(564f) Experiential Learning of Core Chemical Engineering Topics Using Senior Peer Mentoring

There has been a considerable shift from traditional teaching methods in recent times, and novel practices are being implemented that deviate from the typical in-class instruction. Internships offer a great experiential learning opportunity to integrate classroom learning to real-world situations by helping connect the subject matter to practical applications. Unfortunately, not all students are able to secure internships related to their study area or undergraduate research experiences. In this work, we have created a novel interaction between the final-year students and the juniors by connecting two courses, Capstone Process Design and Process Control and Safety.

The Process Control and Safety course is offered in the Spring semester and is primarily taken by juniors. For the process control project, students who are juniors are hired as interns working alongside the senior design teams. Interested students submit resumes and undergo interviews with all the design teams modeled based on a typical recruitment process. Both parties submit their preferences based on resume evaluation and interview outcome. Instructors for both courses utilize the information and optimize placement for both parties. Respective mentor teams provide the interns with a unique project prompt to be completed over the course of about three weeks.

The deliverables for the project consist of a five to ten minutes video presentation of the work along with all the supporting documents (codes, slides, auxiliary files). The interns are graded on a rubric by the mentoring design team and the two instructors. The categories for grading are: Content, Presentation, Effort, Interaction & Professionalism, and Cooperation.

Some of the learning objectives that the project targets are: 1) Develop and solve fundamental or empirical models for dynamical systems, 2) Understand the fundamentals of control strategies and their implementation, and Use computer-based tools for dynamic model simulation and implementation and comparison of control schemes.

Preliminary feedback on this effort has been very favorable. From the comments, we have seen that the juniors appreciate getting a glimpse of how the material they learn now will be applied in the design. They also enjoy meeting the senior class and getting to know the different projects. In the future, we intend to conduct detailed quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the effectiveness of this effort through surveys and focus group studies. The authors believe this unique effort strengthens the community between senior and junior level classes and benefits overall experience.