(384e) Continued Improvement of the Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin

The McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin started an ongoing revitalization of the two required chemical engineering undergraduate laboratories during the 2020-21 academic year. The main purpose of this ongoing revitalization has been to update and improve the content, teaching effectiveness, and general learning experience offered by the undergraduate laboratory sequence at UT Austin (Junior and Senior year). Improvements to the laboratories are based on the recommendations of a faculty committee that assessed the courses, feedback from the faculty and staff associated with the laboratories, as well as input received from industry partners and the advisory board of the department. As a consequence of this process, we have implemented several changes with aims to continuously improve the practical learning experience of chemical engineering students as they achieve the overall objectives of the laboratories. Furthermore, and as part of this process, the courses have greatly benefited from our collaborations with and the input we receive from industry, and the participation of staff, faculty, and graduate students in the development of the new learning experience offered to students.

 

The objective of our current revamping efforts has been to greatly enhance the educational laboratory experience for every single chemical engineer who graduates from the University. By the implemented improvements, amongst other positive outcomes, students have been able to explore practically more areas of chemical engineering and have now more tools available that enhance their hiring profile for different industries. Moreover, the laboratory courses have become one of the main windows of our department to create collaborations between our students and industry leaders, industry partners and department alumni. With this in mind, the ultimate goal of this revitalization process is to continue making the labs a prize component in the department of Chemical Engineering that ties together all components of the chemical engineering curriculum, reinforces chemical engineering concepts, and prepares students for their careers post-graduation.

 

The updates implemented to this day have resulted in the addition of several new experiment stations, the update of all existing experiment stations and laboratory manuals, the revision of the course curriculum, and the increase of industry collaborations that enhance the learning experience of our students. This ongoing process intents to continuously evaluate the content of the courses and ensure they serve effectively the current needs of chemical engineering students, chemical engineering research, and the chemical engineering industry along with other stakeholders of our program. The laboratories have also benefited from an amplified emphasis on process and laboratory safety as a result of these updates.

 

The overarching goal of this presentation will be to provide an overview of the laboratory sequence at UT Austin and to present a brief detail of the recent improvements to the laboratories. In addition, we will describe two of the recently added experiment stations that focus on an enhanced design experience in the class projects (fluidized bed and separations), and a description of our updated approach to safety, in collaboration with industry partners of the department, that pursues the creation of a renovated safety culture within our program.