Design Projects of the Future
Abstract
The chemical engineering profession is in the midst of a significant evolution, perhaps a revolution. As the profession moves toward product development and design and away from petroleum and chemical process development and design, a new paradigm for chemical engineering education is evolving. Therefore, a new generation of capstone design projects is needed. Two examples of novel capstone design projects are presented. In ice cream manufacture, multi-scale considerations are important, yet there are traditional chemical engineering components included. In design of a transdermal drug delivery patch, life-science considerations, multi-scale factors, and systems modeling are required. Both involve aspects of product design, manufacturing of a unit product, and product packaging, concepts previously unfamiliar to chemical engineering students.