A method is presented which can be used to obtain analytical solutions for boundary value problems (BVPs) using the matrix exponential and Maple. Systems of second order, linear differential equations are expressed as two or more first order equations in matrix form, and their solutions are obtained using the matrix exponential, matrix…

We present an educational unit to teach computational modeling, a vital part of chemical engineering curricula, through the lens of synthetic biology. Lectures, code, and homework questions provide conceptual and practical introductions to each computational method involved in the model development process, along with perspectives on how methods…

Project-based learning (PBL) empowers students to become active learners. In this work computational reverse osmosis (RO) projects developed from industrial case studies and research were implemented in several chemical engineering courses to enhance student learning experience. Students not only gained knowledge in water treatment, but also…

Digital tools, from spreadsheets to process simulators, used by chemical engineers in industrial settings have become embedded into the chemical engineering curriculum in recent decades. One class of tools, learning management systems, is ubiquitous in academia with limited or no use once working as an engineer. However, many new communications…

Three real-world datasets are introduced for a petroleum engineering capstone design course, providing detailed problem statements, assessment criteria, team-building practices, and required software packages. Two surveys reveal that students prefer real datasets over synthetic ones, and despite initial challenges, students feel proud of their…

Student success and attempts on hundreds of online homework problems housed in a fully interactive online textbook, Material and Energy Balances zyBook, were studied over three cohorts of students (n=284). Auto-graded homework questions with randomized numbers and content can explore proficiency in the course material. Students are allowed to…

MATLAB live scripts are useful for reproducible programmatic compilation of chemical data and literature. In this article, we use a combination of the PubChem PUG REST Application Programming Interface (API), Structured Data Query (SDQ) agent, and text extraction with MATLAB live scripts that allow programmatic PubChem similarity searching, SMARTS…

GitHub is increasingly finding a role in academia to both encourage reproducible computational research and to foster a collaborative environment. We show that employing GitHub as an implementation of version control in engineering-related fields reinforces the 'design-build-evaluate' way of thinking and prepares students with skills they can use…

In collaboration with NASA, the Space Grant Foundation, and the eXploration Habitat Academic Challenge, the University of South Alabama developed a systems engineering undergraduate elective that instructs students on the fundamentals of systems engineering and provides the students the opportunity to apply systems and chemical engineering…

More than 40 interactive "Mathematica" simulations were prepared for chemical engineering thermodynamics, screencasts were prepared that explain how to use each simulation, and more than 100 ConcepTests were prepared that utilize the simulations. They are located on www.LearnChemE.com. The purposes of these simulations are to clarify…

The importance of distillation in the separation field prompts the inclusion of distillation experiments in the chemical engineering curricula. This work describes the performance of an Oldershaw column in the rectification of a cyclohexane/n-heptane mixture. Total reflux distillation, continuous rectification under partial reflux, and batch…

A single equation of state (EOS) such as the Peng-Robinson (PR) EOS can accurately describe both the liquid and vapor phase. We present several applications of this equation of state, including estimation of pure component properties and computation of the vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) diagram for binary mixtures. We perform high-pressure…

Chemical process simulation is one of the most fundamental skills that is expected from chemical engineers, yet relatively few graduates have the opportunity to learn, in depth, how a process simulator works, from programming the unit operations to the sequencing. The University of Calgary offers a "hands-on" postgraduate course in…

Previous work focused on use of computer graphics in teaching thermodynamic phase equilibria for classes I and II. Extends this work to include the considerably more non-ideal phase behavior shown by classes III, IV, and V. Student and instructor response has been overwhelmingly positive about the approach. (JN)

A one-month graduate course on time series analysis is offered in the department of chemical engineering at the University of Queensland (Australia). Describes the course, which is based on an interactive graphics time series identification and modelling computer package (TSIM). Also describes time-series analysis procedure and the TSIM package.…