March 23, 2020

Welcome back to the Spring semester. In these extraordinary times, we are doing our best to adapt. Although moving all of our classes online is not ideal, but we are committed to prioritizing the health and safety of our community.   Here are some things you should know:

• There are no College of Engineering face-to-face activities at this time. This includes in-person instruction, club meetings, or other student gatherings.
• If you need software for a course that you can’t install on your own computer, then your next option is to use the College of Engineering Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, which lets you access a virtual CoEng lab computer on your own device.
• MATLAB is available free until June 30: https://www.mathworks.com/licensecenter/classroom/COVID-19_Access/
• If you don’t have access to a computer off-campus, you can use the computer labs in ECB and EIB.  The building and labs will be on restricted access, and you will need your Wolfcard to get in.  The facilities will only be accessible from 9am to 5pm. You will need to maintain all hygiene and social distancing protocols posted at the facility. However, if you are feeling ill or if anyone in your household has traveled outside Alaska in the past 14 days, do not come to campus.
• Tutors are online via Discord.  For CoEng tutoring, use https://discord.gg/rrN33P, and for CS&E tutoring, use https://discord.gg/aYGHdvQ.  The platform also allows you to communicate online with your fellow students.
• The class withdrawal deadline has been extended to April 10.
• You have the option to elect a credit/no-credit grading option.  You are encouraged to contact your advisor to decide if this is a good option for you.
• For Spring graduates, although the Spring Commencement ceremony has been cancelled, we are planning to hold our usual College of Engineering Celebration of Graduates virtually and administer the Order of the Engineer and the Pledge of the Computing Professional.  More details will be forthcoming.

Dr. Kenrick Mock
Interim Dean and Professor of Computer Science
UAA College of Engineering
kjmock@alaska.edu