|
It has been reported
that the nation's first four-year curriculum in
chemical Engineering was announced by M.I.T in
1888.[1] But, "Professor Hammond
presented a paper on 'Promotion of Engineering
Education in the Past Forty Years,' at the
fortieth anniversary meeting of the Society for
the Promotion of Engineering Education. In this
paper, Professor Hammond stated that after
searching the early records and catalogues it did
seem that Rose Polytechnic had actually had the
first chemical engineering graduate in the United
States."
Walter Brown Wiley entered Rose Polytechnic in
September 1885 and graduated from the Chemical
Department in 1889.[3] "Mr. Wiley is
the first graduate in the Chemical course from the
Rose Polytechnic Institute, and has been engaged
in a special line of work in connection with fuel
engineering, especially to improve the quality of
coke and the investigation of coking coals."[3]
The Chemical
Engineering Department is the third largest
department at Rose-Hulman with approximate 250
students at the present time.
Unit
Operations Laboratory
The Unit Operations
Laboratory at Rose-Hulman has a long history of
being an integral part of the undergraduate
chemical engineering program. This is in keeping
with our conviction that students learn best by
doing. The department moved into a new building in
1984, which was constructed with funds donated by
the Olin Foundation. The faculty designed the new
facilities around the Unit Operations
Laboratory. Some existing equipment was moved
into the new lab but for the most part new pilot
plant size projects were built in the new lab.
This lab has been
continuously updated since 1984 so that now over
20 different experimental modules are available
for unit operations lab projects. These modules
include distillation, gas absorption, liquid
extraction, drying, filtration, microfiltration,
membrane separations, mixing, heat exchangers of
several types including boiling and condensation,
vapor-liquid equilibria, gas and liquid fluid
flow, pumps, cooling tower, kinetics including
fermentation, process control, and other
miscellaneous modules. The lab has been operated
as a project lab as opposed to a “cookbook” lab
where the project objective is varied from group
to group on any given experimental module. In
some cases projects are assigned requiring data be
taken for scale up. This has worked well with
boiling heat transfer, cooling towers, filtration,
drying and membrane separations. Operating the
lab in this fashion requires a large commitment
from the faculty and in any given quarter five of
the eight full time faculty are involved in the
Unit Ops Lab. Oral reports have been an integral
part of the lab since moving into the new
facilities in 1984. Each lab group of three gives
three oral reports that are critiqued by other
groups. Faculty are present at all oral reports
to “grill” each group. This again requires a
hefty commitment of time from the faculty. The
reward comes when students call back after
graduation saying they are able to hold their own
when asked to report orally on their first job
assignment.
Curricula
Integration
Rose-Hulman has placed
increasing emphasis on curricula integration. The chemical
engineering department has restructured the
sophomore material and energy balance sequence to
make this same emphasis. The restructured courses
are titled "Conservation Principles and Balances,"
and "Basic Chemical Process Calculations." The
first course includes an introduction to
engineering calculations, application of numerical
techniques, concepts of systems, conservation and
accounting of extensive properties - mass, energy,
charge, linear and angular momentum - as a common
framework for engineering analysis and modeling.
The second course offers the application of
conservation of mass and energy in analysis of
chemical engineering processes including recycle,
bypass and multi-stream processes as well as
methodologies used by practicing chemical
engineers. The use of computer software,
especially spreadsheets, is highly integrated into
the course.
The
Future
We intend to continue
maintaining a strong teaching commitment and
personal attention to students. The mission of
the department is to provide a balanced education
to enable our students to practice as
professionals in the dynamic industrial
environment, appreciate their responsibility to
their colleagues and become life long learners.
References
|
