Dean's Community Message

March 16, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

I hope the start of this period of remote instruction has been relatively smooth as we all work together to navigate through these uncharted waters. Here are some updates for today.

Undergraduate Design and Project-Based Courses

Undergraduate students taking design and project-based courses may not use labs and other areas on campus to complete their work. Faculty are asked to identify alternative ways of achieving the goals for the projects, including best practices for modifying project goals in the event that students are not able to complete prototyping and fabrication related to their projects. The college’s Leonhard Center and the Office for Digital Learning developed a short set of recommendations for moving design and project-based courses to online instruction. You can access those recommendations in the FAQs here.

Exception Requests: Undergraduate Research Lab Access

As noted previously, undergraduate students who are doing research for credit may not continue to work in labs. To submit an exception request, email L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu. Requests will be reviewed by Dr. Peter Butler, Associate Dean for Education and Graduate Professional Programs, and Dr. George Lesieutre, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, with exceptions requiring final review and approval from me as Dean.

Human Subjects-Related Research Visits: Revised Standards

Penn State’s Office of the Senior Vice President for Research has issued revised standards directing that research visits are to be performed remotely whenever possible, with non-essential research visits involving face-to-face interaction with participants with no direct drug or device therapeutic benefit to be postponed until further notice. Essential research visits that involve the administration of drugs or monitoring of devices that cannot be performed remotely and that provide direct therapeutic benefit (drug or device) to study participants may continue, with additional guidance. The complete revised standards are available via the COVID-19 Information for Penn State Researchers website.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Exams, Final Oral Exams

Effective immediately and according to updated guidance from the Penn State Graduate School, programs do not need to request prior approval for an exception to allow any or all faculty members or the student to participate remotely in benchmark examinations. Programs must report the participation conditions of all doctoral examinations held under this guidance to Graduate Enrollment Services contemporaneously with the results of the examination. Full guidance is available here.

As a reminder, continue to refer to the University’s informational site and the College of Engineering resources site. If you have unanswered questions, clarifications, or concerns, please email L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu and we will work to address either individually or as part of these daily messages.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering