(68b) A Product Design Capstone Course in the Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum at SUNY-Buffalo

The prosperity of the chemical industry increasingly depends on innovative new products that improve the quality of our life. Attention to the design of complex, nanostructured chemical products is considered a paradigm shift for the chemical engineering education programs that have traditionally focused in process design. A course on Product Design is now required for all seniors in Chemical Engineering at SUNY-Buffalo. The chemical engineering product design course encompasses the (1) general framework for product design and development (identify customer needs, convert needs to specifications, create ideas/concepts, select concept, formulate/test/manufacture product; also intellectual property, safety, environmental, marketing and financial considerations), and (2) structure-property relations that guide the search for materials with particular properties, as well as modifications of existing materials that would improve properties. These two main themes are reinforced by (3) case studies of successful products with well-documented history of invention, development, production, and marketing. The course material is integrated in (4) product design projects that are drawn from real-world problems. This paper will describe the organization of the course, learning outcomes, teaching techniques, assignments, assessment, and student feedback, and will highlight select student projects.