Message from the Dean

Spring quarter is underway, and I’m pleased to report our efforts to prepare for online instruction have come to fruition. In an unbelievably short amount of time, our faculty and students have transitioned to virtual learning in this new environment, and we are getting closer to steady state each day. Our students are fast learners online—after all, it’s a habitat they’ve grown up in. Our faculty are taking the opportunity to deliver engaging lectures via Zoom or video capture and using chat and live polls during class to increase participation.

In a first for the College of Engineering, our first-year Introduction to Engineering Design course, taught by biological and agricultural engineering professor Jennifer Mullin, moved its end-of-quarter design showcase and evaluation completely online. Typically, students learn to solve real-world design problems for clients like the UC Davis Student Farm, or the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. Example projects include controlling pests at the farm, or easing communication between patients and caretakers at the nursing school’s Family Caregiving Institute.

The culminating event of this class is a design showcase during which student teams demonstrated their design projects for evaluators at the end of the quarter. The students are evaluated not only on the function of their design but how well they communicate their solution. Within a matter of days, our staff worked with Professor Mullin to create an interactive website for students to present their work and for evaluators to judge these design projects and provide real-time comments and feedback remotely. The event was held on March 19, 2020 and was a success, with 66 evaluations and 19 evaluators (including six alumni) all giving thoughtful feedback to our budding engineers.

While we’ve had to ramp down many on-campus research activities, we’ve maintained critical efforts on research related to COVID-19. Our faculty are investigating innovative technology to 3-D print masks, ventilator parts and other critical equipment in partnership with UC Davis Health, among many new projects. These promising early efforts show how engineers, scientists and medical professionals work together to create innovative solutions in a time of need.

Lastly, Lodi, CA-based Diede Construction, Inc. was selected in April through a competitive bidding process to serve as the contractor for the Engineering Student Design Center renovation. We will begin demolition in fall quarter to prepare for building in Winter 2021 with a targeted completion of Fall 2022. The new ESDC will have new space to accommodate instruction, student-client collaboration, rapid prototyping and more. Groundbreaking for this landmark new facility will be on October 9, 2020 and we welcome your participation.

Go Ags!

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis Dean, UC Davis College of Engineering