Pillars of Chemical Engineering: A Block Scheduled Curriculum

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This project will undertake department level reform of the Chemical Engineering program at the University of Pittsburgh. The goals of the new curriculum are to (a) Give the students a strong fundamental foundation by concentrating on the essential core of scientific and engineering basics in a given discipline.(b) Enhance systems thinking by helping students to integrate their knowledge across courses and disciplines so that they are better prepared to address open-ended problems; and (c) Prepare and provide for continuing education and life-long learning. Specifically, the project will:1. Modularize and integrate the critical "core" of Chemical Engineering (including massbalances, thermodynamics, kinetics, separations, transport phenomena, process systems,control, laboratory, and design) into six Pillar courses.2. Re-evaluate and re-align supporting courses (mathematics, chemistry, physics, andbiology) and elective courses into application-focused tracks.3. Re-align each individual course so that, in addition to the traditional macroscopic andcontinuum-level descriptions, we also include "sub-continuum", molecular or "fundamental unit" analysis.The intellectual merit in the proposal lies both in the integration of successfulpedagogical techniques from K-12 education -- Block Scheduling -- into the Universityenvironment, as well as in our state-of-the-art assessment of these efforts. Overall theproposal will introduce emerging Chemical Engineering knowledge/practice (molecular andmulti-scale focus as well as track-based case studies/electives), eliminate legacymaterial, expose students to practical computational methods (including integration ofCAD-based macroscopically focused software -- e.g., ASPEN -- as well as molecularlyfocused software -- e.g., Accelrys -- into most courses), and allow the time toeffectively incorporate modern teaching methods (team-based and experience-based learning, computer simulation, etc.).The broader impact of the work lies in integration of research and teaching, enhancementof diversity, infrastructure development, and the fostering of partnerships. During thecourse of the project numerous undergraduate students will work closely with faculty andinstructional designers. The courseware developed to support the 6 Pillar courses will be made readily available on our departmental web site, so that it may be utilized (and modified) by other institutions -- fostering partnerships. The proposed work will enhance infrastructure through the generation of course materials that are easily portable to many institutions. Findings of the research will be disseminated at national societal conferences (AIChE, ASEE) as well as on our departmental web page (http://www.che.pitt.edu). Additionally, results will be published in traditional engineering education journals (JEE, CEE, etc.).