Workshops of innovation in chemical engineering to train communication skills in science and technology

This paper shows the application of an innovate pedagogical approach based on the project-based learning technique, focused on the training of communication skills in the framework of a workshop of innovation in chemical engineering. Written, graphical verbal, and non-verbal communication were tackled. For that purpose, a project of technological innovation was developed by the students in teams within the specific area of chemical engineering. A professional-like environment was simulated by a final workshop where the students defenced and supported their project by using oral presentation and production of a poster and a video. Several surveys were performed before and after the project application. The final survey revealed that both students and lecturers perceived an improvement on the communication skills of the students. Moreover, both lecturers and students declared satisfaction with the methodology, recommending its application in other disciplines.     

Viability of outcome-based education in teaching English as second language to chemical engineering learners

Outcome-based Education (OBE) is a student-directed learning system that enables learner autonomy, skill development, and life-long learning. Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has started implementing OBE in her affiliated engineering institutions at the undergraduate level, being a full signatory of the Washington Accord in 2017. PEC has made it obligatory for all institutions offering engineering degree programs to implement OBE at the undergraduate level. In this regard, the present study investigated the prospects of OBE implementation in the English as Second Language learning classroom of Chemical Engineering students. A quasi-experimental method was adopted to analyze the effectiveness of OBE in ESL learning. A group of 29 students were taught through traditional pedagogy in the first half of the semester and were provided treatment over the second half. Pretest and post-test were conducted to examine the learners’ outcomes for the ESL course for chemical engineering students. The teachers’ beliefs were recorded through semi-structured interviews regarding the prospects and potential challenges to OBE in Pakistan. The quasi-experiment results showed a rise in the students' course learning outcome in the content and skills. The teachers highlighted several challenges to OBE in Pakistan, including lack of training for non-engineering faculty, teachers’ and students’ reluctance to shift to student-centered mode, institutional dictation regarding teaching and assessment, and large classrooms. This work suggests teacher training of non-engineering courses and adopting a unified learning management system.     

Integrated project-based learning (IPBL) implementation for first year chemical engineering student: DIY hydraulic jack project

Implementation of student-centered learning has shown wide global acceptance within institutes of higher learning. Some methods, such as active learning, project-based learning, problem-based learning, and experiential-based learning, have significantly impacted the students’ understanding of a particular subject. However, students will still have problems integrating the materials learned from one course to other courses. Thus, this is where the proposed initiative comes in. This paper discusses the implementation of integrated project-based learning (IPBL) to assist students in integrating the knowledge gained from one course to the other for first-year chemical engineering students of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. The mapping of assessments and learning domains to the learning activities are also shown in detail. This study was conducted on two courses offered in the same semester, namely, Principles of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics, in January 2019. A total of 214 students grouped in 43 teams were asked to develop a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) hydraulic jack, which uses the fundamentals taught in these two courses. The results show that 100 % student was able to come up with a working prototype within 5 weeks and 90 % of the students agree that the initiative increased their understanding in chemical engineering fundamentals and developed their leadership, problem-solving, communications and time management skills.     

Learning experiences from digital laboratory safety training

We present a digital laboratory safety training platform called AALTOLAB which we have developed to address the need for more flexible and engaging ways to teach laboratory safety for chemical engineers. AALTOLAB consists of an interactive, web-based 360° virtual laboratory, integrated with a Moodle-based digital exam with automatic assessment. The modular platform offers different modules from general comprehensive laboratory training to more specialised modules. Students and staff can freely navigate in the laboratory rooms at any time and interact with different action points including interactive videos, slideshows, and minigames. Our technical solution allows teachers even with limited technological skills to easily modify the training materials in real time. The relationship of students’ learning experiences and level of learning is also discussed. We believe that our safety training concept facilitates deep learning and students’ engagement, thus improving safety culture in our laboratories.     

Design and assessment of a project-based learning in a laboratory for integrating knowledge and improving engineering design skills

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.     

Enquiry based learning in chemical engineering curriculum supported by computer aided delivery

Traditional curriculum delivery in higher education has long been considered ineffective in promoting deep learning. Enquiry based learning (EBL) provides an opportunity to develop important professional attributes within the subject-specific content. Computer-aided learning packages can be a useful tool in supporting the development of these skills, as they enable students to explore and gain experience of new software environments in subject-specific context. The development of case studies delivered in Stages 1 and 2 of a chemical engineering degree programme, utilising a number of different software packages is described. The Stage 1 case study develops fundamental principles of chemical engineering whilst Stage 2 case studies concentrate on separation processes and the reactor engineering aspect at the same time requiring the application of the knowledge of statistics and design of experiments, respectively. Student evaluation via questionnaires, focus groups and comments from individual reflective reports, submitted as part of the assessment of the Stage 1 case study activity, demonstrate the impact of these case studies on student learning and their behaviour. Students consider these case studies useful in strengthening their knowledge of the relevant areas of chemical engineering as well as helping them develop skills they consider important from employability point of view.     

Incorporating life cycle assessment and ecodesign tools for green chemical engineering: A case study of competences and learning outcomes assessment

Chemical engineers assume a broad range of roles in industry, spanning the development of new process designs, the maintenance and optimization of complex systems, and the production of intermediate materials, final products and new technologies. The technical aptitude that enables chemical engineers to fulfill these various roles along the value chain makes them compelling participants in the environmental assessment of the product in question. Therefore, the introduction of life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecodesign concepts into the chemical engineering curriculum is essential to help these future professionals to face design problems with a holistic view of the technical, economic, social and environmental impacts of their solutions. The teaching of these and other disciplines by means of student-centered methods, based on a holistic structure, have demonstrated better teamwork and communication skills. For that reason, this paper proposes a Micro (Assess-Analyze-Act) (M-3A) model of assessment mainly focused on closing the loop of the learning activities. This model has been applied to an ecodesign case study of the “University master’s Degree in chemical engineering” of the University of Cantabria/University of the Basque Country, with positive feedback of the students. They felt that the approach has allowed them to utilize their analytical skills in quantifying a situation before applying other subjective measures, and that the public discussion of the results was a satisfactory element for improving their communication skills. Moreover, the students found that the workload was nicely adjusted, highlighting the acquisition of 4 competences preferentially: teamwork, creativity; relevance of environmental issues and initiative and entrepreneurship. Finally, the students suggest that the application of this methodology into their degree could motivate future students improving their performance.     

Assessing the impact of augmented reality application on students’ learning motivation in chemical engineering

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.     

A pilot-scale laboratory experience for an inductive learning of hydrodynamics in a sieve-tray tower

A specific inductive teaching approach for undergraduate students of Chemical Engineering bachelor’s degree based on a laboratory experience is presented. Thus, the simple experiment performed to show an aspect of theory previously taught in a classroom is overcome. The specific laboratory experience involves a sieve-tray tower whereby a binary distillation is carried out. However, the focus is not on this separation operation but in the hydrodynamics associated with the start-up of the process, which needs a boiler as an ancillary system to supply the required energy. All these process units are usually taught operating under stationary conditions, which are achieved quickly if small laboratory units are used. In this paper, the hands-on experience is performed in a pilot plant, which makes students feel closer to industry and allows them to visualize different physical phenomena. Students work with their teammates, and they can acquire technical knowledge and develop transferable skills that prepare them for their future profession in a more engaged and motivational way. From their feedback, students feel that their mood increase, because they understand the phenomena shown in the experience better when it is performed first and then explained. Therefore, the approach is very well received by the students, so this new teaching scaffolding should be more and more developed and implemented in the chemical engineering curriculum. It is rewarding for the teaching staff because the laboratory experience helps students construct meaning by themselves in a more active and efficient way. This approach makes it possible to find and correct misconceptions in the students, to demonstrate procedures and methods used in the chemical engineering and to explain particular concepts within the knowledge area. But what is more important, it makes students protagonists of their own learning and gives them more confidence.     

Lab at home in distance learning: A case study

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.     

Hands-on kinetic measurements and simulation for chemical process engineering students

Hands-on experience in the laboratory is essential in chemical engineering education to enhance the understanding of abstract theories and their effect on chemical processes. In this work, we describe a laboratory class, which combines some of the main engineering concepts into a set of hands-on experiments and simulations. Students are introduced to an iodine clock reaction performed in multiple different reactor types and are instructed to determine the reaction kinetics. Subsequent analysis of the experimental data in Python teaches basic programming skills and the concepts of numeric integration and optimization. Finally, a digital twin of one of the reactors is developed in COMSOL Multiphysics to give the students an application-focused introduction to more-dimensional multiphysics modeling. The students thereby get practical insights into the different methods and stages of reactor and reaction engineering. Based on the students’ assignments, we consistently see a deeper understanding of reaction kinetics and reactor engineering than in the accompanying traditional lecture.     

Constructivist-based experiential learning: A case study of student-centered and design-centric unit operation distillation laboratory

This paper presents the rationale for incorporating engineering design into project-based laboratory learning. To ensure an effective and efficient pedagogy for the new laboratory format, we placed the emphasis of the pedagogical framework on constructivist learning for deep laboratory learning, and integrated experiential learning cycle with cyclic engineering design to formulate a sequential instruction and formative assessment methodology. The implementation of the pedagogy was exemplified using a case study of a concrete distillation design consisting of conceptualizing the design, reasoning the adequacy and experiment-based validation of the design correlations, and verifying the final design as per experimental observations. The impact of the novel lab format on student learning experience was surveyed and compared to that of a traditional laboratory. The survey results revealed that the project-based laboratory with design resulted in an improved learning experience in addressing high-level learning outcomes and engineering skills. Evidence of the survey also suggested that the sequential instruction and formative assessment methodology was effective with every stage of the experiential learning and formative assessment essential for the successful and efficient implementation of the project-based laboratory learning.     

The introduction to engineering course: A case study from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

As part of an effort to enhance students' first year experience, all Chemical Engineering students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia are required to take the Introduction to Engineering course. This course is designed to stimulate students’ passion and strengthen motivation for further engineering studies, as well as to enhance their technical knowledge and relevant professional skills. To investigate the impact of the course on students’ knowledge of engineering, an exploratory study is conducted through an open-ended survey, given at the beginning and end of the semester. The analysis shows that the ITE course successfully served the purpose of raising awareness about engineering profession among students, while motivating them through student-centred learning approaches. A qualitative study is also conducted by analysing reflection journals submitted by students to identify the improvement on professional skills that students have developed as they go through the course. This study concludes to show that first year engineering students who have gone through the activities in the course have understood the role of engineers and their job functions. They have also managed to develop professional skills as part of their initial journey to become good engineers.     

Lab at home: 3D printed and low-cost experiments for thermal engineering and separation processes in COVID-19 time

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic has meant that face-to-face teaching activities have had to be replaced by distance learning. Experimental laboratories have been replaced, in most cases, by the utilization of experimental data or by simulations. In this work, we have designed four laboratory experiments to be conducted by students of thermal engineering and separation processes during confinement by COVID-19 at home, to maintain competence acquisition and learning outcomes. A mixed methodology of the educational models of autonomous learning and cooperative learning has been used in obtaining the experimental data and writing the laboratory report. Installations for thermal engineering have been 3D designed and printed and are aimed at studying the heat transmission by conduction and convection in heat exchangers. This work describes in detail the activities carried out and shares the files used in the 3D printing of the installations. The laboratory experiments of separation processes are focused on the removal of a dye (rhodamine B) from an aqueous solution by liquid-liquid extraction and adsorption. A survey made to the undergraduate students has confirmed that the methodology and installations designed have been satisfactory for their expectations on the acquisition of knowledge and skills in both subjects.     

Teamwork development across the curriculum for chemical engineering students in Hong Kong: Processes,outcomes and lessons learned

A three-year project aiming to develop students’ teamwork skills systematically through explicit instruction, opportunities to practice, and formative feedback across the curriculum was carried out in the only chemical engineering department in Hong Kong. The project involved two second-year laboratory courses and a third-year capstone experience (final-year projects). The intended learning outcomes of teamwork skills were assessed by both qualitative and quantitative methods. Multiple sources of evidence showed that students’ understanding of teamwork improved, and their expectations and behaviors changed over the project period. In particular, one common misconception of teamwork as simply a division of labor was altered. The evaluation results also revealed that social loafing widely existed, but students tended not to report it or hold the loafers accountable. Conflict resolution was another issue that students had difficulty in dealing with. These results, along with feedback collected in end-of-project evaluation, identified important behaviors of Chinese students in a team environment and suggested that instructors should focus on helping students develop synergism and handle conflicts explicitly.     

Evaluating the problem-solving skills of graduating chemical engineering students

Research has shown that engineering students may not be learning to solve the kinds of complex problems they will be required to solve as practicing engineers (“authentic problems”). Though it is widely believed that we teach engineering problem-solving throughout the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum, this has not been tested. In this study we use a new instrument for measuring the authentic problem-solving skills of graduating seniors in chemical engineering at two different universities in the context of chemical process design. We find large variations across different areas of process design problem solving as to how expert-like students are in general, and variations between the two institutions. Students were able to identify the same safety issues as experts, but they were conspicuously “nonexpert” in other areas, such as in identifying the important features of a design problem. By examining the respective curricula at the two institutions, we are able to show how the variations both within and across institutions in the specific problem-solving skills students master matches with the practice they get during their undergraduate careers. The results imply that more thoroughly integrating practice in authentic design and problem-solving decisions into the undergraduate curriculum would result in students graduating with capabilities more comparable to those of skilled engineers.     

Virtual reality in chemical and biochemical engineering education and training

With the advent of digitalization and industry 4.0, education in chemical and biochemical engineering has undergone significant revamping over the last two decades. However, undergraduate students sometimes do lack industrial exposure and are unable to visualise the complexity of actual process plants. Thereby, students might graduate without adequate professional hands-on experience. Similarly, in the process industry, operator training-simulators are widely used for the training of new and skilled operators. However, conventional training-simulators often fail to simulate reality and do not provide the user with the opportunity to experience unexpected and hazardous scenarios. In these regards, virtual reality appears to be a promising technology that can cater to the needs of both academia and industry. This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for the incorporation of virtual reality into chemical and biochemical engineering education with an emphasis on the fundamental areas of technology, pedagogy and socio-economics. The paper emphasises the need for augmenting virtual reality interfaces with mathematical models to develop advanced immersive learning applications. Further, the paper stresses upon the need for novel educational impact assessment methodologies for the evaluation of virtual-reality-based learning. Finally, an ongoing case study application is presented to briefly discuss the social and economic implications, and to identify the bottlenecks involved in the adoption of virtual reality tools across chemical and biochemical engineering education.     

A heat-transfer laboratory experiment with shell-and-tube condenser

An in-house-designed undergraduate laboratory experiment for hands-on experiential learning of heat transfer in shell-and-tube heat exchangers is described. The experiment allows the student to identify and evaluate the factors that affect the rate of heat transfer in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The design affords convective heat transfer inside the tubes and condensation heat transfer outside the tubes. Experimental measurements are used to estimate the overall heat transfer coefficient at varying flow rates of the cold fluid, which is compared with that obtained from calculations using correlations available in the literature. A student survey was also conducted to evaluate their learning experience and to identity opportunities for improving the experimental program and the overall experience of the students. This feedback indicated that the vast majority of the students had an overall positive experience of the laboratory course, as it provided them with the opportunity of teamwork, leadership role, the spirit of industrial experience, and the ability to develop skills related to heat exchanger calculations.