Many engineering students have had to make multiple adjustments to their school schedule since the COVID-19 epidemic changed almost everything about life on the Plains.
Joey Hoke, senior in mechanical engineering, talked about some difficulties facing engineering students, like the ability to access the necessary software to get his work done so he can graduate in May.
“[The University] offered us two solutions,” Hoke said. “One was to download the proper engineering software for free [on our home computers] online since we are Auburn students. The other solution is to use some other software to screencast the campus computer software on our own.”
Hoke said the software may not work for some laptops that students own, and for that reason, students may have to “screencast” the software, meaning that the computers on campus run the programs and share their screen to students' home computers.
Hoke said engineering students “would be able to do nothing without it,” referring to the software. Some students need software that was already hard to use even before the University transitioned to remote instruction.
“Some of the members of our senior design team were using a professor’s computer to run a thermal diagnostic program,” Hoke said. “The professor was the only one on campus whose computer had access to it, and they had to use it during special hours. So with this they can’t run the thermal diagnostic they need.”
Hoke and his classmates are just a few out of many engineering students that have been trying to navigate these uncertain times while also trying to get all their work done as normally as possible.
“I haven’t had a ton of experience with downloading software because I already had a lot on my personal computer,” said Zach Wenzel, senior in mechanical engineering. “But I have used the online portal to gain access to one of the softwares while mine wasn’t working. It was pretty easy to get to the software portal, but I did have some freezing issues once I started using it.”
Wenzel said that overall, classes haven’t changed much for him besides one particular class where, on campus, the lab TA would ask questions about his project, whereas now he has to contact the TA through email or Zoom to answer those questions.
“I’m interested to see how they format finals, but hopefully it will be in a similar fashion to how tests are being administered,” Wenzel said.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
