The Future of Engineering: MS Engineering-ECE-Advanced Mobility Information Session

Advanced Mobility program webinar image
Advanced Mobility program webinar image
Advanced Mobility program webinar image

The Future of Engineering: MS Engineering-ECE-Advanced Mobility Information Session

 

In case you missed it, watch a recording of our recent webinar about our 100% online MS Engineering-ECE-Advanced Mobility program on January 30th, 2018. 

Visit the MS Engineering-ECE-Advanced Mobility degree program page for more information here.

Interested in one of our 6 award-winning programs? It's not too late to apply. Apply here

Read A Transcript Below

Good morning or I guess, good afternoon now, everyone. Welcome to our webinar The Future of Engineering, where we'll be discussing Kettering University's Online MS Engineering-ECE-Advanced Mobility Program. We are going to wait just one more minute and make sure that we can get all of our attendees, and then we will get started.

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Hopefully everyone is staying warm, no matter where you're at because it's quite cold here in the Flint area.

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Okay. I think we are going to go ahead and get started. So before we really dig into things, I do have a couple of just housekeeping items that I wanted to go over. So first, you should be able to see a Q&A box and the PowerPoint slides that we're reviewing today. So it should look something like what is on this slide right now. You can drag the sizing so you can customize your view if you feel like you'd like the slides to be bigger and the Q&A box to be smaller. Go ahead. You can customize it for your own experience. We did put a note for you to make sure you're using Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. So if you're on Safari, hopefully you can at least see this and see that it might not work. So if you do have any issues, then you can use the Q&A box and we will do our best to address those for you. So this event is being recorded for future viewing so you'll receive a copy of this presentation. Later this afternoon we'll shoot you an email and it will have a copy of the recording and the presentation.

For today, only the panelists are unmuted, which means you can hear us but we cannot hear you. So please take advantage of that Q&A box. If you have questions, just go ahead and type them in that window, click submit. We will track those as we go through the presentation. There'll be some time at the end where I'll be able to go through all of those questions and our guest speakers will be able to address them. And then lastly, there is a short survey at the end. So it will pop up on your screen once the webinar concludes. It is optional but it will only take a minute and it will help us understand your experience today and how we might be able to refine our sessions for the future. So please just take a minute and take that survey for us, if you would.

So on to introductions. So my name is Erin Brackman and I'm moderating today. And I am joined by two very special guests. Our featured speaker Dr. Bob Nakata, who's a contributing instructor at Kettering University. And Dr. Christine Wallace, who's our vice president for Kettering Global. So just a little bit more detail about Dr. Bob Nakata, he is a 35 year veteran of Silicon Valley startups and public companies in the technology industry, and is a founder and co-founder of two technology startups in Hawaii. He's a subject matter expert on autonomous vehicle navigation sensors, IOT sensors, radar remote sensing, and wireless communications. He teaches electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and innovation entrepreneurship courses for students entrusted in startups. He developed a patented, wearable sensor using a hybrid radio frequency and inertial measurement unit positioning system that uses sensor fusion to obtain precise position estimates. He also developed a patent-pending drone radar platform for military and search and rescue operations to detect victims that are buried alive in collapsed buildings after a natural disaster. In terms of his education, he holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, an MBA from the Wharton Business School, a Master of Science in electrical engineering, computer science, and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering, both from MIT. So after all of that, I'm sure you are willing to agree it is very exciting to have an expert like Dr. Nakata joining us today.

Now, on to the agenda. So here's what we'll cover today. Dr. Wallace is going to start out with us just to talk more about why this program is becoming increasingly important, as well as who this program is designed for. And then we'll pass it on to Dr. Nakata to talk in way more detail about what you can expect to learn in this program. Once we cover those materials, we'll spend just a couple of minutes talking about some next steps, and then that's where we'll have some time to address any questions that have been submitted in the Q&A box throughout the presentation. So without further ado, Dr. Wallace, take it away.

Good afternoon, everyone. So nice to see that we have a good group of people that are here today. And let's start with a little bit of why this program is so important. As you know, some of our leading automotive executives are moving their industry into the world of autonomous vehicles. There was even a recent GM executive who noted that within a decade none of us are going to be having self-driving vehicles, that we're all going to be in autonomous vehicles. Now, that might be maybe a little bit futuristic for some of us to think about. Definitely the move towards autonomous electric hybrid vehicles and use of robotics and artificial intelligence is becoming more prominent. This is the first program of its kind. One of the things that Kettering works really hard to do is to be a leader in STEM education, especially as it relates to things like automation and the future of our vehicles, robotics, and AI. And with our recent addition of our GM Mobility park on campus, where companies are using this to do some testing, it seemed to make a lot of sense as we were talking to various corporations and some of our 550 corporate partners that there was a need for a program that would take our engineers that are currently in the industry to the next level.

And so that is what we've done with this program. We see this program in a lot of ways as a program that's going to stay very fluid because as the market changes, as data and research changes, it will be important that we are always-- much like you do in your industries, have a system of continuous improvement in our program. So we are going to look very carefully at not only what our faculty is telling us that are teaching the courses, what the industries are saying out there, as well as our students as they're taking this program giving us feedback to make this an even stronger program. So the other goal is as we've done with many of our programs here for Kettering University Online, is that we have been making sure that what students learn in the classroom is something that is directly applicable to their lives and their jobs. And we have done that with many of our other programs, our engineering management program, our operations management program, and our [inaudible] manufacturing program, as well as our supply chain management. But it has been even more important in this program. So that as we admit strong engineers with strong background and experience, we can take their knowledge and their experience to the next level so that they can directly apply what they're learning.

It is a program that has really planned for working professionals. We understand that you are very busy and that you have busy lives. So it's 100% online. And while there are some due dates for things, the moment you enter into the classroom, you are able to see exactly what's due and when it's due and what the details of everything that you have due during the time of the course period is all laid out for you. That's so you can kind of work that around your schedule and your life and so you can work ahead, you can submit assignments early, it gives you all those opportunities, as well as an opportunity to have live office hours with your professor who can share his screen, you can share your screen, you can work from a whiteboard. It gives you those opportunities. So it very much gives you as much as we can possibly get close to a live classroom experience. It's really best suited for engineers and managers working in the automotive industry who need to understand how this technology shift towards advanced mobility is going to work and how it's going to affect their jobs, their careers, and their organizations. Dr. Nakata?

Yes. Okay. Good morning everyone, or good afternoon where you are. So I'm Dr. Nakata. And I've been involved in a number of different industry sectors but I would have to say that with my background primarily in wireless, that the integration of electrical and computer systems is pervasive. And there's really no boundary between the two, and I would even go further to say that mechanical engineering becomes very important [inaudible] success. And so it's great that you're showing interest in this program because I think, we're going to see happening in this sector. So specifically for this program, we're talking about advanced mobility, which includes things like electric vehicles, EVs. We're all familiar with GM, Tesla, Google and others experimenting with not only EV platforms but the whole autonomous vehicle-- AV navigation.

That's been a challenge but I can see that there's been a lot of progress made along those lines. We're seeing level 3, level 4 autonomous vehicles being introduced. And so these transportation systems become more and more complex as we go forward. V to V, vehicle to vehicle communications, V to I, vehicle to infrastructure communications will become more pervasive and enable [inaudible]. And of course, what drives a lot of this is AI, artificial intelligence systems with deep learning capabilities. And given the nature of robotics being electromechanical, the technology that we'll discuss in these courses will, of course, be relevant for robotic-type applications as well. Dynamic systems, for those of you who may not know what that really means, it's the study of any type of motion that can give you predictions on where an object might be. So obviously, autonomous vehicles that can [inaudible]. And as I mentioned, the robotics with AI will be seen not only [inaudible]. I think we're already starting to see the early stage version of AI-enhanced robotics. I recently saw a program where they profiled a restaurant where their kitchen was actually being converted to robotic chefs. So it's starting to happen. So technology is definitely marching forward.

Okay. Excellent. Okay. So I mentioned the dynamic systems. So I mentioned it's the study of various time domain and frequency domain simulations and pipe and model, not only autonomous vehicles but a number of-- any system that has any type of mechanical motion. This particular course focuses on the electronics behind the transient and steady state behavior of the power electronics that drive the vehicles. So this whole paradigm of [inaudible] from traditional, in terms of combustion engines, to not just EV power but also your drive train is now induction motors. So there's definitely a lot to learn here if you're not familiar with this particular technology.So this semester we're actually teaching ECE 630 DSP for automotive engineering. Having a great time teaching that class and my students are very engaged.

So every week they turn in a MATLAB assignment. And they get to evaluate things ranging from the basics of discrete Fourier transforms, fast Fourier transforms and even doing NVH, noise vibration and harshness analysis using an [inaudible] combination, which [inaudible] then characterize the vibration in our vehicle. And so going further, we'll talk about common filters, how to predict where your vehicle is going to be ending up based on the inputs and the sensor inputs and the response of the vehicle. So there's definitely a lot of topics to be covered and these are just two of the courses. If you look at the next course, you can see that we continue to talk about automotive control systems because these are autonomous systems which, obviously, require control systems, feedback loops that allow the vehicle to respond to what the sensor sees. And machine drives for EVs, obviously, you've got to have all of the circuitry in place to be able to drive the electric transmission system.

Similarly for this course, Advanced Power Electronics ECE 626, a deep dive into these DC to DC converter topologies and as you may know, battery-powered systems definitely do require a lot of power [inaudible] so that you're not [inaudible] with excessively deep depths of discharge, as they call it. And so this course examines the various DC to DC power topologies. Mobile robotics, this is an area that's near and dear to me since I did a PhD dissertation on a robotic drone that could sense buried victims [inaudible], for example, using radar sensors. So [inaudible] that's starting to be investigated in this respect would be performing behavior of robots-- or even vehicle behavior, right? Or you can just do simultaneous localization and mapping so that you know where the adjacent vehicles are as you're zooming down the freeway with no steering wheel and no gas pedal or brake pedal. So definitely the study of mobile robotics goes into the techniques and theories behind making that happen.

And of course, the brains behind all of this is AI. So deep-learning techniques, machine-learning techniques, all of those areas have to be understood in order to develop intelligent algorithms. So just because you have a platform that's using image sensors, ultrasonic sensors, radar sensors, [inaudible] sensor, that's just the front end, right? Those are your eyes and ears, basically. And you now need to make intelligent decisions based on the surrounding environment and how adjacent vehicles might be [inaudible] in close proximity to where you are. Okay. So that was the technical side of things and I'll turn it back to Dr. Wallace to talk about these other electives.

Yeah. And it says pick two but we've actually worked it out so you actually have an opportunity to pick three. Because there's seven core engineering courses and then there'll be three courses that you're actually going to be able to pick. And it can be any of our KUO courses that we currently have. Having read many applications for the admissions committee-- the admissions committee for this program meets every single week, so we review applications every week. One of the things that we've found is that a lot of times, supervisors are saying that they would like some of their engineers to have some of the, what I would call, softer skills. And we'll work on the softer skills. And so a lot of times, I recommend-- when I've had conversations with some of the potential students or students that are in the program, to think about taking classes like Managing People and Organizations, Organizational Behavior, even things like International Business and Leadership. A lot of times those courses can really go a long way to not only, obviously, get the technical skills. You're obviously, great engineers to begin with and then you go on and you get this very technical degree, but adding some of those soft skills to your repertoire can actually be the difference in taking you to the next level in your career, beyond your technical skills. So highly recommend it and we're always happy to have conversation with students about where they think that they could use the most help. Maybe you're going to be somebody that's going to do a lot with budgets and you really want to take a financial management course.

So it's all those options that are going to be available. Actually, we have about 45 courses you can actually choose from. So that's a very positive thing. The next steps would be, if you are interested in this program, is to apply. And we've tried to make it a very simple application process. It's an online application available at online.kettering.edu. And we'll be sending that information out to you. You can go ahead and apply as late as March 28th. And the reason we do that is I want to make sure-- a lot of times it takes you a little bit of time to get the materials that you need. You have to write a statement of purpose. In other words, why is this program important to you? And what will it do for your career? We ask for two letters of recommendation, one from a supervisor. Those are all submitted electronically. And of course, your transcripts from your last academic institutions. And it's pretty simple as long you're also filling out the application. You then get a phone call or an email or a text, depending on what you prefer, from an adviser. And if you go on the website, you will have occasionally the chat box will come up and you can directly chat with someone. But you'll have an adviser. They will help you. You also have to submit your resume. My apologies, forgot that piece.

But if you have another graduate degree from [inaudible] instution, we have a waived GRE and you can very quickly get your application. I've seen students get their applications who were very motivated in less than a week. And we've been able to take their application forward. The committee meets every week. It is a committee of faculty and deans, and we review applications and get you our final determination the next day. So it's a very rapid process and very rapid system. And I think that it serves students and has served us well. There's some information on the slide that tells you about where you go to be able to fill out the application. And if you wanted to reach out to an adviser, there's a phone number that's available. And as Erin said earlier, you're all going to get a copy of this presentation. So no worries about having to write things down because you'll get all that information. There's some common questions that people ask about programs and even programs that are online. One of the things that somebody might ask is, "So how much is the application fee?" We don't have an application fee for this program. I've always thought application fees were not necessary, that high-quality programs get high-quality students. And we don't need an application fee to process your admission. So we don't charge one. Another is that I've had students ask me, "I have a mechanical engineering undergraduate degree. Can I apply for this program?" I would say yes. What we find is that-- and Dr. Nakata may want to say something about this. We have a number of mechanical engineers, people with mechanical engineering undergraduate degrees that are currently in the program. And Dr. Nakata, you were saying that you were quite pleased with the level of the quality of the students you've seen so far?

Yes. They're doing great. And I've even taught other classes where mechanical engineers were taking courses that were also electrical engineering intensive. So I would agree that mechanical engineers would certainly [inaudible] pursue this program, as well.

Yeah. The one thing that I have found about engineers in general, is that if they don't know, they tend to know what to do to figure it out. And that's the way that you've been trained. As an undergrad, you're very good at being able to solve the problems and figure out what you need to do to fill in any gaps that you might have. And I think, the other pieces that we have excellent instructors who are working in this program. And so they're also there for answering questions and maybe pointing you in the right direction to get the things that you need in order to be able to be successful in the program. And that is our goal, is to help to make sure that you're successful. One of the other questions that sometimes comes up is, "Is this a high-quality program online?" I would tell you, I've been working in online education for almost 17 years. And I am quite impressed with the quality of this program. And I'm not just saying that from my own perspective. I'm saying that from the constant feedback that I get from faculty that are teaching for us, and from students that go through our programs are constantly telling me how these programs that we're running them through were challenging, and yet at the same time have propelled not only their careers but have changed things in their lives. People in our lean manufacturing program tell me about how they 5S their garage and how they're able now to find all their tools. Or how they even used it to find a way to get their kids to bed sooner and give themselves 15 extra minutes in the morning because they've reorganized the way that they do things.

So I do think that these programs not only can age your career and where your trajectory is and where the future of automotive is going but I also think that they can have an impact on your life, as well. Are there other questions?

I'm looking at the Q&A panel and I notice there's a couple of questions. First one is is experience in MATLAB necessary? And my answer is not absolutely necessary. In other words if you've never used it or used it just for simple analysis, then you can definitely learn as you go as some of my current students are. So MATLAB is a very useful tool that not only is used in academia, but also in industry. So if you do learn it in this class or this program, you'll definitely be able to apply it in your work, as well. So I would not--

There are-- I'm sorry, Bob. There are some tutorials that are available on MATLAB that we've embedded into the course. But if you feel like you have some weaknesses there, you are going to be able to go in and you should be able to go online and be able to run through some of those tutorials, which should help.

Right. Absolutely. So whenever I have a question or issue with the MATLAB command, I just go online and google it. There's just a ton of resources available online to help you come up to speed. And I just noticed there's a related question that just popped in. Is there coding involved in this program? So in MATLAB, it uses it's own coding-- script as they call it. So you do need to have some [inaudible] although, like I said [inaudible], there's a lot content on [inaudible] that you can learn from and basically, come up to speed on MATLAB. So I found that the best way to learn MATLAB, or any program for that matter, is to just start using it. Right? And so you can learn it as you go, as you make mistakes. The beauty is you can just execute the program and see whether it works within a few seconds. And they can just keep iterating on it until it does finally work. So I wouldn't say that coding is absolutely necessary [inaudible].

Yeah. Adam also asked a question about older technology. I don't know, Dr. Nakata, what you think but one of the things that I always tell students is in order to get to where you need to be, you have to understand where you were. And so some of this has to do with just-- I don't think that's where we're spending the majority of our focus and our time but it's definitely important to have some preliminary foundational discussions. I don't know if you have any other thoughts about that?

Yeah. In fact, I'm looking at ECE 632 on one of the slides, the class description. And I'm assuming that's where the question came from because it does say that there will be some discussion for air fuel ratios, spark time in idle speed, etc., in the control context. So yeah. I wouldn't necessarily be focusing on those specific areas that-- it's like Dr. Wallace just said, good to know what the [inaudible]. You got to [inaudible] you're going to need to do [inaudible]. And also, in the context of [inaudible], right? You still got a combination of [inaudible] as well as traditional-fuel powered engines.

Are there any more questions?

So Dr. Wallace, you talked a little bit about who this program is designed for and [inaudible] is 100% online. But obviously, when you are a working engineer, it can be hard to balance things. Can you talk a little bit more about how Kettering does set people up for success, or maybe how many classes you would take? Those types of things.

Yeah. One of the things that we recommend for this program is that these 11 week courses - and the core engineering courses are 11 weeks online - that you look at actually taking one of those at a time. When it comes time to take some of the additional courses, it's possible to take one of those, those are usually 6-- there's 6 and 8 week courses. So you can actually take one of those every 6 weeks. So it's why you're able to sort of get through the program in a relatively short period of time. So I think it's-- one of the things that we do is we look at if you're a full-time working engineer, taking one of these classes at a time is what we would expect for somebody-- what we think is reasonable for you. Now, is it possible that you're in another kind of situation where maybe you're not working right now, or maybe you've got a situation where you're doing consulting or something where you feel like you have more time. Is it possible to take more than one course at a time? Absolutely. But we work very carefully with advisers to make sure we understand what's going on with your life. This is very much customized in that way. We want to make sure that we're not putting you in a situation of being overwhelmed at any point in the program. So it'll be very important that we have those conversations.

I do think the whole use of universal navigation and those of you that familiar with design in automotive understand that concept very well. It's very difficult when you go into a car and suddenly when you go to turn on the lights, they're in a completely different spot in the car. Imagine if to turn on the headlights for your car were way over on the passenger side, right? So we use universal navigation in our courses because what we have found, and what the research has shown, is that over time if you know the way the course runs and you understand the way that things are laid out, you're spending your focusing of your time on learning the material and not figuring out where is something in the course and how do I do it. We run it in very much the same way every course. And so it makes your life a lot easier as a student. Once you understand the system and you go through the orientation - and we've added a special orientation for our engineering students - I think that what you find is that it makes it-- it's one of the things that students do note that they appreciate. The other thing is the fact that we treat you like adult students. In other words, we expect that you have a certain amount of knowledge coming into the program and that you need to be able to see everything that's going to be required of you right from day one. And actually, you get a week ahead of the course to be able to go into the course ahead of time and begin to do some reading and think about projects and can begin working on those. So those are some of the ways that we try to make sure that we're being supportive of the adult students.

The other thing I would tell you is that we have advisers that are available to you that if you have some situation that comes up or you want to talk somebody about something that's going on, you have advisers that are there to support you throughout the program. So I think all those things work together to try to make this as easy as possible for the busy adult to be able to be successful in the program.

So Dr. Wallace, let's say I'm taking one--

The 11 week course, you're going to be taking one of those at the beginning of every major term. So we have four major terms in a year, fall, winter, spring, and summer. So you would have an additional, the following year, three more terms of that. And then depending on how you worked in the three 6 week courses. Some people may be able to overlap with a 6 week course for part of the 11 week course, or they could actually finish up in the next term. So it's possible to finish this program, depending on how motivated and how much time you have, in as little as eight terms. But you could stretch it out over time too. So if that's being too intensive with your work, it's possible that you could stretch that out a little bit longer. Although, I would recommend that you not stretch this program out more than 18 to 24 months. So it would be very possible to do that. So could you finish this program in nine terms? Absolutely you could. Could you stretch it out so that you could finish it in 18 to 24? You could do that too.

All right. So it looks like we have a couple of other questions here, as well. So here's one. I currently work in aerospace and a lot of our industry's currently automated or heading towards automation. Although this program's geared towards automotive, would it be beneficial for someone in aerospace, as well?

Absolutely. So just taking the ECE 630 class as an example, so what I cover in that class is the fundamental spectral analysis. So how do you convert a timed domain signal to frequency spectrum? And so that would be applicable regardless of whether you're talking about a car or an aircraft or even a satellite. Because all of those systems are, obviously, not only automated but they also have vibration environments that they have to deal with. And so I would say that the material that you learn in this program definitely would be applicable to the aerospace industry, as well.

And somebody's asking about the kind of hardware that's necessary for the program. A basic standard laptop will work. One that has a camera, an internal camera and an internal microphone. I think those are important. It's also important that you're probably not using a work computer that has a firewall that you're trying to do things at work. We have found problems, occasionally, being able to get some things to work because of-- GM is a perfect example. You can't access everything. Sometimes there's some problems with their firewalls. You can understand why. So we recommend that you're doing your coursework from your own computer, from a home computer. And that you have high-speed internet that's available. So that's probably the basic, unless Dr. Nakata, do you have anything else that you can think of?

Yes. Yes. So because I really value hands-on experience when I'm taking a course, I always said that you should definitely be doing something to not only go over the theory but to actually build and test something. In the ECE 630 course, the students are actually going to buy an Arduino microcontroller and connect a [inaudible] to it and analyse what the vibration spectrum is. So Arduino's are quite popular experimental platform that's very, very popular. In fact, if you go online you can 9 times out of 10 find the code to do what you want it to do without having to write a lot of extra code. So Arduino with the ultrasonic sensor or with a IMU, which has a built-in accelerometer would be the additional hardware for that particular class.

And some of that is available through our electronic bookstore. So we have made some of these things available. Not that you have to buy them through the bookstore but we've made some of them available that way. But you can also just go online and buy them any number of places. So someone is asking a question, do we provide a MATLAB? We provide the software for MATLAB. Okay? That is part of what we call the kuCloud. And we have a variety of different software that's available to you as a student. And so yes, you can just download MATLAB from the kuCloud and you can use it from there. So you do not have to go out and buy MATLAB. So that's, again, another way that we try to do what we can to save you dollars. Another way that we do that is we have electronic textbooks. You can buy a hard-copy textbook if that's what you prefer. But in order to save on costs, we've tried to make sure that there's always an electronic version of any textbook that you're going to need.

I see that Steven had a question, can you speak more about the format of an online class? Steven, I'd be happy to talk to you about that a little bit more. Maybe if you'd like to, or I'd be happy to even show you an example if you wanted to schedule a time or make an appointment. But I can tell you that the classes are all templated, which means that every class will look the same when you come in. They always open to your announcements. And we do that so that you read the announcements. We also have short focused, what we call learning modules. We don't think of them as lectures because lectures tend to be things that would go-- I don't know from your undergraduate years, but would be very long and hour after hour. We don't do that. We do short focused pieces of learning. There are some assignments that are submitted that you can think of like a test. You'll have some problems and things that are submitted.

And I did forget one other piece of hardware. You do need an electronic pad with an electronic pen that you can write on in order to be able to do some of the mathematical calculations. So you'll have to have an iPad, or some sort of pad with a pen. With a pen that you can actually write out the problems. And we've actually figured out with the software program, a way for you to be able to open that within Blackboard, be able to work out the problem on your pad and be able to submit it directly from your iPad. So that's another way that we've tried to make this a simpler way of you being able to be able to get your assignments in. And there are assignment boxes, discussion boards and assignment boxes in all your classes. And they run much the same way. Hopefully that answers your question.

Are there any other questions? I think that covers everything that's come through the Q&A so far. Any final thoughts for us Dr. Wallace or Dr. Nakata?

I saw another question with regard to what computer programs are needed. So primarily MATLAB, as I mentioned earlier. If you're going to be taking my ECE 630 class, you'll need to get the Arduino microcontroller, which has a free, open-source software that runs it. So that's pretty much it for that class.

Yeah. And as a student, you get access to Blackboard and anything else that you would need. As far as the Microsoft Suite, if there was anything that you needed, that's not a problem. I will also say, yes, Cheton, I have students all over the world that take our courses. You can log on anywhere that you can get high-speed internet. So I have students taking courses from the middle of Afghanistan, from the middle of Lake Superior on a ship. I have students who are taking classes in Africa, Brazil, and Mexico. So I will tell you that anywhere that you can get a good solid internet connection, you can take a class. I will also tell you that your professors are also teaching to you from anywhere in the world too. So it isn't just you as a student logging in.

But that's why we do these online programs, is so that as you travel-- I can tell you that I have many times taught classes from the beach. I have taught classes from my sailboat and students have not known where I was at. So it's very possible to do it from anywhere you can get a good internet connection and be able to log onto your computer. So I think that's it. I don't have any other comments other than we're real excited about this program. We're very excited about the faculty that we've been able to get to be part of this program and who are going to be teaching for us. And we have been very pleased so far with the quality and the level of the students that we've seen that are applying to this program. And I want to encourage all of you to consider this program. Feel free to reach out if you have questions. And I think Erin's going to send out this recording as well as the slide presentation to everyone. Is that correct, Erin?

That is correct. And then also, we had a lot of great questions here. Thank you for your expertise both of you, Dr. Wallace and Dr. Nakata. I think sometimes after you conclude something like this, you may end up having other questions that come to mind. So don't feel like you have missed any sort of opportunity. In the email that you will get, it should come from ON24, the software that we're using. But I've put in there, also, a link where you can schedule a quick appointment with one of the advisers that Dr. Wallace was talking about. So you can click it and pick a day and a time that works for you and they'll work around your schedules. So if you have a few other questions or maybe you want to start the application and you just want to make sure you get everything. You know, all your ducks in a row. That opportunity will be there as well. And then Dr. Wallace mentioned the website chat. I mean, they are available on chat. That's a really great, quick way to get additional questions answered. So yeah. So if you have other questions, there's definitely ways to work through those and get what you need, so.

And I also want to say that I'm more than open to students sending me an email. Especially if they're interested in something specifically about an online course, I would say I am not engineer and so I am not the right person to ask specific engineering questions. But I'm happy to connect you with either Dr. Nakata or with one of our other faculty who would be happy to answer those questions. So students can reach out and we'd be happy to do that.

Great. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you everyone for your time. And again, you should get a quick survey. Please take just a minute and everyone please enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.