Education for Chemical Engineers最新文献

The community service program is one of the Tri Dharma or three obligations of Higher Education conducted by the academic community in Indonesia. A brand-new initiative in education was unveiled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, specifically Independent Learning – Independent Campus. Numerous Chemical Engineering – Institut Teknologi Indonesia faculty members and students collaborated with partners to manufacture and diversify cocozone oil as an outcome of downstream research and community service. As part of the 'Independent Learning - Independent Campus' program, community service is examined to determine its effect on student competence development and faculty-student engagement. Furthermore, students are unaware of its cost because it is subsidized by the government, though it highlights the importance of voluntary community work. Similarly, faculty members followed the same trend, though their ratings were higher than the pupils. Student socialization is an important part of their education and learning process. Additionally, community service activities are beneficial to the partner since they cushion them against the economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lab work is a basic pillar, especially in engineering and science. It promotes problem solving and discovery and it has proven to enhance student learning. Transversal competences such as autonomy or effective oral and written communication are also enhanced. E-learning is currently increasing and requires a redesign of practical work. Several virtual laboratories can be found to cover different areas. This, however, does not replace the face-to-face laboratories in the field of chemistry, where students need to perform hands-on experiments to acquire the required skills. An alternative is experimentation at home. Most existing references in this regard describe qualitative experiences. In this work we have designed a home practical work in which some fundamental concepts of chemical kinetics and catalysis are developed quantitatively. Students are introduced here to wastewater treatment using an advanced oxidation process; the Fenton reaction. From the results of a preactivity survey, students showed motivation and high expectations with the activity proposal. From a post-activity survey, we concluded that the perception of students towards the activity did not change after completing it. The learning objectives were met both for the students that participated in the take-home experiment and for those who did the experiment in the laboratory.

This study explores the implementation of a detailed model pharmaceutical production facility in an undergraduate engineering class. Xandar Pharmaceuticals (XP), a fictitious manufacturer, was created and presented to undergraduate engineering students during a current good manufacturing practices (cGMP¹) course in two forms: (1) 3D virtual model and (2) 3D printed model. Data was collected from three separate cohorts over three years with a total of 197 participants. Surveys would gauge student’s sentiments and collect feedback, while quizzes assessed technical understanding. Statistical analysis and effect size calculations would evaluate the differences among the three cohorts. Survey results indicate the 3D printed model has small positive effects on study vs control (groups) regarding understanding of general industry related functions and practices. The 3D printed model also improved students’ interest in critical thinking and investigation. Qualitative feedback and sentiment analysis indicate the model was well received by students and received positive feedback related to visualization, industrial relevance, and student engagement. Use of the 3D printed model (but not the 3D virtual model) has had positive quantitative effects on student quiz scores and feedback. Qualitative improvements to student attitudes and interest are encouraging and suggest further use of 3D printed models in other courses may be beneficial.

Mechanical Design is a subject usually included in Chemical Engineering Degrees. In this work, we present the application of a project-based learning to the lab in two different engineering degrees, in of one the most time-consuming and difficult subjects of their programs. These two degrees, Mechanical and Chemical engineering degrees, were selected in order to compare the learning outcomes and satisfaction with the activity in the degree more related to mechanical concepts and the Chemical engineering degree. Moreover, to enhance students’ enthusiasm and motivation, these sessions included an innovative manufacturing technology, 3D printing, and digital image correlation (DIC). Before each practical session, the students are encouraged to watch an online video with the fundamental aspects. In order to assess the success of this methodology, after finishing the lab sessions, the students answered a non-formal quantitative survey. The results showed that the proposed project-based learning had the ability to help integrating the knowledge and improve the skills included in the main competences. Although these results are encouraging, there are still parts of the lab activity that should be improve in order to make the activity less time consuming and the most difficult part being easier for the students.

Application of augmented reality (AR) in education has recently grown in interest due to distant, online, and self-directed learning. In this study, the impact of implementing an AR application on chemical engineering students’ learning motivation and performance was assessed. Two interactive AR lessons on common industrial equipment (i.e., centrifugal pump and shell-and-tube heat exchanger) were developed on the EON-XR platform. A cohort of 50 undergraduate chemical engineering students participated in the AR lessons and evaluated its impact on students’ learning motivation and usefulness as a learning resource. The level of students’ learning motivation was assessed with a 16-item questionnaire based on the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) from Keller’s ARCS model, and qualitative questions related to the future of AR technology in chemical engineering education. Results show that 82% of respondents found AR lessons helpful compared to conventional lesson delivery modes, while 92% were supportive for AR lessons to be an additional resource to existing learning materials. These findings demonstrated that AR technology impacted students’ learning motivation positively across multiple constructs, namely ‘Attention’, ‘Relevance’, ‘Confidence’ and ‘Satisfaction’ and showed great potential as an innovative pedagogical advancement in chemical engineering education.

The development of Covid-19 epidemic into a pandemic led to great changes in education delivery modes around the globe. Online education (OE) began after the closure of education buildings. The unprepared start of OE led to access barriers, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. This work explores the scope of OE during COVID-19 in Pakistani institutions offering the degree of Chemical Engineering. A mixed-method approach was followed with a sample of 10 teachers and 1200 students from public and private sector universities. Teacher data came from semi-structured interviews by email, while students’ views of their learning experiences were collected through an online survey. The learners' responses showed that the unprecedented and unprepared shift to online course delivery lowered their motivation and interest in learning and they do not perceive the present practice as useful for several reasons. However, the teachers believed that the transition to OE helped the continuity of education, though they had to face technical, personal, social, learning-management-related, and other barriers they were not adequately equipped to deal with effectively. The results imply the need for a rapid preparation phase to enhance the effectiveness of OE during a crisis. The results may assist academics and policymakers in revising decisions regarding the great education migration to OE.

It is more important to promote professional ability of the undergraduates than to simply acquire knowledge. Teachers play a significant role in the teaching/learning activities. Problem-based learning paradigm was conducted in the course of the undergraduate’s degree in Polymer Chemistry and Physics in Lanzhou University in the last two years, aiming on promoting problem refining, analyzing and solving abilities of the undergraduates through active learning with a designed guidance. Taking the learning of free radical suspension polymerization as an example in the present work, a prospective framework is outlined based on the topic of “how to inspire students to think?”. By this approach, a satisfactory learning experience was ensured across the spectrum of abilities, including positive student feedback, improved mark, and promoted skills.

Engineering is an exciting field, offering exceptional career opportunities. Still, the success of an engineering graduate depends upon their knowledge, skills, and attitude. Accreditation agencies worldwide described these attributes as desirable competencies referred to as program outcomes (POs) by NBA, India. These POs are imparted during graduation and effectively implemented in the profession. Thus, continuous monitoring of each PO for an individual undergraduate during graduation becomes vital to initiate corrective action (if needed). This study proposes automation in the assessment process for POs. It has identified new assessment events and developed additional online assessment tools, feedback systems involving all stakeholders. To demonstrate the effect/impact of all these parameters, separate mathematical formulae are evolved to assess each PO. The authors claim that the developed system provides a more realistic attainment number due to comprehensive assessment and all-inclusive feedback instead of relying on sample data as in the conventional assessment process. It also helps in institutional accreditation.

The digitalisation megatrend is currently changing the way whole sectors of the economy are operated and in the manufacturing sector, digitalisation promises productivity improvements with seemingly marginal investments in “steel and concrete”. These sector wide shifts will inevitably influence how a chemical engineering graduate would perform their job functions, irrespective if they are working in an area such as petrochemical manufacturing or in the financial and management sector of the economy. This manuscript presents the results from three targeted surveys carried out to get a better understanding of (1) what alumni from a chemical and materials engineering degree think these changes will mean for them, (2) expert opinions on the level of detail key topics of digital twins, big data and Internet of Things (IOT) should be covered by an undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum and (3) what staff from a chemical and materials engineering degree think the best way to embed these concepts into an undergraduate level chemical engineering education. Analysing the results from the survey highlighted the following aspects. (1) An overwhelming number of alumni reported that elements of digitalisation are already influencing their industry and job function and these influences are likely to get stronger overtime (2) The experts identified that chemical engineering graduates will likely drive the development of digital twins hence requiring a high level of understanding in this subject. The graduates would only need to apply Big Data analytics and likely not be involved with the IOT developments. (3) The staff identified that these requirements identified by the experts can be satisfied by taking a two-pronged approach of adding modules to current core courses while developing standalone elective courses to cover the more advanced concepts.

Two core courses have been given for several years to senior chemical engineering undergraduate students in flipped format, combining pre-class online preparation by the students, “class meetings” with the lecturer, and “active tutorials,” in which groups of students solve exercises. In 2020/21, the COVID-19 lockdown imposed online teaching of these courses to the 54 enrolled students. The objective of work presented in this paper is to explore the impact of the remote flipped classroom design on students' learning experience and achievements, in comparison to the regular flipped class in which only the first preparation phase was online. Because the course was taught completely online, a plethora of data was for the first time made available to support a thorough study of the course teaching protocol, including data from Panopto Analytics®, Zoom and Moodle logs, extensive self-report surveys, as well as actual learning outcomes (exam results). Statistical analyses including multivariate regression were performed to determine which factors most affect learning outcomes. The student surveys indicate that of the three class steps, the “active tutorial” gives students the most confidence in their mastery. Furthermore, analysis indicates that active students think that they benefit more than do passive students, as reflected by both self-reporting and final exam performances. The importance of underlying ability, as indicated by the GPA is a principal conclusion from the regression model, which also identifies attendance of “active tutorials” as a dominant positive effect on exam grades. Two important conclusions of our work are that the online and face-to-face versions of our flipped approach achieve indistinguishable learning outcomes and that students’ perceived confidence in their mastery is highest after the active tutorial.