2020-12-02
New CompEng students are usually welcomed by the lecturers and the whole CompEng team during the official welcome ceremony which marks the start of the first semester. The newcomers are provided with information about the RUB and the daily life in Bochum, and they receive some useful tips from senior students. On this day the students meet each other in person for the first time and get the opportunity to get to know each other. This year many things are a little different. Most students of the new CompEng batch are starting the semester online from their home country. Since the traditional CompEng welcome day cannot take place this year, some creative new ideas were needed to introduce the RUB to the new students.
New CompEng students are usually welcomed by the lecturers and the whole CompEng team during the official welcome ceremony which marks the start of the first semester. The newcomers are provided with information about the RUB and the daily life in Bochum, and they receive some useful tips from senior students. On this day the students meet each other in person for the first time and get the opportunity to get to know each other. This year many things are a little different. Most students of the new CompEng batch are starting the semester online from their home country. Since the traditional CompEng welcome day cannot take place this year, some creative new ideas were needed to introduce the RUB to the new students.
At the same time as being admitted, the students were put in contact with their personal tutor. This year’s tutor support team consists of the Assistant Coordinators Sarah Jordan and Christina Rauch as well as the Student Assistants Aeaneas Paul and Alice Alferink. During the last months the tutors kept close contact with the new students. With frequent tutor mails they gave their best to provide every student with all needed information. The tutors explained for example, how to apply for a room in one of the AKAFÖ dormitories or gave advise on what to look out for in German health insurance, and most importantly, they explained how to enrol digitally at the RUB. In between the info e-mails the tutors were open to all questions of the students and assisted them with difficulties during the process. Both PDFs and hard copies of documents have been sent to support the visa process of the students. By sharing several links, the tutor support team also made it easier for the new students to get information beyond the info-mails, to get to know the RUB better and network with each other.
The Tutor Talks were an important step further towards more personal contact with the team. Small groups were puzzled together for the Tutor Talks, taking all different time zones into account. Each CompEng newcomer received an invitation e-mail with a link to their Tutor Talk.
The Tutor talks took place as digital video meetings via the platform Zoom. There the students received further information and had the opportunity to ask all kinds of questions. In groups of around 6-10 people the students could finally get to know their tutors and see for the first time the faces of their fellow students. The General Coordinator, Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Sahlmen, also dropped by to personally welcome the new batch.
Meeting some of their mentees for the first time has been a special moment for the tutors, too. Although not in real life - at least they got a first impression live via camera.
To complement the contact via email and the Tutor Talks, the CompEng Support Team put some effort in the production of the video series Campus Corner. The videos for the series were filmed by Sarah Jordan, Christina Rauch and Mona Rosenberg. Mona is working as a student assistant for the Press and Public Relations Team of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and is also a content creator for the AllesING! Instagram page.
Together they came up with questions and asked several different people from CompEng to show their favourite spot on Campus. They collected different impressions of the RUB locations and asked for tips for new CompEng students. Apart from that, they also talked with their interview partners about special CompEng memories. On the list of those to be interviewed were Prof. Dr. Klaus Hackl, who holds the Chair for Mechanics of Materials and who is the Head of the Examination Committee of CompEng, the General Coordinator, Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Sahlmen, as well as the PhD students and lecturers Lubna Makhool, Xuling Ye and Sahir Butt. Furthermore, the CompEng seniors Lavanya Gowri Sundar, Kaarthik Vellore Murugan, and Tariq Al-Wesabi took part the video series.
On top of that, CompEng Team members Christina and Sarah showed their favourite spots on campus in one of the videos. A particularly funny moment was when Christina met several of her friends by chance at her favourite location during the shooting. Maybe that's why it is her favourite place! The video shoot lasted from the end of September to the end of October. A big thanks goes to Sarah, who has done all the editing of the videos and who is still working on the finalization of the third and final video.
The whole CompEng Team is looking forward to the upcoming semester with you all and hopes to welcome you on campus very soon! Stay tuned for the next part of Campus Corner!
Alice Alferink, Student Assistant
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Last update: Nov 08, 2022
