Integrating Global Simulation Competition into Senior Design

Process Simulation Cup (PSC) is an international process simulation competition associated with Chemistations ChemCAD software. As part of this competition, a control system needs to be optimized for an already designed process. Typically, the simulation system, can be optimized through trial and error without regard of design of experiments, safety, or real-world implications. As part of the learning objectives in Senior Process Design, the students were asked to engage the limitations and implications of their answers. As such, safety statements were expanded on beyond the answer given in the international competition. The final requested written response engaged an integration of process control, safety, economics, and process design.

A friendly, game oriented, competition got the students involved and excited. Yet, many students failed the learning objectives, and failed to identify implications of their answer in a safety paradigm. In other words, many students pushed the limits of the process design, yet minor fluctuations, as one would expect on a process line, would overload the system. Few students reported these potential fluctuations, and therefore, did not understand the full repercussions of their answer.

Reported in this presentation will be typical student answers, grading sheets, learning objectives, and how the problem has been integrated into my course.

Short Bio: Prof. Halpern earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2010 at Case Western Reserve University in Chemical Engineering. His first postdoc (2011-2012) was funded through an NIH NRSA fellowship at Case Western Reserve University in Biomedical Engineering. Prof. Halpern’s second postdoc was funded through Fulbright and Lady Davis Fellowships (2013-2014) to work in Israel at the Technion in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Hampshire in 2014 and currently heads the SEEDS (Surface Enhanced Electrochemical Diagnostic Sensors) laboratory.