(514a) Weblab in Chemical Engineering as a Tool for Cooperative Learning within a Global Environment. A Report of Experiences Between Brazilian Universities Connected through Kyatera

KyaTera is an optical high speed, packet network (Gigabit Ethernet). KyaTera Network was created to gather competences and laboratorial resources that are necessary to develop science, technologies, and applications of the future Internet, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Its mission is to create a collaborative environment based on a Fiber-to-the-Lab network for mobilizing firms, institutes of research, universities, and funding agencies to develop technological innovations and to generate scientific knowledge.

A Weblab is an experiment remotely operated via Internet. In this work, we present Weblab experiments that were performed collaboratively between undergraduate students of the Laboratory of Development and Automation of Biochemical Process (LaDABio) of the Chemical Engineering Department of the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (DEQ/UFSCar) and of the Center for Chemical Systems Engineering (CESQ) of the Chemical Engineering Department of the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (DEQ/EPUSP). These centers are 255 km apart in the State of São Paulo, , and are among the best chemical engineering programs in Brazil. This initiative aims to fulfill the absence of collaboration at the undergraduate level between engineering colleges.

One of the main objectives of the Weblab is to offer intercultural experiences to students, while enhancing their communication skills. This is achieved asking all teams of participants to simultaneously solve a technical problem, thus emulating challenges that will frequently happen in their future professional lives The Weblab also fosters the learning of Chemical Engineering instrumental concepts. To achieve these goals, students of different departments are required to work in synergy. A successful experience of this teaching methodology was reported at ICEE 2007 , involving undergraduate ChE students of UFSCar (Brazil) and ENSIACET (Toulouse, France), within the same Weblab framework, but using the commercial Internet.

In this work, the potential of a high-speed connection is explored. Students of USP and UFSCar performed two different experiments. Half the students are located in DEQ/EPUSP and the others in DEQ/UFSCar. The DEQ/UFSCar Weblab, named kLA experiment, consists of a mass transfer experiment in a bench scale reactor (agitated and aerated). It applies the gassing out dynamic method to determine the volumetric oxygen mass transfer coefficient (kLa) for different conditions of agitation and aeration. The DEQ/EPUSP Weblab, named TC experiment, is on temperature control, implemented in a reactor where the flow of cold water through the jacket and the flow of hot water through a coil are manipulated.

The kLa experiment setup consists of a Bioreactor with jacket (Applikon), 2 L volume, motor/impeller (0 to 1200 rpm) and a module for stirring control, which is used to manipulate the stirrer speed (Applikon, 4 ? 20 mA). Water from a thermostatized bath with recirculation (Nova Etica) is pumped through the jacket in order to control the temperature of the bioreactor. A mass flow controller manipulates air flow rates into the bioreactor. (4 ? 20 mA signal; Aalborg). A Dissolver Oxygen (DO) transmitter amplifies DO probe signal (Mettler-Toledo). A thermoresistance measures the temperature in the medium (PT-100, Exacta).

The TC experiment setup consists of a 4.0 L glassware jacketed reactor. Inside the reactor there is a stainless steel coil connected to a 3000 W thermal bath (Julabo), a temperature sensor (PT100) and a stirrer (Heidolph). The jacket is connected to cold water (room temperature). Both streams, from the thermal bath and cold water have their flow controlled by electropneumatic valves. A resistance is inserted inside the reactor, in order to simulate an exothermic reaction. As no actual reaction takes place in the system, very different types of reaction can be simulated artificially without risks. The electrical power to the resistance is controlled by a power module.

The software used to monitor both experiments is Labview from National Instrument and Compact Field Points 2020 are used to perform input-output operations to the process. This easily allows the set up of interfaces that can be easily accessed via internet.

In order to perform the experiment, two students in São Carlos and two in São Paulo are gathered into a group. A instructor monitors each group of two students. They must decide about the measurements and experiments to be made and how to manage the experiment (who is in charge of what). Students interact using video conference software. Video streaming is very effective because KyaTera network supplies a performing communication capability. This gives the students an improved perception of the distant reality.

A unified final report made by all group members is returned to the instructor one week latter. The students are invited to employ KyaTera network to communicate and prepare the final report. Weblab experiments offer a collaborative experience to the participants because they are faced with the hurdles of remote team working. Cultural reality certainly does not differ much for a 250 km distance, but the views on which the topics are taught are surely different. This is an interesting issue, because these experiments also provide new experiences to the instructors involved, who perceive how the colleague explains the same phenomena to her/his students.