When Iowa State University was given the go-ahead to open up for fall classes, faculty, staff, and student technicians in the mechanical engineering department quickly made every effort to prepare lesson plans, classrooms, labs, and other spaces to be as safe as possible so students can get the hands-on engineering education Iowa State is known for while also taking the necessary steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Much of this effort has been coordinated by mechanical engineering (ME) department chair Caroline Hayes. Hayes, who also serves as the Lynn Gleason Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering, said that all of the “unknowns” early on made planning for the fall exceedingly difficult.