CHEMENG 31N: When Chemistry Meets Engineering

Course Description

Chemistry is regarded as a fundamental science and engineering as an applied subject. They are subjects that are ubiquitous around us. But what happens when the two meet? In this seminar, we will explore this question by working on experimental problems that serve as an introduction to the pillars of chemical engineering and as a window into the world of what chemical engineering looks like as a career, and that we may not always recognize. For example, how can we produce the fuels that allow us to travel the world? How can we generate the energy that powers our houses? How can we provide clean water for our daily needs? How can we control organisms to produce useful molecules for us?

Many processes that we take for granted—from riding an electric bus running on batteries to using our smartphones containing two billion transistors—have been developed through understanding science at a fundamental level and then applying it to large and important industrial processes, such as refineries to separate oil and processes to produce plastics. In this seminar, we will explore some of the basic concepts that are important for addressing these challenges through experiments in the Uytengsu teaching labs. We will synthesize (and characterize) nanomaterials for energy and environmental applications, try to separate liquid mixtures into pure compounds, produce biofuels, use sunlight to degrade pollutants, and learn how to deliver drugs in the human body; and ultimately, see the chemical properties of molecules that are part of our everyday life—with a different eye.

Our class will be highly practical, and lab activities will be central to your learning. You will not be given detailed instructions on how to perform the experiments. Instead, you will be provided with a few problems and with enough initial details to conduct your experiments. However, you will be required to make decisions on your experimental setup based on high-school chemistry, math, and physics principles. You will make mistakes, and that is okay; we will have reflection sessions and discussions so that you will learn how to collaborate to design and execute flawless experimental investigations.