Course Catalog || Financial Aid

FRESHMAN YEAR

Fall Semester

Spring Semester

Course	Dept.	No.	Cr
CHEN Freshman Colloquium II	CHEN	109	0
Problem Solving with Computers	CHEN	102	2
General Chemistry VII	CHEM	107	3
General Chemistry VII Lab	CHEM	117	1
General Physics I	PHYS	241	3
General Physics I Lab	PHYS	251	1
Social Science Elective			3
Calculus II	MATH	132	4
TOTAL			17

SOPHOMORE

Fall Semester

Course	Dept.	No.	Cr
CHEN Sophomore Colloquium I	CHEN	108	0
Chemical Process Principles	CHEN	200	4
Organic Chemistry I	CHEM	221	3
Organic Chemistry I Lab	CHEM	223	2
General Physics II	PHYS	242	3
General Physics II Lab	PHYS	252	1
Differential Equations	MATH	431	3
TOTAL			16

Spring Semester

Course	Dept.	No.	Cr
CHEN Sophomore Colloquium II	CHEN	109	0
Introduction to CHEN Analysis	CHEN	220	3
Advanced Science Elective			3
Calculus III	MATH	231	4
Materials Science	MEEN	260	2
CHEN Thermodynamics	CHEN	310	4
Health/Physical Education Elective			1
TOTAL			17

JUNIOR YEAR

Fall Semester

Spring Semester

SENIOR YEAR

Fall Semester

Course	Dept.	No.	Cr
CHEN Senior Colloquium II	CHEN	408	0
Mass Transfer Operations	CHEN	400	4
Chemical Engineering Laboratory II	CHEN	410	2
Process Design  I	CHEN	430	3
General Engineering Topics Review	CHEN	500	1
Engineering Mechanics Elective			3
Humanities Elective			3
TOTAL			16

Spring Semester

Course	Dept.	No.	Cr
Process Design  II	CHEN	440	3
Chemical Engineering Elective	CHEN		3
Chemical Engineering Elective	CHEN		3
Chemical Engineering Topics Review	CHEN	450	1
Humanities Elective			3
Flexible Elective			2
TOTAL			15

TOTAL HOURS      128

UNDERGRAD EXPERIENCE ACHIEVEMENTS

A. ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCE
B. MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE EXPERIENCE
C. COMPUTER EXPERIENCE
D. LABORATORY EXPERIENCE
E. ENGINEERING SCIENCE EXPERIENCE
F. ENGINEERING DESIGN EXPERIENCE
G. RESEARCH AND INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCES

BACK TO SAMPLE CURRICULUM

A. ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION EXPERIENCE

Two English courses are required courses in the curriculum.  All freshmen must take and pass ENGL 100 with a C or higher.  Freshmen passing ENGL 100 with a B or higher can elect to take ENGL 101 or ENGL 331.  These courses provide training in both written and oral communication.  The College of Engineering has a matriculation policy that requires that students receive grades of C or better in both English courses before commencing sophomore engineering courses.  In addition, the Department provides extensive instruction and practice in report writing and oral communication in two chemical engineering laboratory courses.  You will be required to make oral presentations and write reports in the laboratory courses and several of the lecture courses that have projects.

  The Department recognizes the importance that effective communication skills have on career performance and advancement by cultivating good communication skills in its students.  In the senior seminar courses, CHEN 450 and CHEN 500, videotapes will be made of your oral presentations and will be used to provide feedback to you.

B. MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE EXPERIENCE

Engineering is founded in the principles of mathematics and science.  Because of ABET requirements, studies in mathematics begin with calculus and emphasize mathematical concepts and principles rather than computation.  Your mathematics experience includes a 3-semester sequence, MATH 131, 132 and 231, which covers differential calculus, integral calculus and differential equations.  You will also learn about numerical analysis in CHEN 220, chemical engineering analysis.  Finally, you will complete your mathematics experience with MATH 431 where you will study methods for solving differential equations that are needed to solve many advanced engineering applications.

  You will study a two-semester sequence in physics during your first two years.  You will study mechanics, heat and light in PHYS 241 and electricity, magnetism, wave motion and modern physics in PHYS 242.  Since your physics courses must be completed before you begin your junior year, it is critical to attend summer school if you are behind in mathematics or physics.  Sophomores also take a course in material sciences (MEEN 260).

  Chemical engineering has its roots in chemistry.  As such, your experiences in chemistry distinguish you from other engineers and will continue throughout your program.  The chemistry courses you take are the same courses taken by chemistry majors in their professional program.  Your experience begins with a year of general chemistry in your freshman year.  Your experience in chemistry continues with courses in organic chemistry and organic chemistry laboratory in the sophomore year.  In addition, you must take ten credits of advanced science electives that include seven credits of advanced chemistry.

C. COMPUTER EXPERIENCE

The use of computers is emphasized throughout the chemical engineering program.  In GEEN 100, you will learn to use a computer for word processing and spread sheet calculations.  You will learn to do MATLAB programming, screen editors and file manipulation and maintenance during your second semester in CHEN 102.  You will do an extensive amount of simple programming and program execution throughout the course.  Computer aided computation is reinforced in CHEN 220 during the fourth semester.  Part of CHEN 220 is the study of numerical methods used in engineering calculations.  Computer algorithms to implement these methods on a computer are presented simultaneously with the numerical methods.  You will be assigned approximately one computer problem per week in which you originate and run your own codes.  You will also learn to use statistics for curve fitting.  Sophomores will also be introduced to the ASPEN PLUS flow sheet simulator in CHEN 220.  This design tool will be used in several unit operations and design courses to develop your design skills

The use of a PC is emphasized in the chemical engineering laboratory sequence.  You will be given short lectures on WORD, Powerpoint,  Excel, MathCad, and Polymath.   All lab reports are required to be word-processed and graphs are expected to be computer generated. You will use simulators, canned programs and computer-aided design packages in a number of upper-level courses.  For example, you will use CONTROL STATION, a control system simulator and design program, in CHEN 340 and a kinetics and reactor design program in CHEN 350.  Finally, to maintain programming skills, a computer component is required in most CHEN courses.

D. LABORATORY EXPERIENCE

  Laboratory experience is integrated throughout the program.  The experience begins with general chemistry laboratory, two 1-credit courses, in the freshman year.  The curriculum also has an organic chemistry lab in each year in the sophomore year.  A two-semester sequence of physics laboratory courses are also included.

  The curriculum contains two courses which have chemical engineering laboratory experiences. CHEN 330 and CHEN 410 are separate laboratory courses. They are 2-credit courses which meet twice a week for 3-hour sessions.  Part of the chemical engineering laboratory experience is devoted to technical writing, report preparation, oral communication, statistical treatment of data and laboratory safety. 

Your safety is of paramount importance. All undergraduate experiments are designed to minimize safety hazards and to minimize the use of chemicals and the disposal of chemicals to the environment.  The development of laboratory safety awareness and skills are important parts of chemical engineering laboratory.  Safety instruction in the laboratory courses includes several lectures by the instructor and showing several video tapes obtained from industry or from the Center for Chemical Process Safety.  Students are also asked to perform a safety audit in each of the chemical engineering laboratories.  Safety sections are included in your pre-lab notebook and lab reports.  Laboratory safety is monitored by the laboratory instructor who includes questions on lab safety as part of the pre-lab oral exam and observes safety practices during experimentation.

Each student has the opportunity to study a wide variety of equipment and instrumentation in chemical engineering laboratory.  Students work in groups of 3 or 4 and work on four experimental projects in each laboratory course.  Each of the experiments is open-ended and one has a separate design component.  Students develop an experimental procedure and plan for their study.  Students also complete a laboratory project which can be a scale-up application of the data measured in the lab or a development project on one of the newer experiments.

E. ENGINEERING SCIENCE EXPERIENCE

  Your chemical engineering science experience is aimed at using your knowledge of mathematics and science and new engineering science knowledge to bridge the gap to engineering practice.  The goal of engineering science is creative application.  The chemical engineering curriculum is a coherent plan to provide you instruction and knowledge in chemical engineering science.

  Instruction in engineering science begins in GEEN 100 where you will be given an overview of engineering professions.  GEEN 100 will also introduce the use of personal computers, problem-solving skills and probability.  In CHEN 200 you will develop basic skills in material and energy balancing of chemical processes.  You will also complete a flowsheet development project in this course.  In CHEN 220, you will learn to apply statistics and numerical methods to the solution of engineering problems.  In CHEN 310, you will begin to learn about chemical engineering thermodynamics.  The emphasis in CHEN 310 is on the first and second laws of thermodynamics.  CHEN 310 also has emphasis on physical and chemical equilibria.  You will learn about the unit operations and transport processes in CHEN 300 (fluid mechanics), CHEN 320 (heat transfer and diffusional mass transfer) and CHEN 400 (stagewise separation processes).  In the mass transfer sequence, you will study both stagewise separation operations and diffusional operations.  The concepts of process dynamics and how to control a chemical process will be covered in CHEN 340.   In CHEN 350, you will study chemical reaction engineering, which is unique to chemical engineers. Finally, you will have two chemical engineering electives in your senior year. 

F. ENGINEERING DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Engineering design is viewed as the process of devising a system, component, procedure or process to meet desired needs.  It is a decision making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective.  Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria of the process, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing, and evaluation.  The engineering design component of the curriculum includes the following features: development of student creativity, use of open-ended problems, development and use of design methodology, formulation of design problem statements and specifications, consideration of alternatives, feasibility considerations, and detailed system descriptions.  In addition, a variety of realistic constraints such as economic factors, safety, ethical and reliability limitations are included in design projects.  An engineering design component is incorporated into many of the undergraduate courses.

Design instruction begins in the freshman year in GEEN 100 where we introduce you to the design process.  You are given extensive project work in developing creativity and considering alternate methods of solution in a series of open-ended small projects. In CHEN 200, you will work in groups to solve one of the open-ended projects presented in Felder and Rousseau's Process Principles text.  Your group will develop a flow sheet and complete complex mass and energy balance calculations.  Sophomores learn to use the ASPEN PLUS simulation package in CHEN 220 to help develop their design skills.  In the transport processes, mass transfer and reactor design courses, you will complete one or more design projects based on the equipment or procedures studied in the engineering science part of the course.

You will conduct open-ended experimental studies in each of the chemical engineering laboratory courses, CHEN 330 and 410. In each lab experiment you will be given general statements about the capability of the equipment and you will develop a detailed experimental procedure and list the safety considerations.  For one of the experiments, you will complete an open-ended, scale-up design based on the experimental data you generate.  Finally, you can complete a semester-long project to design, build, operate or improve a laboratory scale experiment.

In the process control course, an extensive amount of problem solving is done in the selection and design of controllers and control systems.  You will also complete a control system design project and extensive control system designs using CONTROL STATION.

A major part of the design component in your program occurs in the capstone experience which occurs in a two-course senior sequence and consists of Process Design I and Process Design II.  The primary objective of the Process Design I and II course sequence is the development of student engineering and conceptual abilities to design a process sequence and to evaluate its economic feasibility.  One of the most difficult tasks involves the effective use of the library and vendors to research the necessary information.  The major process design effort effectively incorporates economic factors, safety, toxicity and environmental hazards and equipment reliability factors, ethics and social impact during class discussions and group conferences.  At least one of the projects in Process Design II will contain an extensive economics and profitability analysis.  NSPE ethics will be reviewed.  Videotapes on ethics, social impact and safety are shown.  Our safety manual will be reviewed. Working engineers and engineering managers in this course sequence will also provide a number of seminars.

You will complete your design experience by selecting technical elective courses which contain at least two credits of engineering design as part of the three option electives that are taken in the senior year.

G. RESEARCH AND INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCES

  These experiences are optional, but they might be the most important part of your development.  Each of the chemical engineering faculty are involved in research and encourage your involvement.  Faculty research areas are detailed in the Faculty Profiles part of the Appendix.  Many of the faculty have financial resources and all will accept volunteers.  Getting involved on a research project will give you insight on how research is conducted and whether you should pursue an advanced degree.  You should also pursue getting industrial experience through one or more summer internships or co-op assignments.  A summer internship does not extend an academic program, but getting an assignment is very competitive.  Co-op involves alternating terms in industry and college and is normally completed in five years.  Some details about co-op are given later in the handbook.

More and more companies are emphasizing industrial experience in selecting graduates for permanent assignments.  They cite that students with experience have better insight as to what they want and what industry needs.  Employers also feel that students have already learned the industrial culture and have been screened by the industry.  Students interested in an industrial assignment should register with career services as soon as their registration is complete.