Project Engineering as Senior Design: Moving from Paper to Practice

This presentation describes the eight year evolution at Bucknell University towards a hybrid paper/practical senior design sequence where each team must physically implement the solution to a real chemical engineering problem. These problems are supplied by local industry as well as individuals and non-profit groups. Solutions to the problems must be demonstrated experimentally. Problem areas have ranged from developing and operating bench- and pilot-scale processes to the design and development of novel process equipment to developing novel process conditions to make better products with existing equipment. Students have produced coatings for wrestling mats, tested filtration parameters for pharmaceutical production, and created a novel process for “hopping” beer. Both survey and direct assessment results demonstrate positive student outcomes from this version of the course sequence. We will also reflect upon both the plusses and minuses of this approach from the faculty perspective.