Dean's Community Message

July 23, 2021

Dear College of Engineering Community,

Last Friday was a milestone day for the college, as we hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the construction now underway of two new engineering buildings on West Campus. You can watch the archived livestream of the event or check out this 60-second recap.

These projects are part of a monumental transformation of our footprint on the University Park campus, one that will impact the experiences of more than 30,000 engineering students in the next decade alone.

A speaker at the groundbreaking ceremony was one of those students — Maria Jose Alvarez-Rodriguez — an undergraduate majoring in aerospace engineering. Part of her remarks included this viewpoint:

“Personally, I think a great engineer is not one who is the most knowledgeable in their field, but instead one who understands the broadness of our discipline and has the humility to go beyond and look for outside perspectives — one who is able to work with people from different fields to find new opportunities of improvement.”

As we head into the final week of July, embracing all that summer offers, I also find myself looking with eagerness toward the start of the fall semester in just a few short weeks. In that anticipation, I am reminded in Maria’s remarks of the joy that awaits us all in coming back together — in person(!) — and as an engineering community working together across varied perspectives toward common goals.

Here are today’s updates:

Vaccination Status Survey Deadline Today

If you are a student and have not already done so, please complete the short and important anonymous survey about your current COVID-19 vaccination status or plans to get vaccinated before the start of the fall semester. Learn more about how to participate via this Penn State News story.

COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic

Penn State University Health Services will host a vaccine clinic for all students on July 26 and 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center on the University Park campus. Students must schedule an appointment via myUHS to receive a vaccine.

Undergraduate Scholarship Application Now Open

The College of Engineering administers certain endowed and corporate scholarships for continuing engineering undergraduate students currently enrolled at Penn State. This includes first-year students. To be considered for these scholarships, students must submit an application. Awards are made on a rolling basis as resources allow throughout the year. More information is available here. Note: Continuing students who were awarded a four-year scholarship as a first-year student do not need to reapply for that award. However, continuing students are welcome to apply for additional awards.

Teaching Tip #96 – Recording Class Lectures Using Zoom

After Aug. 16, class lectures recorded in Zoom and scheduled in Canvas will automatically publish to the Canvas Course’s Media Gallery. Due to this new integration, the Zoom Cloud recording tab will be turned off in Canvas. To make Kaltura media available to students in your Canvas course, enable the Media Gallery in the navigation tab under Course Settings. Check out how to add Kaltura media to a Canvas course for additional information, and contact the Office for Digital Learning for help.

Have a great weekend!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering