I believe USC has a great chemical engineering undergraduate laboratory. It is not just me saying this. The students, the faculty and even two sets of ABET evaluators have all agreed that the Chemical Engineering Laboratory and its associated courses are suburb. I am also very proud of the fact that the Chemical Engineering Laboratory and its associated two-course sequence survived two ABET assessments, the one in 2000 and the one in 2006, receiving outstanding, essentially raving reviews in both cases.
I began this journey in the fall of 1994, when I was asked to take over the two-semester Chemical Engineering Laboratory course. I accepted this challenge because the two-course sequence and the laboratories needed some help. I would like to emphasize that I did not simply teach the same laboratory course that was developed by my predecessors. I redesigned the entire course. Highlights of the improvements I made early on in its development included: hiring an excellent full-time laboratory manager (Charles E. Holland), developing new and/or significantly improving the existing experiments, implementing as a standard, a two teaching assistant (TA) minimum assigned to each experiment, writing or rewriting all of the laboratory experimental handouts and procedures, and ensuring that rigorous theory and supporting computational analyses were part of each experiment, and
The effort Chuck and I put into this endeavor paid off. USC has had for many years now seven to eight experiments running each semester with state-of-the-art data acquisition and control systems based on LabView software from National Instruments and a "statistical design of experiments" approach where the students carry out full factorial designs to assist them in analyzing their data. Experiments in ECHE 460 include: Plate and Frame Filtration; Adsorption and Diffusion in Microporous Zeolites using Gas Chromatography; Heat Transfer Analysis in Solids; Analysis of Centrifugal Pumps and Pipe Network Flow; Viscometry and Rheology; Ethanol/Water Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium using an Othmer Still; Electrochemical Methods: Voltammetry; and Packed Column Hydrodynamics
Experiments in ECHE 461 include: Hollow Fiber Membrane for Gas Separation: N2 Production from Air; Fundamentals of Fixed Bed Adsorption Processes: Analysis of Adsorption Breakthrough and Desorption Elution Curves; Batch Distillation with Rectification: Separation of Ethanol/Water using an Oldershaw Distillation Column; Performance and Characterization of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell; Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactor: Gas and Vacuum Stripping of O2 from Water; Kinetics and Reactor Engineering: Study of a Batch Reactor; Absorption in Packed Columns: Sulfur Dioxide Absorption from Air using Water; and Drying of Process Materials: Combined Heat and Mass Transfer
Chuck and I also have been and will continue to develop a new experiment each year, or to take an existing experiment and to modify it so that it can be used over a period of two to three years without repeating the same experiment or analysis. This makes the experiment far more interesting to teach and minimizes the sharing of information by students from different classes. We are currently developing four new experiments. These include concepts on: agitation and aeration, gas phase catalytic reactor, photocatalysis, and reverse osmosis.
My teaching philosophy in the Chemical Engineering Laboratory two-course sequence has always been to have the students: run well planned experiments that allow for the collection of interpretable and analyzable data; analyze the data using statistical and experimental design techniques; correlate the data with simple but fundamental models; present the results in a logical fashion; and write a comprehensive and well organized report on each experiment
Typical results from this approach show a consistent improvement in both the style and content of the presentations and reports as the semester progresses, especially during the second semester. I have been very pleased with this kind of tangible result that I believe demonstrates that I have been effective at teaching some of the most important areas in engineering education, i.e., summative knowledge, analysis, presentation and writing.
I have also been very receptive to comments and suggestions from the laboratory TAs (i.e., graduate students), undergraduate students, faculty, and staff. As a result, several significant evolutionary changes have been made over the years. These changes include.
Pre-Experiment Quiz (PEQ): The PEQ was implemented the first time in ECHE 461 in fall 2001 and in ECHE 460 in spring 2002 based on feedback from the TAs that the students were not reading the experimental handout prior to coming to the laboratory.
Outcome: very few students have failed the PEQ; students now read the entire experimental handout prior to going to the laboratory. No more complaints have been received from the TAs on this point.
Final Exam (FE): The FE was implemented the first time in ECHE 461 in fall 2001 and in ECHE 460 in spring 2002 based on students requesting less of their grade to be a group grade, and more importantly, to determine if the students are retaining any information about the experiments they ran during the semester.
Outcome: most students receive 100 points; a few receive 75 points, one or two receive 50, 25 and even 0 points during a semester; in effect, the FE provides for a more even distribution between an individual and group grade and it signifies that the greater majority of the class actually learned how to interpret or analyze results from their experiments; and it challenges the student's ability to know how well they think they know a topic; I now get first hand knowledge of this ability.
Reduction from Six to Four Tasks (i.e., Experiments): this task reduction was implemented the first time in ECHE 461 in fall 2002 and in ECHE 460 in spring 2003 to provide time for a student within a group or for the group to delve more deeply into one or more of the experiments and to provide a more realistic (possibly industrial type) experience where report writing tends to be an interactive process between colleagues and management, at least in the early stages of a career.
Outcome: Up to one-third of the reports are now turned in for re-grading after a major revision has been done, usually by a group member that was not pleased with the original group grade they received; to me it is obvious that a student has more opportunity to learn about a given experimental topic.
New Experiments: new experiments were implemented and old ones eliminated continually over the past 12 years to provide sufficiently accurate and precise data for the undergraduates to analyze, to stay current with the latest trends in the chemical engineering community, and to provide the students with a broader and more challenging exposure to different chemical engineering property measurement techniques and unit operations or processes.
Outcome: the students spend a great deal of time analyzing data that is indeed analyzable, and correlating the results with significant, curriculum-reinforcing theoretical developments, as evidenced partly by the frequent visits of the students to my office with relevant technical questions.
20 Questions: this new assessment tool was implemented the first time in ECHE 460 in spring 2005 and in ECHE 461 in fall 2005 as a means to encourage the students to learn more about a given topical experiment, either from gaining a fundamental understanding of underlying phenomena or from gaining a more practical understanding of the apparatus and procedure, and of the equipment including measurement devices.
Outcomes: Most of the students generally take 20 Questions very seriously and are probably prepared well enough to answer all 20 questions if called upon to do so during their presentation, which is the goal; a few students take a chance on the random nature of the draw of the two questions they are required to answer in 5 minutes and hope to get only easy ones; based on the scores and feedback from the students, it is clear to me that the students are learning more about each experiment and its underlying theoretical and practical developments.
Overall, the students fully realize and appreciate the fact that they receive a first rate chemical engineering laboratory experience at USC. I know this because Chuck and I repeatedly receive accolades from them about the rewarding experiences they had with the course, especially a few years after they graduated and used some of their skills in industry or graduate research. This kind of feedback is very gratifying as it provides a unique assessment tool for which we use to judge success.