Process Design: Learning in Chemical Engineering

As chemical engineers, we are trained to identify and model the fundamental mechanisms of chemical and biological processes towards innovation and reliable production. This disposition is the cornerstone of a discipline that continues to make key contributions in traditional (e.g., petrochemical, pharmaceutical) and emerging (e.g., microelectronics, biotechnology, alternative energy) fields. This chemical engineering approach can also be applied to the complex processes of learning. Thus, it is not surprising that chemical engineers, like Phil Wankat, have been pioneers in the emerging field of engineering education research, where scholars seek systematic and generalizable understanding of the learning process and learning systems. This talk will focus on examples from the author’s research of learning processes and ways that he has explored foundational mechanisms and connected them to innovations and reliable delivery of course and unit programs.