Last updated Monday, August 3, 2020, 9:54 PM MDT

From EAE Director Michael Young, Ph.D.

The Coronavirus has prompted a number of changes in our individual and group lives, and I wanted to provide a brief update on how EAE is adapting in order to do the very best job around our mission across education, research and service to our community.

First and foremost, our faculty and staff are working hard to support our students this summer and for the Fall semester as we adapt to new constraints that will keep us all healthy and safe. Throughout the rest of the summer, we will be available by phone, email, and online to answer questions and to work out solutions for our students and those of you who have applied for admission to our programs. As I describe below, our in-person facilities and operation will be somewhat reduced during the Fall 2020 semester in order to support social distancing recommended by U of U President Ruth Watkins, the U of U Health team and the CDC. EAE is up and running, with all of our staff and faculty working full time.  All are accessible online, and a number of our faculty and staff are available for in-person meetings (although some on a schedulable basis).

APPLICANTS ADmitted TO OUR GRADUATE PROGRAM for Fall 2020

Gradaute students that have been admitted for the 2020-2021 academic year should plan on arriving on campus at the start of the Fall semester in August, 2020.  You should have received a number of emails from our graduate advisor with specific instructions around course registration and other details over the course of this past summer.  The University of Utah currently is planning a return to campus at the beginning of the 20/21 academic year.  EAE’s graduate program has a significant number of classes that will be taught online, but some key courses for entering graduate students will have in-person elements (in order to satisfy visa requirements for in-person instruction).  We’re looking forward to seeing you all in the virtual grad student orientation in Zoom on August 19th, the week before classes start.

Admitted and Prospective Students

To help our admitted prospective students and their families learn more about our program, we’ve moved our weekly Information Sessions entirely online. Each Friday morning, our staff will be live-streaming interactive info sessions via Zoom, an internet-based video conferencing tool that is free to access and easy to install. More information on how to participate in our online info sessions can be found here. EAE staff is setting aside additional time to respond to telephone and email inquiries, and you can reach the appropriate person using these points of contact:

For general program information:
Ms. Hallie Huber, EAE Academic Program Manager
hallie.huber at eae.utah.edu
1-801-581-5460

For information about our graduate programs
Mr. CJ Lederman, EAE Graduate Advisor
cj at eae.utah.edu
1-801-581-1299

For information about our undergraduate programs
Ms. Elizabeth Arrigona, EAE Undergraduate Advisor, A-M
elizabeth at eae.utah.edu
Schedule an Appointment
1-801-587-1226

Ms. Kelly Olson, EAE Undergraduate Advisor, N-Z
kelly at eae.utah.edu
Schedule An Appointment 

We ask that visitors to campus who are interested in coming to EAE coordinate their visit with our advisors through our online info sessions.  Undergraduate students seeking to meet with advisors should make an appointment, either for an in-person or online meeting, by following the “Schedule an Appointment” links above for the respective advisor.  Graduate students seeking advise should contact the EAE graduate advisor via email, telephone or the EAE Slack channel.

Current Students

For our current students, we’re following the University’s directives around health and safety to offer our classes in a range of delivery modes, including fully in-person classes, hybrid courses and fully on-line classes. Descriptions of each class and its delivery methods are available on the Registrar’s website, on the course’s Canvas syllabus page and from the course instructors directly.   For our graduate projects classes, which are large, team-based courses with significant interaction across both our graduate cohorts, we’re supporting the move to online instruction by setting up equipment check-out procedures and shifting our instructional processes to mirror industry-standard approaches for working in distributed teams (much like current shifts from industry leaders like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and others). This equipment check-out process is intended to support students continuing to work on their course projects, in their existing team structure, from their homes.  Our new graduate students in Cohort 11 will receive information on how to check out equipment from he EAE building at the beginning of the semester.

Some of our students have opted to enroll remotely from locations outside of the Salt Lake Valley.  Our online instruction will continue to provide full support their study.  Those students should check in with their respective advisors (undergraduate or graduate) to help configure their home computing environments to have the best access to EAE teaching resources.

EAE PLAY

Each year, on Fall Semester’s Reading Day, EAE holds EAE Play, our annual open house where the broader U community gets early access to student games under development. This year, EAE Play will be held entirely online, streamed live on the U’s channel on Twitch.tv.  The day will hold a full program of demos, interviews, highlight videos and trailers and other content featuring our academic and research programs and the amazing work of our students.  More information about this event will be available soon from the EAE website.

THE Latest Info on the U’s Response to Covid-19

Please check the university’s coronavirus website for regular updates, guidance, and alerts. If you have specific questions that are not answered by the information on the website, we encourage you to call the U’s coronavirus telephone hotline at 801-213-2874.