Process safety part of the engineering education DNA

One of the biggest challenges in modern engineering education is to raise awareness about the basic principles of process safety. Although several organizations such as AIChE—through CCPS and SAChE—, IChemE and ABET are trying to seek suitable learning environments, there is still lack of courses or programs aimed at making students conscious about accident causes and prevention. This paper presents a strategy to raise awareness in undergraduate engineering students about this topic. Our strategy consists of four educating modules that can be taught as part of core courses. We have implemented our strategy in 14 Colombian universities in five undergraduate engineering programs: Chemical, Industrial, Mechanical, Environmental, and Process Engineering. This pedagogical material was validated by experts in process safety from the Colombian Oil Company (ECOPETROL), faculty from various universities, and the Process Design group at Los Andes University. This proposed open education approach, which is a shared initiative between industry-academia, has been well received by all stakeholders. During 2016, it has incorporated 28 faculty and the enrollment of more than 1732 students. This process needs long-term sustainability to fulfill the primary purpose of including process safety in the engineer's education.