, the pink ribbon, and mostly positive depictions of survivorship and hope, into the ads. Breast cancer thus took center stage in the persuasive content of the ads, but a back seat when it came to their informative content. We discuss the implications of those findings in light of the meanings and purposes of cause-related marketing campaigns.

  PublisherDOI

• Good green mothers consuming their way through pregnancy: roles of environmental identities and information seeking in coping with the transition

  Consumption Markets & Culture · 2016-01-08 · 26 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We explore the consumption experiences of women who opt for an environmentally conscious approach to pregnancy. Our findings reveal that environmentally conscious mothers conduct extensive scientific research about the products that they purchase during pregnancy and the associated risks of using such products. They believe that their efforts to find and process such information make them experts on what is best for their babies’ health and proclaim some micromanaging powers in an uncontrollable environment. Alas, consumption decisions are simultaneously coupled with tensions between (1) needing to make informed choices and being overwhelmed with information; (2) feeling confident about seeking consumption information and lacking the confidence to share it; and (3) pursuing external expertise and resorting to internal instincts. Thus, although consumption is often perceived as a helpful coping mechanism when transitioning to new life roles, we find that it also contributes to the complexity of such transitional situations.

  PublisherDOI

• A Typology of Female Online Science Communicators

  2016 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 11-15, 2016) · 2016-02-14

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Madam Science Communicator

  Science Communication · 2016-07-10 · 25 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This study uses discourse analysis to explore online science communication experiences from the perspectives of 43 female opinion leaders. Women described their experiences in terms of their lifelong love for science and their ever-growing interest in communication. For them, a career in science communication is a conscious career choice rather than an “alternative” career path. Communicators performed various functions depending on the sensitivity of their topics and whether their communications are self-focused or audience-focused. Accordingly, four types of science communicators emerged from the data: Expressive/Escapist, Advocate/Normalizer, Edutainer, and Performer/Sharer. This diversity challenges societal stereotypes that reduce female experiences in science.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Anthony Dudo

  The University of Texas at Austin

  7 shared

• Lee Ann Kahlor

  4 shared

• Maha Issa

  American University of Beirut

  3 shared

• Ming-Ching Liang

  Metropolitan State University

  2 shared

• Lindsay A. Chilek

  The University of Texas at Austin

  2 shared

• Hyeseung Koh

  2 shared

• Allison J. Lazard

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2 shared

• Ming-Ching Liang

  Metropolitan State University

  2 shared