(513a) Educational Needs in Particle Technology

Bulk solids are ubiquitous in our lives today - take a look at the room around you, nearly everything has a significant particle technology component.   Consequently, it is no surprise that a new undergrad entering industry has approximately an 80% chance of encountering or dealing with particles in their first project.   Yet he or she is significantly ill-equipped to handle the demands of solids processing/particle technology.   Merrow, both in the mid-80s and in 2001, has highlighted the significant challenges engineers face when dealing with solids due to a lack of education in the area and the resulting consequences: considerable downtime, lost production, start-up difficulties, etc.   Industry has responded with post graduate training for their engineers or with the creation of industrial engineering science laboratories dedicated to particle technology that are on equal footing with more traditional chemical engineering disciplines such as reaction engineering, separations, fluid mechanics, heat transfer,etc.  It is very important, if not imperitive, that solids processing/particle technology be incorporated into the chemical engineering curriculum.   We will examine the challenges the chemical engineering community faces to meet this need.