Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Education

A dramatic shift in chemical engineering undergraduate education is proposed, based on discipline-wide workshop discussions that have taken place over the past year, to be developed and implemented over a ten-year period. Through this process broad concensus has been developed regarding basic principles for chemical engineering undergraduate eduction in the future; these principles address fundamental knowledge, skills and attributes, and methods of engagement with the students. From these principles a new set of organizing principles emerged for the discipline: molecular transformations, broadly interpreted to include chemical and biological systems and physical as well as chemical structural changes; multiscale analysis, from sub-molecular through super-macroscopic scales for physical, chemical, and biological systems; and a systems approach, addressed to all scales and supplying tools to deal with dynamics, complexity, uncertainty, and external factors. The curriculum integrates all organizing principles and basic supportive sciences throughout the educational sequence and moves from simple to complex. The curriculum is consistently infused with relevant and demonstrative laboratory experiences, and opportunities for teaming experiences and use of communication skills (written and oral) are included throughout. The curriculum is also designed so as to address different learning styles and to include a first-year chemical engineering experience. Finally an important theme is a consistent infusion with relevant and demonstrative examples, which provide open-ended problems and case studies and supply frequent integrative opportunities for students. The proposal describes in more detail the rationale, the work plan to develop the new curriculum, and the steps that are envisaged to create modern case studies. The proposal is broad, ambitious and specifically designed to be inclusive – our future is at stake. The proposed curriculum development will be managed through an ERC-like structure, which coordinates the activities across the discipline.