Academic Support for Engineering Students

Hawaii hello.

Good afternoon folks. Thank you so much for tuning in.

Great so folks are just getting situated logging into our web and R Um, I'm really excited to be here with you all today. This is a great time to get to know you all and I'm really sure some really great information in regard to academic support for engineers at CSU. So I'm just going to pause for a second or two to make sure that everybody is able to get logged in successfully. But this is great there. Spokes from North Carolina, Illinois, Colorado, Hawaii.

This is fantastic. Welcome yellow and California.

Cool well I'm super stoked that you took time out of your busy schedules to join us this afternoon. So definitely, you know, settling we're going to share a lot of really great information today.

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and get kicked up so welcome once again. My name is Jackie gold ring and I serve as the undergraduate recruitment programs manager. And so I'm your point person. Any of these questions that you might have, especially for those of you who are admitted students? This is definitely, you know, a busy time as you're preparing for the fall semester. So just know that I'm here to help you along with all of my colleagues in the College of engineering and so for those of you who are admitted students.

I wanna say a massive congratulations. This is huge. I definitely want to take some time to honor you and celebrate your accomplishment. Were very excited for you to join our ram. Lee, I don't know if you all have heard that term before, but we say we are a rambly, and you'll hear time and time again. A lot of reasons why folks choose to come to stay come to CSU and stay at CSU is because of the community. So we always talk about Rams, take care of Ramzan, so I hope you feel that today. And with that I'm going to go ahead and get kicked up, I think.

Everybody is logged in now.

Alright so I'm gonna do a quick overview. Actually, what we're gonna do today. So we're going to have a presentation and I'm going to do an overview of engineering all of our disciplines and then specifically talk about the academic support in the College of engineering because it is worth saying that engineering is a rigorous program and it's good to know that you're going to have the support network at CSU to succeed. And so I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what that network looks like and how to get connected from day one.

And then after the presentation, we're going to transition to a Q&A session, and so some of our student ambassadors will join us to help answer any of the questions that you all might have. And then you actually submit the questions through the chat box feature. So throughout the presentation, feel free to throw some questions in there and will be sure to start with those once we begin the question and answer session. Alright, so lips died in so at the heart of engineering really is problem solving, so everything that engineers do is centered around solving problems.

Looking around the world, spotting things that don't work so well and thinking about creative solutions and how to make the world a better place with a great impact on society and the environment. So these are really important roles in our world. More so now than ever. And so at CSU we really are heavily focused on the grand challenges and so the grand challenges of engineering. If you're not familiar with them yet, I would highly encourage you to go ahead and look those up. There's about 14 different challenges right now.

And it's everything from clean water to cybersecurity, so there's a large scope of problems that we're facing and engineers can think about ways to solve those problems and really create good in this world. And that's our focus at CSU and the way that we do that is truly through teamwork, so you will hear this often. Engineering is a team sport, so engineering does not happen in a vacuum, not in your time at CSU, or when you leave and enter into industry, you're going to find that you rely and work with others in order to come up with the best solution.

So teamwork is really at the heart of everything that we do at CSU. Also, it's interdisciplinary, so it's really great to know that you're going to be working with majors across the whole College of engineering and sometimes within different colleges at CSU as well. Also were heavily focused on projects and what I love about the curriculum at CSU for Engineering is your in your intro to engineering class. Your very first semester. So if you're a mechanical engineer, you're taking your intern mechanical engineering and that very first semester. And in that class.

You're gonna have a number of projects that you work on so that you can apply the knowledge that you gain during lecture. It's really important to take in all of that theoretical knowledge, but also have a way to apply that knowledge, because that's truly how it becomes embedded. That's how you become an expert and how you will advance the field of engineering eventually. So very exciting stuff. So as we move on, these are all of the majors in engineering at CSU that we offer. And now I'm going to go through them one by one. So buckle up.

This is going to be a lot of information, but if you have questions about any of these majors, definitely typing in the chat and will be sure to respond.

So I want to start off with talking about biomedical engineering at Colorado State University. So this is a truly unique program were one of the only programs to be an A bet accredited dual degree in biomedical engineering. So that's definitely a mouthful, so let's break it down. One of the first things I said was a bet accredited. So this is our accreditation bodies, so they go around all the schools that offer engineering programs to make sure that core competencies are met during the degree program, so that when students graduate they can enter their field.

Safely, because as an engineer you truly have people's lives in your hands. Sometimes if you're building a bridge, we have to make sure that you have this skills in order to do so safely. So everybody working on the project as safe as well as the folks who will eventually use the bridge, and so Eva is the accreditation board. We actually just had our review in October, and they do the review every six years, so no matter where you end up at school, please make sure that the programs are a bet accredited.

Employers are always going to be looking for this when you apply to jobs.

So the other thing I said was dual degree, so it sounds just like it says 2 degrees. So in biomedical engineering you'll get one degree in biomedical engineering and then you get to pick from a partner major and there are three different options and a little bit of history and context to widely structured this program in this fashion. So when it first started, we asked industry partners hey, what can our students do in order to be more competitive and biotech fields and their response was, well really adding some depth to the degree would be beneficial.

Because bio medical engineering is fairly new and it's advancing at a rapid pace, and so in order for students to the experts, we partnered with a discipline that is more established in the field of engineering and so these are the three partner majors you can choose from the first one we're going to talk about is electrical engineering. So if you're thinking about electrical engineering in relation to biomedical engineering, you're really thinking through things like imaging and scanning and diagnostics. And we also have a concentration in optics in lasers, so if that's something that interests you, this is a very unique program that's really going to set you apart as you look for jobs.

Also for internships as well, the second partner major you could choose from is mechanical engineering students in this realm are really thinking about how things move in application to biomedical engineering and this could be animals. This could be humid beans and then really thinking through that Physiology and anatomy and how to replicate that as well in a very safe and efficient way. And so a lot of students are maybe building out prosthetics or medical devices. One other piece of it could possibly be tissue engineering as well, so just depends which route you're most interested in.

Then the third and final part are major. You can choose from is chemical and biological engineering, and so this is really fantastic, especially if you're looking into Pharmaceuticals R&D or you're looking at really at that cellular level and doing Cancer Research or things along those lines. And this is a really great program if you are thinking about pursuing medical school. So if you were on a pre Med track at CSU, you pick an undergraduate degree and then you also have an advisor from our pre professional health programs who will make sure that you're taking all the prereqs that you need in order to be a competitive candidate for medical school.

Once you finish your undergraduate degree, so this is a great program is definitely going to make you a unique standout candidate as well.

So Next up I wanna talk about chemical and biological engineering. Another very unique program here Colorado State University. We were the first to offer and a bet accredited program in both chemical and biological engineering. And so this is 1 degree structured to be a four year program and you can of course enter all the fields associated with chemical engineering. So if you want to go into oil and gas, you're going to be well equipped to do so. Then when you add in that biological component, you really open up all of the opportunities in fields that you're going to be competitive for.

And so with our students, a lot of that focuses definitely unstill Pharmaceuticals, material science, but also things like cosmetics and food processing. Because you're adding in that biological components. If your dream is to go and run a yogurt factory, this might be a perfect degree for you. Also, process engineering. So huge piece of the puzzle when you look at chemical and biological engineering. So any large manufacturing line is definitely going to have a chemical and biological engineer overseeing those processes.

So next I want to talk about civil and environmental engineering. So as you see, this is one Department, but two separate degrees, so you are either a civil engineer or an environmental engineer. And either way you're going to be focused on very large.

Michael projects and at CSU I really like to brag about this Department because they're actually ranked #7 right now in the entire world.

So that's pretty amazing, and a lot of that is down to our water resources program, and so students studying environmental engineering at CSU are going to be heavily focused in water, so that might be water treatment. Water contamination in water resources, but also hydrology is a big piece of that puzzle, and figuring out how to harness the power of water for clean energy supply, and then if you are in civil engineering, you're definitely thinking about those large scale projects, maybe to do with infrastructure or buildings. Thinking about roadways, bridges, tunnels. All of those very large projects here in Colorado.

A lot of our students go on to work for the Colorado Department of Transportation, and if you think about civil engineering, definitely thinking about structures. However, it will be an architect that designs a building and then it's down to the civil engineer to make sure it's structurally sound. Next step, I want to talk about computer, an electrical engineering at CS go. So these are two separate programs, but one Department. There definitely is some overlap. Everything really falls under this umbrella of electrical engineering, which of course is anything to do with electrical components.

Products and systems, and so with an electrical engineering, your focus is heavy in the hardware aspects and really thinking about the world around us. This is literally everything we touch from our laptops or phones to our watches and the growth has been exponential over last 20 years and will only continue to grow. And that's really great for job security and so one thing within this Department that's worth noting is every student within this program who graduates will have a job or go on to study in advanced degree. So our placement rate is 100%.

That's really great to know, as you're looking to invest time, energy, and money into your education. Also, students graduating this program has the highest starting salary rate so that salary right now for their first job out of school is $74,000. Not too shabby. Uhm. So again, talking about Electrical Engineering is more that hardware aspect. And then when you think about computer engineering, it's really a happy balance between electrical engineering as well as computer science. So you're dealing still with the hardware of the computer, the architecture of the computer. But then you also bring in that component of software.

And so that's a really happy balance, especially for folks who may be considering computer science. But maybe you've taken apart your laptop before him rebuilt it and put it all back together successfully. So you may be interested still in that design of the computer, and you can go into things like embedded system, software engineering in robotics is a huge one is well, especially as we continue to advance in artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Also, so mechanical engineering, that's our next, we're going to talk about so mechanical engineering is definitely our largest program within the College of engineering. When we look at our undergraduate degrees, we have 1/3 of our students are studying mechanical engineering and this is a great degree because it gives you a really nice broad foundation and then you get to really pick out specific classes that are going to connect you to the areas of Industry you wish to work. And so as you work through the curriculum at CSU for engineering in general, your first couple years are going to be your foundational years, very theoretical.

You still have some applied knowledge pieces to that, but then as you advance you pick out your technical electives and those are going to be the classes that truly connect you to your field. So then you can start to pick out classes. If you're a mechanical engineer, maybe an aerospace engines, controls, robotics, kind of any of those areas where you wish to specialize, and that's going to make you super competitive for internships as well as full time jobs. Also, it's worth noting with mechanical engineering, a lot of our students tend to go into clean and renewable energy. This is.

Huge and especially at Colorado State University, this is one of our primary focus is so our institution is truly committed to sustainability, and we've been recognized globally for our efforts in sustainable energy and Renewable Energy Research. An at CSU. We actually have our Enerji Institute, which is also called our powerhouse because it's the old Fort Collins powerhouse. It's a little bit North of Fort Collins, but it's turned into now, uh, Research Center. Some of the cutting edge research that happens in regard to clean energy.

Happens right here in Fort Collins, and many of our mechanical engineering students get involved in research as early as their first year, so that's something you're interested in. This may be a great place for you, so students are working on things like Cook stoves and thinking how to make those more clean and efficient and safer folks around the world. Also, looking at our ecocar is house over in our powerhouse, and so that's a really cool project. Is part of our senior design project, and so it's a car that's actually donated by GM and our students come together to get the car, rebuild it and get it to run at zero emissions, and so that is.

How is to over at our powerhouse? So there's definitely a lot of cool projects to get involved in over there, and I would highly suggest that you all get involved in research in your time at CSU, 'cause it's a great way to get outside of the classroom and get some hands-on experience.

So next time I talk about engineering open option so either just like a ton of information that you really quick. If you're coming in to see if you and you know you want to be an engineer, but you're not quite sure what major you want to stick to right now, don't worry. Engineering open option is going to be a great place for you to start, so this is a semester long class that you would take is called Engineering 101. The grand challenges which will sound familiar now so it goes over those 14 challenges we were talking about earlier and thinks about how each kind of engineer would come up to.

Solution and so. Thinking about how maybe a mechanical engineer would approach a problem versus an electrical engineer and then after this first semester you work with an academic advisor to declare your major.

All right, we're going to shift gears here. So again, I share a lot of information. Super quick 'cause I'm excited to get to our Q&A, but I want to start talking to you about academic support because you're gonna need people around you to support and motivate you during your time at CSU, especially in that first year as you transition to college. So one really great option that we always like to talk about is our engineering residential learning community, so this is an opportunity to live in to learn with other engineers at Csco. So we've got a few different spaces where you can live physically, so we've got one over an academic village. We've got our.

Engineering residence Hall and then we also have. Edwards Hall is well and there are two different styles of accommodations of 1 sweet style and once community style. But the great thing to know is either way you can go knock on your neighbors door if you're having any issues with homework. I want to review for an exam together and it's likely that these students will all be in the same classes that you're taking. The only variable, maybe your intro to engineering class if you're living with a mechanical engineer there going to be mechanical engineering if your chemical and biological you're going to be our chemical and biological class. But the great thing to know is, well, it's there's.

Tons of resources over in our residential learning community that you can access and you can access these resources even if you don't live in either these communities. If you are an engineer at CSU, this is your place. So this is where you can come to access mentoring. Also tutoring. This is the biggest one, so tutoring happens nightly Sunday to Thursday at 7:00 to 10:00 PM and is dedicated to different disciplines of engineering. And so you'll go to your specific night and get the information that you need to succeed in class.

The tutors that we hire have just recently finished these intraday engineering classes and they finished at the top of their class and so they know the information inside out and they have a really great perspective that may differ from maybe your professor who has one way of teaching the subjects you go and talk to a student. They can break it down in another way that may work and be more compatible with your style of learning. So definitely go to tutoring. Also we have walk in advising so this is awesome if you're not able to schedule an appointment with your advisor but you have a question that's.

Urgent you can go to these advising a walk in hours and drop in chat with the advisor and get the information you need to know straight away. Also we have our residential assistance and so these are other students who are in engineering and they can serve as mentors, offer advice and just be there to generally support you in your transition to College in that first year. Also the resources that are physically in this building are incredible so we have our design studios and so these design studios are sponsored by Lockheed Martin and they really replicate their workspace.

So you'll find computers on the perimeter, so for individual work and then a workspace in the middle to come together collaboratively. So if you're working on group projects, you can definitely use that space in the middle, but then you can turn away and work at your computer to finish up your individual work, and these it's really great to know that these computers have all of the software that you need for your whole degree on them, and you can remote desktop into this computer system as well and access all of that software so you can be at home or wherever you are, and you can still access all the information that you need.

The tools that you need to succeed. I'm also we have other collaborative work room so again, work on group projects together and we have classrooms in there so you might be fortunate enough to have your class. Maybe is a 9:00 AM class downstairs so you literally can roll out of bed and show up the glass and then go grab a waffle at the dining Hall afterwards. So it's very convenient.

So next time I want to talk about another living space that's available to engineering students, so within the key communities we have a key academic cluster for engineers. So this is another space to live in to learn with other engineers. It's also complemented with a seminar classes, well that you would take this seminar, classes taught by doctor Anthony Marquese and he's amazing. He's our associate Dean in the College of engineering and he's a first generation college student himself and really, key communities is geared towards serving students who are under represented in engineering.

So first generation students and students of color so really coming together to build a network and community of support, and that first year and beyond. So think about key communities. This is a great place to live. So next step I just want to reiterate some of our tutoring resources and I'm going to say a few things here. My first piece of advice for tutoring is go early and go often. Don't wait until you're already behind in a class to access tutoring, go first thing right. It reinforces what you're learning.

Angie might be able to help out other students as well, so tutoring across campus is free and accessible. Again. The tutoring in academic village is specific to engineering, so definitely stop by make sure that you go to these tutoring sessions in order to really get a good idea of what you need to know for these classes. Because you're going to be thrown a ton of information and it's important to really pick and choose what you're going to study in order to be successful. Also worth noting that you can go anytime, so even in your second year, you could go and go to these tutoring sessions.

As well and you don't have to live in academic village in order to access the tutoring. Also there is help available for math, so like if you're in your calculus class, there's chemistry, physics pretty much all of your general education classes. You can find tutoring for that over in the building, and that still building stands for the Institute for learning and teaching. It's over on the Oval, which is the more historic part of campus, and this is a great place to drop in and get help on those classes as well. Also, there's a variety of different tutoring.

Options across campus. So our Native American Cultural Center also offers tutoring, so definitely look for tutoring and go early. Go often.

So next I want to talk about our office. So typically we're in the engineering success center. Of course, right now I'm at home in my Home Office, but this is my favorite place on campus. It really is the front door to the College of engineering. So no matter what, if you have a question of concern, anything at all, please come in and see us. We're in the Scott Bio Engineering Building and we can help connect you if we don't have the answers will definitely find somebody who does and so a few things that I like to talk about out of our office. Our diversity programs in engineering.

So these are student organizations really, really active chapters of national societies. And so at CSU, there's a number of them to get involved in so few of them to name are the Society of women engineers or nesby, which is the National Society of black engineers or ship. This Society of Hispanic professional engineers and these are really great places to build networking opportunities at CSU. Connect with other engineers is well, find a mentor, build leadership skills. Also, many of these societies.

Offer I professional development workshops so you can always be primed and ready to go. If you need somebody who might have a job offer, you're going to be ready to hop on it and then what happens is, well, is these organizations. Of course, their national so students who are maybe officers and they get to go to regional and national conferences. And again, this is a great way to extend your network professionally, so you might need some people who want to be your mentor. Or you might go to a career fair at one of these conferences and land an internship.

So really great opportunities on at CSU and I highly suggest that you get involved. Go to meetings. I go to all of the meetings. There's tons of meetings first societies and clubs at CSU, so make sure to get involved 'cause that can really support you in your academics as well. So of course the engineering residential learning community. All of those services run out of our office, so we hire the tutors and we trained the tutors. We do training with all of our arres, so that's a really great place. Also the advisor who host the.

Office hours on a weekly basis. Her main offices in our building as well. Also Doctor Marquez in our office and he runs Arkie community and engineering. We also have a bridge program so this is called the empower program and so this is for students who may be participating in the key communities or also identify is underrepresented population in engineering and so this is a program that begins before school, kick soft and it's a great way to get into campus. Move in early, build some camaraderie as well and really start to establish your network across campus.

We do workshops on study skills, networking and other aspects that will really lead to student success. Also, out of our office, this is huge, so we run career services. It's worth mentioning that CSU we have a really wonderful main CSU Career Center that serves all the students at CSU. However, it's worth noting that as an engineer, your resume might look very different than a journalism student, and so it's important to come and visit us and get your resume reviewed by a professional engineer who knows.

What's gonna stand out and really make you shine and also out of our office, we do mock interviews and help you find internships and part of that. Search for jobs and internships is really through our career fair. So every year we host two career fairs through engineering success center in each curve where we bring out about 80 to 100 recruiters to come and talk to students and recruit them for job opportunities. So this is a great way to land an internship, a Co op or your full time job. And it's worth noting.

And this is really connected to academic support and success internships. So nearly 90% of our students will complete at least one internship during their time at CSU. And this is a really great way to get real world experience an embed. The knowledge that you're learning in the classroom and students who perform well academically often have internships. Multiple internships during their time at CSU, and then when you come back to school, you've got a ton of different skills that you're bringing with you. So in highly suggest that you look into internships or Co OPS last year here at CSU.

So I'm gonna summarize now so we can get into our Q&A session. So student success at CSU, I want you to know that there truly is a network around you committed to your success as an individual. Engineering is challenging and it has to be, but you're going to find the support network at CSU to lift you up in those challenging times, so that support network you might find at the engineering success center through any of these programs, we talked about their diversity programs through the engineering residential learning community through key communities.

Maybe in that bridge program and then also your success is gonna show up when you gain that first internship which will feel super great, um? Also, you'll find student success in tutoring and this is a huge support system. Remember what I said? Go early and go often. Also there's the tutoring around campus for your more general education classes and then professor office hours. It's worth noting that all of our professors are required to have office hours, and so this is a great time for you to go in and talk to them after lecture.

And have any of the questions that you have addressed at that time, and this is a great time to also build up more of a one to one relationship with your faculty member so that faculty member might be doing some research that you find super cool and then maybe in your office hours. Not only are you getting help on your homework, you might find yourself in the opportunity for research job, so there's definitely cool ways to connect across campus and office hours are great way to do so, and it's also worth noting that professors in the College of engineering they're really committed to teaching.

So yes, we are Tier 1 Research Institute an our faculty are conducting really cutting edge research, but there at CSU because they want to teach. They want to uplift the future generation of Engineers who truly are going to change the world. So no, that in their hearts they really want to be there to support you and that's something that I found at CSU and the reason I stayed at CSU. Also don't forget about your peers so your friends are gonna be there with you throughout this whole experience. So lean on them and then you'll be there.

When they need to have somebody to support them, and it's a great community at CSU. Oftentimes when you walk into the Sky bio building, you will find groups of students studying together. Whether it's 8:00 AM in the morning or 11:00 o'clock at night. So definitely find your group of friends and peers who will keep you motivated throughout the program. Also, lean on your academic advisors. Your academic advisors want to see you succeed no matter what, so definitely no. At CSU, Academic Advisors are committed to you, and making sure that you're set up for success, so making sure that your schedule makes sense that you're not going to be overwhelmed.

TA

Check your opportunities to maybe take summer classes, connect you to an internship, and just generally care for you. So no, at CSU your academic advisors are a great resource.

And with that we are here for you, and so this is a great picture up at Irish TS, you mountain campus. And this is a team of students and staff that are committed to really helping you transition. And at first year and beyond and so with that I want you to go ahead and meet some of these awesome students. So do you want to go ahead and turn on your cameras and will start Q&A?

Awesome hi welcome OK, so let's quickly get started and will do if y'all could do an introduction of who you are. Uhm, what degree here in what year you're in where you're at currently and then also your favorite academic support mechanism that you found so far.

And we'll go Camille Kylia Donya.

Everyone, my name is Camille. IMA incoming 5th year studying chemical and biological and biomedical engineering. Uhm I am originally from Southern California, which is where I am right now and my favorite academic support kind of mechanism is office hours. Through all my professors.

Hi everyone, my name is Kaylee and I'm currently a 30 years or no. I'm going into my 4th year studying computer engineering.

I'm from Honolulu, HI and uh, my favorite academic support so far has actually my TAS or my teachers assistance. Sometimes it's worth going to their office hours instead of a professors office hours, 'cause that a professor will be like really excited about something that you're still confused about, so they talk a lot and then a TH could be like listen. He says a lot of things, but this is the main takeaway. And so I really like going to TAS of dives.

Hi everyone, my name is Ananya. I'm going into my third year studying chemical and biological engineering and I'm from India. But at the moment I'm in San Jose, CA and my favorite academic resource. I'd have to say so tilt building which is the Institute of.

Learning and teaching sorry and the convenience of that is that the timings of those are in the evening from like 5:00 to 10:00 PM and so it works really well with my schedule. If I have classes or anything of that sort during office hours.

Yay, thank you so much for sharing. I think that's really great to know, um, so we'll go ahead and hop into Sam's question here. So I'm Sam's asking if I were to go in as engineering open option would it set me back for the next semester once I've decided so? So I will say a few things. Most departments will accept the engineering 101 grand challenges class to fulfill your intro to engineering class. However, that doesn't apply to all of the department's quite yet, so there may be a catch up that you do to take maybe one class.

Over the summer time, so is kind of dependent on what major you decide to declare, and that's kind of the subject to change as well as we kind of continue to grow engineering open option. So this is definitely something worth considering, but I would say as well open option is a great place to start if you're not quite sure which discipline of engineering you wish to pursue, so I don't want to discourage you from starting there, but also I do want to make sure to manage expectations on the transfer of that class to other disciplines.

So something just to think about as well.

Does anybody want to talk a little bit about engineering? 101 Kylie. I know you've participated as an outreach student in that class to share a little bit about ECE Electrical and computer engineering. Do you want to talk about that Class A little bit in your experience? Going into talk to students and open option?

Definitely, so I think engineering 101 or that grand challenges classes are really awesome opportunity to get to know not only what you'll learn in that major, but you'll be able to talk to current professors. The Professor Doctor Bert is actually super awesome because he brings in perspective current students like myself to talk about the different majors. So as Jackie was talking about, I was brought in to talk about the different electrical and computer engineering those two majors.

The way that the class kind of Works is there are 14 grand challenges and he kind of goes through all of these different grand challenges and how it applies to each major. But the, but what he does is he kind of schedules it so that every few weeks you're focusing on one specific major, and then you'll move throughout the rest of the semester talking about all of these majors. Eventually he also offers.

Um and engineering like majors fair for students so they will have different advisors from all of the different disciplines that will be there, as well as students like myself and you can like go through all the different booths and talk to people as a way to also learn more about that major. So this is a really awesome option for you if you are kind of unsure or you are thinking, yeah, I think I want to go into mechanical engineering, but electrical or civil also sound pretty interesting to me, so I want to just make sure.

Thank you Kylie for sharing more answer. Hannah's got a question about how cool tutoring work when we're online and do you wanna talk a little bit about this ananya and as we did transition to remote in virtual learning and halfway through the spring semester this year.

Yeah, I can do that. Um, so the way it worked this semester, and I believe that's how it's going to keep working for any of the classes that will be on line or that we used a lot of Microsoft Teams. So using your CSU like email ID you have access to teams. I believe they are changing that to make sure that everyone has access to teams for next semester as well and so on. Their professors just have like set office hours, and even if it's like a tiny question that you have, you can always like popping it out and so that made it very convenient. Other than that, they were also really flexible in terms of like if there was a specific software that you preferred, or if you like.

Wanted to hang out and chat over like Google Hangouts or something like that. You can always send them an email and they would be open to just like making sure that they are accommodated you at the same time. So it just depends on that. the Institute of learning and teaching, as I mentioned earlier, the way they did that is that you would just sign up and basically have like an on line course. So you were signed up for and so you would still log into Microsoft Teams of those same exact times and still be able to access those. So became very easy and convenient and like in general, as I mentioned, professors were still very open to just.

Allowing for different like timeframes as well if that works better for you.

Thank you and Anya and it's worth mentioning that you will come as an engineering student. You'll get email every Monday from Alice Werkmeister. Read that email 'cause it has a lot of really important information in there and only one of them. This message that was important was updates about tutoring, specifically academic village terrain and so is Ananya mentioned that platform teams was really helpful in communicating information about tutoring and also there was an email address that was set up. So if you have specific questions or you needed to meet with a tutor at specific time, you can send an email of all the questions that you have. What subject.

Area is it and what times are you available? And then they would work to make that meeting happen and so definitely trying to meet students with as much flexibility as possible. Also is worth mentioning that right now the plan is moving forward to the fall 2020 semester. Our president, President McConnell, has said that classes for first year students will be offered in person, so it will be on campus instruction. There may be some hybrid components to some classes that have larger class sizes.

In order to ensure that we can do some social distance saying so some classes, you might go to lecture one day and then maybe another component is offered on line. But then you know, really, that goal is everything. First year though, you're going to have an in person component to everyone of those classes. They're going to try to open up different sections, so you may find that the class schedule this coming semester will look very different than previous years, so they're trying to offer enough sections 'cause some classes like Kim, one of your chemistry.

111 that's are usually really big class, so they might have to make more sections so that they don't have all of our lecture halls at capacity. and I know right now, actually our CSU Board of Governors is meeting right now in deciding on our plan of action for fall 2020, and so once that's totally finalized and approved, we will push out all that messaging on publicly. So definitely keep an eye out for that. Hopefully sometime next week will have more information on what fall will look like specifically.

Great, OK, so the next question is about engineering 101. Is that only available if you're an open option major? Is it possible to take intro to civil engineering as well as into 101? So potentially it is definitely dependent on a number of factors, so we need to see how many students are enrolled as engineering open option and make sure that there's enough capacity in the classroom for those students, and then it would be talking really 1 on one to get over ride from the professor. If you are really interested in this option, definitely I'll drop my email in this box, send me an email and I'll get you connected with the professor as well as the advisor.

To see if that's on something that we could accommodate for the fall semester.

Ascensor Bell is asking are your weekends at school still pretty packed with work or do you have enough time to do things off campus? So Camille, do you want to talk a little bit about your weekend look like, and maybe think about how they maybe have shifted from your first year now as you enter into your 50 year?

Yeah, um, so yeah, like Jackie said, I'm entering my fifth year and that first year was definitely a lot of kind of like trial and error. Trying to figure out what works for me and kind of how I should space out my time. And you hear this often, but it really comes down to time management as a dual engineering major, right? You have your plan of study kind of figured out for you where you won't take 17 credits or 18 credits.

I'm every single semester, which is the Max amount of credits we have you around. Kind of that 1516 range just so you can exactly have that where you have weekends for yourself. For me, entering my my first year I kind of had a lot of time. Actually I was able to join more clubs than I should have. I joined way more organizations than I should have and now kind of entering my fifth year an especially entering something called senior design, which is something that all engineering majors will do. My weekends are still kind of.

Open, but they're more open in terms of my discretion, so I can either choose to use those as like I'll go exploring Colorado, or I have to use this time a little bit to do a little bit of senior design, especially working sometimes. Some of my weekends are also taken up by that, so it really depends on how you manage your time throughout the week. what I say is kind of chip at it a little bit throughout the week, and then on the weekends. It'll be a little more free or completely free and kind of plan out. what I do is plan at the month so that I know what weekends I want to.

Save for myself and not have anything to do or not have anything to come home and worry about.

Good call Camille. So chameleons name really important time management so you will often find it sees you. Engineers are busy people and they really understand how to manage their time efficiently and so it's really important as well, like Amusement joining clubs and organizations. So it's important to have something that's going to fill you up because there's times when you are going to need a break from engineering and it's nice to have something to go in to do an free up your mind for you. If your brain a little bit. So then when you return to your homework or whatever you're working on project wise, your renewed right? So it's really important to keep your Cup full.

And definitely, having extracurriculars is a wonderful way to do that. Kylie, do you want to talk about any of the extra curriculars that you're involved in?

Sure, um so extracurriculars both within like the academic college and also outside of the college so.

Within the college. This is one of my curriculars. I counted this is a student job and it's actually really common for students to be employed while they are at CSU. Besides that, I'm also the financial officer for the electrical and Computer Engineering Group. This is a group of ECE students that cater towards middle schoolers and high schoolers and just getting them involved in the stem program, but specifically with an electrical and computer engineering. So we create demos and live presentations.

For students to be able to kind of get an idea of what you see is like and kind of like, dip their feet into it outside of the College of engineering. I'm also the president and the event coordinator for Pacific Club Specific Club is associated with a pack or the Asian.

Pacific American Cultural Center sorry.

And so, uh, on my spare time outside of school in different things. I really work on planning a luau just to celebrate different kinds of cultures that are found within the Pacific and really help celebrate where I come from. Especially since being away from home can really make you miss it sometimes.

No thank you kindly for sharing, uhm, OK, so let's hit the next question here. So Joe says I've completed the math placement exam in Rambaud says my next step is to talk to an academic advisor, but I'm not sure how to connect with the advisor. So you should be signed up for an orientation date. So this year in just due to circumstances, orientation has moved to completely virtual settings and so on. Your orientation date is when you meet with your academic advisor and so you'll meet in a small group and actually pick out your classes for the fall semester together at that time.

And it's actually down to the academic advisor to provide you with an advising code, because you'll need to enter that in order to successfully register for school. If you are, that's really for incoming first year students. If you're an incoming transfer student, typically what will happen is you are required to watch some information that successful through ram, web on your orientation portal and then really reach out to the academic advisor in your academic advisor should be listed in your ram web account. If you are a transfer student, you don't see that information. Definitely shoot me an email and I can. I can connect you to that.

Person, but again, if your first year student you should be doing all of this. Of course registration on your day of orientation. In those up there also doing a webinars for guests, so I think the first one is actually tomorrow. So family members and guests who have questions as well. There's going to be a webinar hosted through our orientation staff in the College of engineering and you can go to the engineering website, type in orientation and that will take you to orientation page and then you can sign up for the web and are at the bottom of the page.

Does anybody have anything to add about orientation?

Give me up.

Yeah, so I worked orientation last year and one thing that I do want to say is for those math placement tools or that Kemp Rep please please, Please ensure that you complete that time that there supposed to. I know that math placement tool was supposed to do yesterday, but if you haven't completed it, get it done as soon as possible because that does take awhile to show up in your portal that we look at so you can look at your registration for classes for that. Kemp Rep. Really ensure that you finish it that week before and not the day before.

One because it takes a long time there. A bunch of modules to really help you know, uhm, what to expect for Chem Prep. But two, it does also take awhile because it is from a second like website or a different website to really show onto your. I forgot what we call it. But like essentially what allows you to register for those classes, you will get that you can't register for this class because of this prerequisite. So just ensure that you finish that on time.

Good advice Camille. I'm definitely Kim Prep started now and math placement should be done already, hopefully and so the next question here is how much free slash extracurricular time have you all experienced you get with being in the engineering program and Anya, do you want to talk a little bit about your free time in down time and then also what you're involved in as well? And how? Maybe a tip on how to really manage your time effectively?

Yeah, um, so some of the things I'm involved in on campus are a ICT. Which is the American Institute of chemical engineers and Ramstad Borders, which is like the CSU chapter for engineers Without Borders and I'm also currently partaking in research on campus and it can definitely get to be a lot at times. But the way I motivate myself is definitely like hanging out with friends and just taking a little bit of time to relax because otherwise I don't think I'd be able to get half of my work done. And So what I like to do for that is starting my freshman year itself.

I decided which day I wanted like completely for you. So once I was done with classes, my roommate and I would always go out. I like a particular time on Thursdays and so I would try to get as much work done as possible before we went out just to make sure that I had like a deadline that I was following. And so it just motivated me to get most of my work done and whatever work I didn't get that I like either come back and then do it, or I would set aside like a particular time on the weekend and then transitioning into like my second year. Obviously there was a lot more work load.

But I what I try to do is that I dedicate Sunday as my like work day and so just by dedicating like different days where I want to be free versus want to actually get all my work done. It helps me just feel a little more productive and set aside time that I know I'll for sure be free, because otherwise if I didn't do that, I know I just doing work again and again. And just like trying to dedicate a little bit time here in there. So I'd say definitely also depends on like which year you're in Ascanio mentioned, but there is definitely.

Every time that you can like a lot for yourself and by getting involved in like clubs and organizations for which you're truly like passionate about the projects they're doing or the work they're doing, that it definitely helps make it easier to manage your workload as well. Because you're truly interested in what you're doing that way.

Definitely great advice, and Anya. Does anybody have anything to add?

I asked him so on the next question is would you advise having a PC or Mac? I'm Kylie do you wanna talk about this and then also would you talk a little bit about the specifications you were looking for when coming into this program in regard to your computer?

Sure, so ETS or the engineering technology services, they don't have a specific type or model of computer that you should have coming into college. What they do kind of ask is basically that.

Um, or what I really recommend, is that it's better to have a Windows operating system. Just because most of the lab computers are actually windows based, so it makes it really easy to remote desktop on to the lab computers, and remote desktop is basically a software that you can download on to your personal computer, which allows you to access all of the lab computer files and software and applications and things like that. When I was looking at a computer.

I was looking for definitely a newer type of computer and your processor can be I say like I think the most common processor is like an Intel so I normally say go for like an Intel I7, but that's normally because within four years you want a newer type of model just so that it can last you throughout college. If you are a mechanical engineering student or you find yourself using a lot of CAD software, you probably want a higher ram or memory that basically tells you that your computer can run all of these different applications.

At the same time, so it just doesn't start to lag because your computer is slowing down. Besides that, a lot of different specs can be dependent on you. I say that those two things are the most important. Uh, graphics card isn't really necessary. It is better if you to get like a higher graphics card. If you're talking about like a mechanical engineering student or plan to do a lot in like CAD design, but besides that it can really be up to you. That's kind of what I was looking for when I was looking at a computer.

Awesome, thank you Kelly Ann. I know Camille in Ananya. Both have Max. Do you want to give?

Little perspective from the other side.

And what I will also add is that my freshman year I had my personal computer, but I didn't want to download the Matlab software on to it to do my work, and so since I lived in the residence Hall like the Academic Village Engineering Hall, I would just go down to the very first floor in the computer labs there and get all my work done there. And so if you are like either living on campus or you are planning to use the campus facilities, it is easy as well. So especially if you want to like separate your work from like your personal life and just have like your computer is different for that as well.

That's like a really good perspective, and Anya, I like that separation, especially when we're like working remotely. Sometimes it can be hard to separate your personal life and your work in school life, so I that's a good pointer. So really great information there. So lots to digest and consider when picking out your computer for school. and I would say if you have a machine that already works, don't go and buy a new computer. You don't need to trust me. One thing you might look at is thinking about your style of learning. An iPad might be really helpful as well, or some kind of tablet for.

You know, taking notes and working on things. Uh, you know, in that fashion as well. So something to think about.

All right, so the next question is, I'm currently awaiting AP calculus scores to be released. Should I take the math placement exam now or is it OK until it to wait until the scores come out to decide? Take it now just like get it done like Camille was saying. If you don't, you won't be able to register for classes. And like that's the whole point of orientation. I would say don't chance it just hop in there. There's review materials for the math placement tool. You can take it as Unproctored. You work through it, it shows you exactly what class you're cleared to register for at the end of the math placement tool.

If you are not cleared for math 160, so math 160 is calculus one at CSU, that is your goal as your first semester math class. If you are not cleared to take that after the math placement tool, you have a number of options you can actually take them out. The pre calc tutorial instead. Or you can take the math challenge exam and that will all sync up with your math placement result essentially and so you can then be clear to take the map 160 class. So I'd say go ahead and have been there and get it done.

Especially if your orientation date is sometime in June, because it sounds like just with everything going on, a Peace Corps are going to be a little bit later this year as well.

Alright, Hannah says, would you recommend doing a minor in the engineering program? So yes, definitely I. I don't know if anybody has. I don't think anybody has a minor on this panel in particular, but like I'm kindly do you want to talk about like computer science and computer engineering and the overlap there and then? And then we'll share a little bit more about minors that fit well with engineering.

Sure, definitely. So in computer engineering and the way I kind of describe Computer Engineering is that it's basically electrical engineering and you take a lot of computer science classes on top of it. So because of that it's really easy for computer engineers and also electrical engineering students to get a minor in computer science without having to do a lot of extra work as a computer engineering student, I actually can minor in computer science and not have to take any additional computer science classes.

Because it's all embedded into my curriculum. That being said, I did have a math minor for a little bit. I decided to drop it for other reasons, but that having that math minor, I think only added one additional class onto my curriculum. So that's also something that could be that you might want to think about.

Awesome, thank you. Yes, so this is definitely feasible and something that we would encourage you to do. So yes, engineering you know the the curriculum is rigorous, it's sequential. You have to take one class before you can take the next. Yet there's room in your schedule to really find your passion. Zan connect with different miners and concentrations across campus, so you can either do a minor on our global sustainability minor is a really great fit with students. If you're looking at mechanical electrical or you know environmental.

Engineering and so this is a focus on global sustainability efforts, so that's a great program. Also, we've got a student who's in environmental engineering and she's doing International Development as her minor, because that's really her focus in her passion and where she sees herself working when she graduates from CSU. So minor truly is a great way to build up your skill set to make you competitive for the field that you wish to pursue an you can really fit in a lot of these classes during the regular school year. Also, you can do work towards your minor over the summer time, so if you've got an internship.

You can take classes online for your minor and knockout your minor just in summer time, so that's something worth considering is well. I'm definitely the way that you would do this is talking with your advisor, and so you don't declare minor right now. You'd actually do that in a meeting with your advisor, so if you go to orientation and you talk to your advisor, you're like, hey, I'm interested in a minor. Not sure which one, but I want to look a little bit more into this. They'll send you over information about all the miners. You can also find that on the CSU general catalog if you want to have a look at every minor offered at CSU and then they'll talk through the process of declaring that minor and then workout how it fits.

Into your degree plan and so they'll help you time all of that out so that you're going to succeed in that minor as well, so that hopefully answers a lot of Joes question. But I do want to specifically address mechanical engineering and then a minor in business. So wonderful wonderful pairing. So there is a minor in business administration. We had a student who graduated last year and she did chemical and biological engineering with a business minor. She is one of the students who was able to complete the majority of her minor course requirement on line during the summertime.

Is that something worth considering? I'm in the other great thing is we actually have certificate programs, so if a minor feels like it may be a lot to fit into your time during your degree, you might consider a certificate program and one that pairs really well with engineering is our entrepreneurship certificate and so this is a really cool program is 12 credits and then you really are focused on entrepreneur entrepreneurship, which a lot of engineers are in that realm anyways. 'cause you're navigating intellectual property patent processing. So thinking through all of those pieces is really helpful.

I'm in your work in tandem with CSU Ventures, who if you do have a patent, you might be working on. They can help you through that process and then also help to find you some financial backing which is awesome. Another great piece of the entrepreneurship certificate is actually your senior design project can count towards that. So is Camille mention earlier senior design is required of all engineering students and so those credits could count towards your certificate program. So again like everyone saying is you can find ways to get creative with the credits that are already required of your engineering curriculum and slap those into either a minor.

Or, uhm, a certificate program?

Does anybody have anything to add with those?

Cool, so we get to the next question here. I'm an open option. What if I still can't decide after the open option classes that ever happened it has happened before, so typically students will take one semester and they'll take that open option class and then make a decision. But sometimes students stay an extra semester and takes more of their general education classes and then work really closely with their advisor to decide what engineering class they wish to pursue, and so there's not typically a follow-up clash to engineering 101.

He is typically students are transitioning over to their declared major, but it has happened before. I would definitely say some of the things that you can do now is starting to do research, so research what engineers do. Sometimes it's really helpful to work backwards, Camille. Do you want to talk a little bit about what I mean? Work backwards when finding your major in engineering.

Yeah, um, I don't know the way there's a website and I don't remember it on the top of my head. But essentially what that website does is you can kind of put what you want to do at the very beginning at the very end of this degree that you're going to get, and then it'll let you like say like I want to build buildings or I want to build reservoirs and all those cool things and then it will kind of show you what type of engineering works best with your interest. So what Jackie means by working backwards is really working at your end goal looking at that angle and kind of going backwards and seeing what different majors.

Really address what you want to do.

Perfect and I just drop it in the chat, says the CSU my majors quiz. So this would be a good place to start because it will connect you with different majors at CSU that are really aligned with your passions and your interest. And so this is a great place to start. And like Camilla saying sometimes, working backwards, figuring out where you see yourself in industry after you graduate is a really great way to figure out what discipline of engineering will get you there successfully.

OK, so I think that's all of our questions for getting close on time I do want to just kind of wrapped up with our student panel. I'm sharing just one piece of advice for incoming students really related to academic success, and then maybe share one resource that you wish you would have known about when you first started your degree at CS go.

And we'll go, let's switch it up. Will go and Non York, Haley and Camille.

I'm so my advice would definitely be reach out as soon as possible. Like I know it can be scary sometimes to just put yourself out there and ask a question. You have a doubt, but rather than waiting for later, like until you have, you know solid questions or at least like a couple of questions to ask, even if it's just the simplest question ever like, make sure you go to office hours and just ask your professor that question because it's always better to get that information before and just clarify any doubts you have. Whether that's unlike lecture material or just.

Anything outside if you just want like advice on something else, just make sure you get that advice as soon as possible and in terms of resources that I wish I'd known about earlier, I would definitely say I think like Evie, Tutoring the Aquila tutoring on the 1st floor, I learned about it like well into the first semester that I had at CSU, and at that point it was still very helpful, but just make sure you do your research on all the academic resources available to you because there are a ton on campus so.

As long as you are aware of those, you always know who to reach out to. If you ever need help for any support for anything.

So my advice for students I always like to tell students that it's OK to fail and to expect that in to be OK with it. It's not the end of the world. In high school I was the type of student who put a lot of effort into studying an eye, and I saw my reward, which was an A on a test or something like that. And so in college it was really hard for me to transition into that because I would put in all this effort. But I didn't get an AI, would get a C or I would get an.

Afanah test and it would be really, really hard because I wasn't prepared for the fact that engineering is hard. But learning in college is also hard and so that really made me struggle. Just because I kind of went into this little hole and I didn't know where I was going to do and I felt that I was stuck and so just know that if you get an F on a test or if you end up having to retake a class, it's not the end of the world. There are resources available on campus to help you specifically because of that something.

My form of like studying that I wish I adapted freshman year quickly, became relying on my peers. Um, come junior year now the this past year that I just completed, I found that studying with my friends doing homework with my friends was really awesome because we would do homework together and maybe I was strong in one topic area. But my friend was strong in another topic area so we could really kind of bounce ideas off of each other and really talk through our homework which helped me.

Not only get really good grades on my homework, but it also helped me absorb the information as I was doing the homework because after really awesome way to learn.

Cool yeah um Ann.

My advice would be, do not be afraid to advocate for yourself. That kind of goes off what Ananya was saying with don't be afraid to ask questions. Yeah, don't be afraid to advocate for yourself if you have a question that you have for your professor and they don't respond, you know within two days. Don't be afraid to email them back. Don't be afraid to stay at the end of class and say, Hey, like I was. Just wondering if you got my email like I really wanted to chat with you about this question that I had and sometimes it does just get lost in the Mail.

In their email box I guess, but it does sometimes get lost. They do get a lot of emails and so don't be afraid to really reach out and ask those questions and advocate for yourself 2 one thing or one kind of resource that I wish I had known. There's kind of two of them. One of 'em is called kind of the camp counseling sessions that you get on campus and so you get 5 free sessions as a student throughout a semester on campus located at our Health Center, which is just.

South of campus and then the second one. That's kind of Tide to that is SDC, which is student disability services or center I think is what they're called now. They've changed their name, but essentially the reason that I bring these up is sometimes you know college is still learning process for you. You don't have to have it all figured out. You know, once you get here to college, I realized my first and second year that I have like very mild testing xiety where like I can't kind of sit around people and like I don't feed off their energy and so I tried to work through that and realize that I do have testing zaidi where.

I can't be in a crowded room and so I need to. I need to go to SDC and kind of sit in a room by myself with less people, less noise and I did better on my exam. So those are resources outside of tutoring and outside of office hours that really help you as a student kind of understand who you are and also do better on your exams because some stuff are kind of just out of control and these people can really help you with that.

I love that. Thank you all so much for sharing most great tips, tricks and advice. Uhm I wanna say thank you so much to all of our student ambassadors for joining us on the panel today. Y'all are wonderful anan. I want everybody who tuned in to know this is your community so reach out to us. We're all here to help in to support you in this transition to classes this fall. I know it's a challenging time right now. Please, you know that Rams truly do take care of Rams. So if you have any concerns or worries anxieties, please let us know how we can help and connect you to all of the resources that are available to us at CSU.

And so with that we're gonna go ahead and sign of- I drop my email in here. So if you have follow-up questions or anything, feel free to reach out directly and just please do take time to care for yourselves. Care for your loved ones, annuar community in this time. So sending everybody big gratitude and thanks for tuning in. So go rants and enjoy the rest of your day.