Engineers' Forum September 2021

Engineers’ Forum SEPTEMBER 2021 VOLUME 42 NUMBER 3

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On the Cover Students from Kevin Kochersberger’s drone class fly quadcopters they designed and built.

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Engineering Expo

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CEED Program

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Kashyap Bhatt

Jolene Ghosh

Post-Pandemic Course Changes Adeline Ghosh

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the September 2021 issue, the first Engineers’ Forum magazine of the 2021-2022 school year!

Finally back in-person! Congratulations on surviving the pandemic so far, and we hope that conditions continue to get better. Best of luck with your classes; don’t forget to bring your masks to class!

Interested in hearing the latest updates on the annual Engineering Exposition Career Fair at Virginia Tech? Learn about logistics, how to register, and what companies are attending by reading Kashyap’s article on Engineering Expo.

One of our newest writers, Jolene Ghosh, gives a glimpse into the summer programs offered by the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED). This is a great resource to send to your friends and family members who are interested in the VT engineering experience.

Lastly, Adeline Ghosh conveys the impact COVID has had on engineering course curriculum, specifically labs and project-based classes. If you’re interested in understanding professors’ perspective on course changes, this is a good read.

We’d also like to welcome the new officers joining Engineers’ Forum: Adeline Ghosh, our new Business Manager, and Hayley Stout, our new Webmaster.

Thank you for picking up a copy of the September issue of Engineers’ Forum. Let’s start off the semester strong! Reach out if you’d like to join our team!

We appreciate your continued support of our mission to capture the student engineering experience at Virginia Tech. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Julia A. Pimentel Editor-in-Chief

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**Photos shown throughout this issue may have been taken prior to COVID-19 and Virginia Tech’s recommended best practices, including wearing masks, and social distancing.**

Engineers’ Forum Editor-in-Chief Creative Director Chief Copy Editor Managing Editor Business Manager Social Media Manager Webmaster Writers

Photography Team

Design Team

Faculty Advisors

Julia A. Pimentel - Materials Science and Engineering (‘22) RJ Weaver - Industrial Design (‘22) Dianna Kim - Public Relations, Professional and Technical Writing (‘22) Alexander Petsopoulos - Aerospace Engineering (‘22) Adeline Ghosh* - Electrical Engineering (‘24) Jessica Barbish - Mechanical Engineering (‘22) Hayley Stout* - Industrial Design (‘22) Jessica Barbish - Mechanical Engineering (‘22) Kashyap Bhatt - Mechanical Engineering (‘22) Adeline Ghosh* - Electrical Engineering (‘24) Jolene Ghosh - General Engineering (‘24) Sumaiya Haque - Industrial Systems Engineering, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘23) Maaz Hasan - Mechanical Engineering (‘23) Alexander Petsopoulos - Aerospace Engineering (‘22) Julia A. Pimentel - Materials Science and Engineering (‘22) Meredith DePuy - Industrial & Systems Engineering (‘24) Maaz Hasan - Mechanical Engineering (‘23) Sean Stroud - WIldlife Conservation (‘22) RJ Weaver - Industrial Design (‘22) Hayley Stout* - Industrial Design (‘22) Sumaiya Haque - Industrial Systems Engineering, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘23) Linda Hazelwood Alex Parrish * Congratulations to our newest EF officers!

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(Background) Parts from Randolph Hall Photo / Kendal Price

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Engineering Expo Career Fair Article /

Kashyap Bhatt (‘22)

With vaccinations rolling out with full force and Virginia Tech deciding on a full in-person experience for the fall semester, many new opportunities have opened up for new and current students at Virginia Tech.

Networking is arguably one of the most important parts of finding one’s dream job and the Engineering Expo is the perfect opportunity for students to fast-track their careers. The Engineering Expo is an annual event hosted by the Student Engineers Council (SEC) to connect students with companies offering internships, co-ops, and even full-time positions.

With over 200 companies attending, the Engineering Expo is the perfect chance for students to interact and network with representatives from their dream companies.

The Engineering Expo will be hosted from September 14th to 17th. Unlike previous years, the SEC has adopted a hybrid-style format for the career fair where students can interact with companies both in-person from September 14th to 16th and virtually from September 16th to 17th. The decision was made so that

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students and employers can have maximum fluidity, freedom, and safety while networking amidst the ongoing pandemic. The companies registered, the days they will be attending, and all the information related to the engineering expo companies can be found at: https://expo.sec.vt.edu/Students/CompanyInformation

REGISTRATION PROCESS: The Engineering Expo will be using Brazen, a virtual career fair platform, as a registration portal for this year. Students must register beforehand for each day they wish to attend the expo with their VT email.

More information can be found at: https://expo.sec. vt.edu/Students/Registration

RESOURCES: To ensure maximum success for students at the engineering expo, the SEC has prepared an extensive list of resources that are easily accessible on their website. Several engineering organizations will be hosting expo preparation workshops where they will go over resumes, crafting an elevator pitch, and much more. The SEC is also hosting the Leadership, Engagement, and Career Virtual Event Series in which different speakers from companies, academic institutions, and student organizations will cover topics ranging from entrepreneurship to diversity. The SEC also has curated a blog dedicated to some of the top companies coming to the Engineering Expo this year, so feel free to check them out.

EXPO INFORMATION: The Engineering Expo will start at 9:00 am and end at 4:00 pm every day. The company booths will be open to students at 9:00 am and representatives will

be able to interact with students at 10:00 am after setting up their booth. Due to the high number of students, each recruiter will be assigned 10 minutes with a student which can be extended at the recruiter’s discretion. Through Brazen, each student will be able to see the approximate wait time for each company. While the default option for interacting and networking with recruiters is a one-on-one text chat through Brazen, companies that have enabled video conferencing will be able to have a video chat with students anytime during the conversation.

Unlike last year, SEC will not be hosting company interviews. Each company will have separate interviews through third-party applications. Additionally, as Brazen may be a new platform for many students, the SEC will be uploading demo tutorials and relevant information on their website and social media accounts. The expo is open to all engineering students (including freshmen!) so start honing your resumes and elevator pitch, don’t hesitate to network with recruiters, and go get that bread.

Student Info Section Photo / CAMEO

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CEED Summer Programs Overview

Article /

Jolene Ghosh (‘24)

The Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) has been at Virginia Tech since 1992 and consists of numerous programs targeted to help increase diversity in the College of Engineering. Kim Lester serves as the director of pre-college programs for CEED and works to ensure that all students feel welcome at VT and are well informed about opportunities. CEED’s programs “start with exposure at the middle school level, and then continue to offer opportunities during both the summer and the academic year as they progress through high school and beyond.”

Flower field. Photo / Sean Stroud

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Kim Lester, Director of Pre-College programs at Virginia Tech.

Photo / Kim Lester

What is CEED?

Black Engineering Excellence (BEE)

The first year of the Black Engineering Excellence CEED summer program.

Photo / CEED at VT

One of the pre-college programs offered by CEED is Black Engineering Excellence. Summer of 2021 was the first year that the program was offered at VT. The BEE program focuses on allowing participants to explore the opportunities that are available to them as underrepresented students. In order to have participants connect with the African American community at VT, “current African American engineering students were consulted in the planning phase of the program” and “all counselors are current African American students at VT” (Lester). The program is two weeks long and works to inform participants of the college admissions process through “My Next Steps - College Prep” sessions by Jesika McDaniels, a masters student in the College of Education. Although the program took place in a virtual setting this year, students were still able to participate in hands-on activities and group projects such as a Cybersecurity Capture the Flag competition. For the competition, students worked in groups to complete challenges related to engineering and computer science related applications. The competition was sponsored by the CIA and the winning team received a trophy. Students were also provided with the opportunity to attend faculty lunch-and-learns to explore engineering.

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The BEE Participant Experience The program helped to change participants’ views on engineering. Many students had been previously unaware of the different support groups that are available to them at VT such as peer mentoring and the Ujima Living Learning Community (LLC). After attending the program, many students were left feeling confident for their future in engineering. A participant in the BEE program, Sydney Richardson, said that “receiving first hand information from other minority students, particularly Black students, was really beneficial for me as I heavily consider applying to VT.” Since the program was specifically designed for African American students, participants were able to relate to the activities on a personal level and learn how to deal with difficulties they may face as minority students. Another participant, Joshua Caldwell said that the BEE program “showed me that no matter what field I go into, I’ll have a community that accepts and adapts with me.” CEED’s main goal when having pre-college programs is to ensure that all students feel welcome and supported.

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C’Tech^2 participants working on the balsa wood airplane activity.

Photo / CEED

What is C-Tech^2?

C-Tech^2 is a pre-college summer program that helps girls to explore their interest in the engineering field. The program hopes to give more women the opportunity to take part in STEM. When looking at statistics, “the entering class in the College of Engineering is only 21% female. Given these odds, it’s important for young women to have a support group they can turn to” (Lester). C-Tech^2 makes sure that their participants are aware of the support available at VT. Some of the activities that the program has to offer include a design project sponsored by General Electric (GE), guest speakers, small group design challenges, and a balsa wood airplane activity. In previous years when the program was in-person, students were able to visit different places in Blacksburg with their small groups and hiked to the Cascade Falls. Although students this year were unable to be in-person, they participated in fun design challenges and a mini Olympics during their team time.

For the GE design project, the participants were split into groups and tasked with designing a prototype and presenting it to guests from GE. Although they were in a virtual setting, the students were able to successfully complete their projects and the top presenters received an award. The C-Tech^2 program prepares students for the college admissions process and helps participants to gage their interests in engineering through guest speakers. The guest speakers went over topics such as the biomechanics of sport, computer simulations of metallic alloys, and self-care practices. In addition, participants were given an op-

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Picture of 2019 Skippers group within C’Tech^2 at the VT Hokie Stone mine.

portunity to attend lunch-and-learns that went over engineering majors with professors. After attending C-Tech^2, “typically, 40 - 50% of the participants matriculate at Virginia Tech. Fifty three percent of the eligible participants will begin their studies at VT this fall. Most of these are in engineering, but we also have students joining Pamplin and the College of Science” (Lester). C-Tech^2 is helping to increase diversity and strives to help women feel confident and learn more about STEM.

C-Tech^2 Participants A participant in C-Tech^2, Lily Donaldson, said “I’m so lucky [that] I had the opportunity to participate in the C-Tech^2 program. But there should be more programs like this everywhere for women interested in STEM, especially in high school. With these programs, female students can better understand the expectations and realities of working in STEM fields… Ultimately, we can begin to bridge the obvious gender gap existing in the work force today.”

The goal of C-Tech^2 is to help females to learn more about the STEM field and the type of work it entails career wise. Amalia Johnson, a participant, mentioned that “the environment seems so nice, and the academics seem very well-developed. I know that I’d be very happy attending VT if it’s anything like C-Tech^2!” The program helps people to develop lifelong friendships and skills that they can carry with them throughout college and their careers.

VT provides support for each of their students and through CEED pre-college summer programs, prospective students from all over the world are able to participate and see all that VT has to offer.

Previous C’Tech^2 group working on projects. Photo / CEED

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L A B S Picture of the Drill Field at sunset. Photo / Jolene Ghosh

COVID-19 Pandemic

Article /

Adeline Ghosh (‘24)

Introduction: As students return to campus for the fall 2021 semester, the pandemic has begun to cease. Both students and faculty hope for a sense of normalcy after having a full year of virtual and hybrid learning. Luckily, most of the classes will be returning to an in-person modality! However, will some of the elements of virtual learning be integrated into current curriculums?

How exactly has COVID-19 affected classes for both students and professors? This article will focus on a few different classes and present the professor perspective of these questions.

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ECE 2514 Computational Engineering:

Cameron D. Patterson

ECE 2514

Computational Engineering is a sophomore electrical and computer engineering course. Professor Cameron Patterson has been teaching this class since it was introduced in 2019. Patterson mentioned that “while the ECE 2514 daily and weekly exercises follow the conventional approach of individual assignments focused on a particular programming language, the projects try to provide a glimpse of what software developers do in practice.” Patterson also believes that the class offers a more creative approach to teaching introductory level programming.

In terms of the coursework, there are four projects related to the physical environment. “In fall 2020 for example, the first two projects extracted beat times from chosen music in order to choreograph a virtual object’s motion with the soundtrack. The last two projects parsed and executed a custom flight plan language that has the Tello indoor drone, safely enclosed in a protective cage, navigate a 3D environment in a manner selected by the student team.

The last project illustrates that programming is not necessarily a solitary activity turning someone else’s specs into code.” Since this class was virtual for the duration of the pandemic, many students contributed from different states and even countries. Patterson noted that all students were able to contribute different elements for the collaboration. It was also

an opportunity for groups to interact with each other during a time when many were in quarantine.

One of the things that Patterson thought was a benefit of the virtual/hybrid modality was the option of asking questions through the Zoom chat and Piazza. These methods “appealed to some students who might not otherwise ask questions during a face-toface class.”

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ENGE 1215 + 1216 Foundations of Engineering I and II: The Foundations of Engineering series is mainly for freshmen in general engineering. Professor Jenny Lo has been teaching ENGE 1215 for about 20 years. In ENGE 1215 (Foundations of Engineering I) and ENGE 1216 (Foundations of Engineering II), students focus on team-based projects. These projects are designed to get students to use skills based on engineering design, data analysis, and open-ended problem solving. During the pandemic, Lo and her graduate teaching assistants (Sarah Blackowski, Qualla Ketchum, and Karen Martinez Soto) found it useful to use Zoom breakout rooms so that students could build relationships with teammates while also collaborating on projects. Lo mentioned that “in an in-person setting, I would often ask a few student teams to verbally report their findings to the entire class. With Zoom, I could ask all the teams (not just a subset) to share their work through the chat.”

The COVID-19 pandemic did change quite a lot for professors. Lo was “concerned about how an online environment might impact student motivation, learning, and engagement. I remember restructuring class activities with the aforementioned concerns in mind, learning how to best use features in Zoom and collaborative software packages for real-time instruction, considering ways to facilitate communication between students and the teaching team, learning how to edit videos, and improvising when campus wireless issues and Zoom connectivity problems occurred.”

Professor Jenny Lo in the Department of Engineering Education.

Lo used various strategies to make the virtual classroom comfortable and collaborative for students.

She gave students time in random break-out rooms so that they would be able to have informal conversation and build connections with each other. One thing Lo plans to keep from the virtual classroom is the virtual office hours. “This format allows for more flexibility with respect to availability. Also, in the past, some students mentioned that my office was quite far from their dorms; virtual office hours would save students some travel time.”

Photo series of a ENGE 1216 student group project prototype during the virtual semester, “A Light Strobing Alarm Clock.” The picture on the right is the CAD image. Photo / group E8, spring 2021

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CHE 4185 + 4186 Process and Product Design I and II: The Process and Product Design series are for seniors in chemical engineering. Professor Y. A. Liu has been teaching this class since 1982. After noticing that many seniors in chemical engineering didn’t have intern and/or co-op experiences, Liu forged partnerships to give students industrial project experience. This is now integrated in Liu’s capstone design courses. The design course series helps students understand the applications of design, form connections with practicing engineers, and work with data effectively. As mentioned in a 2020 report from the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), “this partnership provides students a unique opportunity to work on real-world chemical engineering design problems, often including the identification and collection of data at industry facilities” (ABET).

The modality of CHE 4185 and 4186 during the 20202021 academic year was in-person, while practicing social distancing. During the spring 2021 semester, students and industrial project advisors had weekly virtual meetings instead of in-person ones.

Professor Y. A. Liu from the Chemical Engineering Department.

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One thing that Liu hopes to do this year is to work with students in a more hands-on setting and watch them collaborate with each other. He also hopes to make opportunities for “students to visit their industrial project sponsors on-site to interact with their project advisors and see the facilities [e.g. Novozymes Biological (Salem, VA), Universal Fibers (Bristol, VA), Eastman Chemical Company (Kingsport, TN) etc.]”

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the regular student experience in many ways. Most professors agree that engagement in classes was more difficult for students because of the amount of distractions that the virtual setting opens up. Luckily, most students will be able to have a greater sense of normalcy this semester, as classes begin the transition back to an in-person modality.

“This partnership provides students a unique opportunity to work on real-world chemical engineering design problems” -Professor Y. A. Liu

Goodwin Hall, professor Y. A. Liu’s main building.

Photo / Meredith DePuy

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STUDENT SUCCESS C E N T E R Photo / studentsuccess.vt.edu/

Academic Services: Academic Services | The Student Success Center | Virginia Tech (vt.edu) • • • •

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Photos / Sean Stroud

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1) The view from Tinker Cliffs is incredible! This 7.5 mile round-trip hike is part of Virginia’s famed Triple Crown on the Appalachian Trail, and only a 45 minute drive from campus.

2) Did you know that the Cascade Falls trail has a second part? The hike to Barney’s Wall begins just before you reach the falls, and continues an additional 4 miles to this amazing view of the New River Valley!

3) The dark skies of the Blue Ridge Parkway are truly something to behold! This internationally recognized road is regarded as one of the most beautiful drives in the nation, passing about an hour from campus.

4) The first light of day just peaks over the horizon, striking the windows of an old Appalachian fire tower. While the valley floor below is covered in a moving sea of mist, the first birds of the day are starting their morning song, a new day is here.

5) The skies around Blacksburg are some of the darkest on the East Coast, due to the lack of light pollution in the surrounding area! This makes for some amazing opportunities to see some stars!

6) Located throughout the Appalachian mountains are old fire towers, built by the Conservation Corps in the early to mid 1900s. Although these towers are no longer in use, many are still upkept, and provide excellent views of the night sky and surrounding area.

7) Perhaps one of the most popular hikes among Virginia Tech students is the hike to the top of Dragon’s Tooth. Sitting at 4 miles round trip, this short hike provides an incredible view of the Catawba Valley.

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