(219a) Incorporating Measurement Lab Design Projects in an Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Laboratory Course

An initiative toward integrating process and product design concepts throughout the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum has recently been undertaken at Vanderbilt University.   In response to this challenge, an introduction to chemical process and product design concepts as part of the undergraduate laboratory experience has recently been implemented in the chemical engineering curriculum at Vanderbilt University.  Specifically, half-semester “measurement lab” design projects have been included over the past two years in the junior chemical engineering laboratory course.  The students work in groups on these projects, select their own project topic, design their experiments, collect data, perform analysis and present their results in a poster session at the end of the semester.  Measurement lab sensors, analytical equipment, and software used for this project will be discussed.  In addition, past example projects and their results will be highlighted.   Finally, the impact of this effort on the senior chemical engineering capstone design projects will be discussed.