AIChE January 2019 Newsletter

Win-Win With University Partnerships and your Society Your company and a local university can both Win-Win with a University Partnership and your society. For Xellia Pharmaceuticals with AIChE connections there have been multiple successful semester partnerships with two local universities, Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University. Though partnerships differed they accomplished the same goal. The students transitioned from the world of academia to a world of industry. In Xellia’s case the world of pharmaceuticals. This partnership program over a semester adapts the student by taking their skills and tunes them onto the channel you need to fulfill in your industry. The students can “hit the ground running” in an interview after being oriented to the industry and most specifically the company they partnered with in a semester program initiated, coordinated, and performed by you, AIChE, and the Student Chapter of AIChE. The Fall Semester opens the year with a weekly Lunch & Learn PowerPoint presentation by Xellia engineers primarily for the Washkewicz School of Engineering AIChE student chapter with other engineering disciplines. There are 17 modules to present over a 12 week program on Good Design Practices for cGMP Pharmaceutical Facilities from the process engineering and project management views. The program also had an open midterm and final exam that reviewed many of the acronyms involved in this industry. The students need to attend 8 out of 12 Lunch & Learn presentations to receive a certificate of recognition for their participation in this program. The student chapter of AIChE coordinates the lunch orders, room location, and attendance. The Xellia program and certificate may be mentioned on their resume and referenced in an interview that in turn may help with earning a job offer. The Spring Semester closes the year with a kick-off meeting with the senior chemical engineering students from the Case School of Engineering that have selected to dedicate their Capstone Project with a pharmaceutical company (Xellia). The four students must select a hypothetical consulting company name they will be working under during their tenure on this project. They will be working in rotating positions from process engineers, to project engineer, to project manager as they perform weekly conference calls updating their work report in their areas. The work report is specific to project milestones, mandays used/remaining, project change notices, and project profit/loss estimates. Near the end of the semester the students will perform a PowerPoint presentation with their recommendations to the Xellia stakeholders concerned with this project. The past Semester project was to simulate the optimization of the unit operation production schedule for two sterile fill lines in one facility with limited cGMP utilities. The students received a certificate for their deliverables from this program. The Xellia internship project and certificate may be mentioned on their resume and referenced in an interview that in turn may help with earning a job offer from Xellia or any other company interested in cGMPs.