Chemical product engineering teaching: opportunities and challenges
Educating chemical engineers for coming challenges
Teaching Chemical Product Design & Engineering (T6-3)
Keywords: Chemical product engineering, chemical product design, chemical engineering teaching
In recent years, the need to update chemical engineering curricula in order to guarantee the competitiveness of the profession in an increasingly aggressive and diverse industrial environment has been acknowledged.
The emergence of chemical product engineering as a well-established academic field has been an enduring trend in this context. Many leading chemical engineering departments all around the world have started to offer chemical product design courses; the number of references related to chemical product engineering available in the open literature has grown exponentially since 1997; and this has been a very popular topic in recent important scientific conferences and meetings.
However, chemical product engineering is still often seen as a marginal area. At a time when much work remains before this discipline is widely seen as an educational and research priority, the exchange of ideas, opinions and experiences is of crucial importance.
In this work, some obstacles to the emergence of chemical product engineering are discussed. The frequently assumed incompatibility between process engineering and chemical product engineering perspectives is challenged. The major challenges faced by those involved in chemical product engineering teaching are also reviewed.
A possible framework for structuring chemical product engineering is then discussed. Such a framework is useful to systematise thinking, communicate ideas, teach concepts, guide research and organise the development of knowledge in the field.
The explicit teaching of chemical product design is addressed.
A possible syllabus for chemical product design courses incorporating chemical engineering core concepts, key marketing ideas and quality management approaches is proposed. This syllabus has been developed taking into account that flexibility, willingness to get involved in non-traditional areas and aptitude for multidisciplinary teamwork are now as essential for professional success as are the traditional core skills of chemical engineering.
Finally, a web resource of sample problems for chemical product engineering teaching, recently developed in collaboration with the Engineering Subject Centre, is presented. Finding plausible examples to illustrate chemical product engineering concepts is often a major difficulty, partly because industrial innovation practices are largely undisclosed. Thus this web resource may be helpful for those involved in teaching in this area providing supporting materials. It also intends to promote the exchange of new case studies – it is open to receive contributions from academics and practitioners in order to become an increasingly richer platform of accumulated chemical product engineering and design knowledge.
The goal of this work is to stimulate discussion and promote the exchange of experiences in chemical product engineering teaching reinforcing the importance of incorporating this subject into chemical engineering curricula.
Presented Monday 17, 11:55 to 12:15, in session Teaching Chemical Product Design & Engineering (T6-3).
