(57f) Advantages-Disadvantages of Interdisciplinary Capstone Design for Chemical Engineers

This paper will discuss the evolving aspects of having chemical engineering students participate in college of engineering-based capstone senior design projects. Many schools currently offer hands-on widget-based capstone design projects emphasizing teamwork, collaboration and communication-skills needed by industry. While ChE programs offer traditional paper-based design projects focus on process design at the plant/facility level where plant costs are in the millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. This scale is in drastic contrast of widget-based projects with capital costs under $10,000. Chemical Engineering Departments looking to participate in college-wide Capstone courses need to evaluate opportunities and how the capstone courses meet ChE ABET criteria. Although it might appear to be easier to meet the social, economic, global and economic criteria related to ABET in a joint capstone course, many programs typically work to attain these requirements in program-specific courses. There is a subtle balance that can be achieved between participating in college-wide capstone courses, the desire for ChE students to participate in a hands-on build project and meeting ABET requirements.