(3ha) Integrated Wet Waste Valorization and Bioproducts Separation

Organic waste rich in carbohydrates, lignin, protein, and lipid are ideal for producing renewable fuels and chemicals. Biological processes often use expensive and slow enzymes to utilize the waste by breaking it down to its constituent small molecules that are precursors to bio-based renewable fuels and chemicals. On the other hand, valorization of waste by rapid thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis and gasification require high temperatures (500-1000°C), heavily dried feedstock, and involves loss of products by repolymerization reactions in the vapor phase. Waste conversion in solvents is not limited by the above challenges. However, a lack of understanding of solvent effects on waste conversion, incomplete waste utilization due to secondary reactions, and complicated separation of heterogenous products are some of the biggest challenges of solvent-based conversion pathways. My research objective is to address the above challenges of organic waste processing in solvents. I aim to develop new strategies that will enable the design of novel, efficient and sustainable processes for waste conversion in solvents and bio-product separation for producing biofuel and bio-based chemicals.

Teaching Interests

My primary goal as a teacher and mentor is to guide students on their journey to become the next-generation scientists and engineers. Today’s chemical engineers are “blessed with the burden” of addressing many real-world problems pertaining to energy, environment and health both in industry and academia. My aim is to help students realize their potential as the next generation of chemical engineers and equip them with relevant knowledge and skills to take on the global challenges as per their interests. As a teacher, I want to motivate students in developing a growth mindset while they learn about new engineering principles and how to apply them in their curriculum and beyond.

In my PhD program, as a teaching assistant for the Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics course (CHE 381) at Iowa State University (ISU), I enjoyed working with the students and helping them make the connections among the important concepts with examples and helped them grasp and organize their knowledge better. On the other hand, in the Chemical Engineering Lab (CHE 426) course at ISU, fully independent of the course instructor, I trained and supervised 28 students in teams of 3-4 persons on a hands-on basis to teach the theory and experimental work of liquid-liquid extraction, gas mixture separation, and reverse osmosis. I also mentored these students on their final project presentations and developed useful tools like interactive computational spreadsheets to assist with their learning.

Through my teaching assistantship experiences, I became increasingly passionate about teaching and interacting with students, which led me to pursue various co-teaching and lecturing opportunities at both undergraduate and graduate course levels in my PhD and Postdoctoral programs. In my PhD, I co-taught Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources and Technology (BRT 501). In this course, I implemented a variety of active learning techniques in groups for my students to effectively achieve their learning goals. I applied a flipped-classroom format which was never attempted before in this course. This teaching method required students to read materials before coming to class and participate in discussions and team activities during the class based on their learning from reading materials ahead of class. I noticed that using a range of flipped class methods such as debates, pre-quiz, group discussions, interview and strategic planning forum, significantly increased participation of students in class throughout the semester. One of my students in this class reported that “the flipped-class activities were excellent in provoking student's understanding in the topics.”

In my Postdoctoral program at ISU, I served as the co-instructor for Thermochemical Processing of Biomass (BRT 535) and the guest lecturer for Chemical Reaction Engineering (CHE 382) and BRT 501. In BRT 535, I contributed far beyond my formal duties in the course, by reorganizing and updating the syllabus, course materials, and assessment tools. To create interest and curiosity in students’ minds for the course topics, I have used many real-life examples and anecdotes including application of classroom knowledge in solving real-world engineering problems such as “how to increase production of ethanol for hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic?” in my BRT 535 class. On the other hand, my carefully designed Think-pair-share activity increased student participation, engagement and enhanced student learning. Furthermore, concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning, I incorporated “flipped classroom” pedagogy in BRT 535 and a proposal writing project into my on-line instruction. Students favorably commented: “Learning about chemical kinetics and more about the differences of reactor design was helpful in gaining more knowledge for my research.”, “She is approachable if a question needs to be asked and is very knowledgeable on the subject which helps to explain the topics.”, “Her own side notes and step-by-step derivations were very helpful;” “I liked the use of the in-class activity to provide practical experience with the concepts.” As observers, my faculty mentors and peers felt that I cared about my students’ learning by welcoming questions and giving extra time during in-class activity. They further highlighted the following positive observations on my teaching: “Encouraging participation by calling on groups and asking one group to challenge the other”, and “Encouraging and clarifying questions from the audience”.

Recently, participating in Preparing Future Faculty program at ISU and in several online events and courses offered by Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) have further helped me develop indispensable skills including evidence-based teaching methods, developing syllabi, learner-oriented course design, team-based learning etc. which I am applying actively in my current courses and plan to use in future classes. In my classroom, I like to foster an evidence-based pedagogy using active learning methods and learner-centric assessments. One of my goals for teaching is to assess students’ primary knowledge and misconceptions, captured by open-ended questions and in-class team activities, by providing clarifications and feedback on specific concepts and course topics. As an active learning strategy, in-class team activities, give students a chance to reinforce concepts and skills that they learn from course materials and also find a pathway to build independent ideas and critical thinking abilities, and increase communication and teamwork skills in a diverse group. Using formative assessments such as quizzes, multiple choice questions, I try to gauge whether my students are indeed learning the essential concepts along the way. Through summative assessments, I help my students engage in inquiry-based projects (e.g. proposal writing project) with milestones and peer feedback along the way, so they have enough opportunities to learn, practice, get feedback and revise their work, which is an important learning experience in the STEM fields. I keep testing the effectiveness of my teaching and make changes as necessary in my teaching style through various Teaching Evaluations by students and my mentors/peers.

I see diversity in modern day teaching as an indispensable tool to launch fresh thinkers/engineers in the global workforce to be successful in diverse work environments. I promote structured equality in my classroom to make it a safe and welcoming platform for the students to share their ideas and questions freely in order to reach a highly conducive classroom climate. For example, I intentionally created teams of diverse academic and national backgrounds in my BRT 535 class to leverage from their different perspectives and knowledge levels to reach the learning outcomes more effectively. Beyond my classroom, with equity-minded teaching and mentoring, I look forward to building strong relationships with my students and help the underrepresented students develop a growth-mindset for life-long learning.