Career By Design

Howdy Everyone, 

I hope everyone is staying safe in the uncertain times ahead. For us students, I have heard from around the country things such as graduations being cancelled, classes leaving the classroom and new grading systems being adapted. As aspiring civil engineers, our affinity to want to help with problems facing our civilization is blaring. So let us try and help each other by sharing these experiences within our educational communities to see if there are ways our individual programs could be aided in these times.








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Sophie Lipomanis
J.B. Speed School of Engineering | Civil Engineering Admissions Ambassador
American Society of Civil Engineers (S.C.) | Vice President
National ASCE Student Ambassador
Speed School Student Council | Director of Society Relations
sophie.lipomanis@...
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My daily life has changed tremendously. Instead of going to work at Keysight Technologies, I am working from home which is challenging due to me still living at home with my family. My whole family is off work and I am the only one working from home. This has also had an impact on my course work because my college has decided to move everything to online. I am also taking a lab class so the labs are canceled but the lectures are remote.

This has also impacted my US Army Corps of Engineers because I have to wait to go on jobsites like I have been due to the CDC regulations. Although, the Army Corps of Engineers have been in touch with me and are helping me get through this tough time as well as keeping me updated on projects they are wanting to take me to see.

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Sandra Chance
R&D Technical Specialist
Keysight Technologies
Santa Rosa California
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Sophie, now that things are about to start back up, I'm curious what students' thoughts are on the plans for the fall.

I just started grad school in Mexico a few weeks ago, and we have a phased plan for resuming activities.
-Fully online until at least mid September
-hybrid environment when campus reopens (can be online, in person, or both)
There are also detailed procedures for the campus reopening
-deep cleanings
-professors given access to campus after a safety training on protocols
-students returning after a safety training on protocols
(etc)

Overall I'm thankful that we are not rushing back to campus. The return date has already been pushed once, and I'm not going to be in town right away when campus reopens.

What steps is your university taking? How are you feeling about the semester?

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Heidi Wallace EI,P.E.,M.ASCE
P.E.
Tulsa OK
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Well I'm a final year student and was about to graduate in this June but my classes got suspended and took a while to get on online learning platforms. I guess I'm graduating next year if things go as planned. So basically feels like my graduation just got delayed by a year!

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Maisha Salam S.M.ASCE
Dhaka
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I've been living as close to my old life as I could. I always planned to have my last year of undergraduate classes from home and drive over for classes, and I was still the latter at least three days a week. Half of my classes still had some on-campus content and the work for one my jobs required being in the office, so I went each time, with all of the precautions everything from the news to the university warned me about.

I'm glad I still had a life outside. After losing and struggling to create any new outdoor activates all across the summer, it was refreshing and very productive that I could still have other resources.

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Alexander Granato S.M.ASCE
Student
Bexley OH
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Sophie:

Covid drastically changed my college experience. Currently, I am now living at home with parents to save costs on housing fees while having all online courses. It's been a challenge, and I really struggle with the asynchronous courses which don't provide the same structure and resources aren't posted with enough time to manage my own time deadlines. This has been a weird way to end my senior year, but I have taken on new opportunities such as a part-time virtual internship which I otherwise wouldn't have been able to do. 

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Brian Shanahan S.M.ASCE
University of Iowa | Civil Engineering
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Brian Shanahan S.M.ASCE
Intern
Park Ridge IL
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@Sophie Lipomanis being that I just finished my first semester of my Masters and first semester online as well.

One noticeable impact of online learning was the difficulty of professors to see if the students were understanding the material. Typically, in my experience, a professor can gauge the class's understanding by looking if there are any blank faces but without the face-to-face interaction this was difficult. 

Another aspect that was clearly affected was the professor's methods of teaching. For me, I like it when the professor writes on the board and the students have to copy the information into their notebooks versus the professor who has power points. There's something about pen to paper that allows me to retain and recall the information better. One of the downsides of learning remotely is that everything is recordable eliminating the necessity of writing everything down. 

One of the benefits of online learning was the time saved from not commuting to class and to study sessions. I was able to study and collaborate with other students remotely whereas I used to commute to school. Another benefit was the professor's new flexible office hours. I sent an email to my professor and set up a meeting time that worked for both of us. 

Overall, remote learning has positives and negatives, and the positivities for me definitely outway the negatives.

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Daniel Bressler EIT, A.M.ASCE
Junior Engineer
Brooklyn NY
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