Fall break is the time many students go home for a short visit. A motivated group of chemical engineering students instead used their fall break to add a short course to their higher education experience.\u00a0 The students, who are part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter at UTC, received formal training in solids processing or handling.<\/p>\n
Solids processing involves steps like grinding, agglomeration, tableting, crystallization and material transfer used in chemical manufacture and processing of food and pharmaceuticals. Manufacturers who grind coffee, make pasta, and create cosmetics use solids processing, but there is little formal training in the United States in these areas.<\/p>\n
E&G Associates offered the short course, UTC hosted it, and it was taught by Dr. Bryan J. Ennis, Associate Professor in the UTC Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering, who has received two national service awards from AIChE for helping found its particle technology division.<\/p>\n
Undergraduate and graduate students and faculty from UTC attended, as well as engineers from W.R. Grace, Chattem Chemical, Woodbridge, Wacker Chemical, Astec, and interns from NASA.<\/p>\n
Ed Laughlin, Global Chemical Catalyst Business and Marketing Manager for W.R. Grace & Co., brought his staff to learn more about the physics associated with solids processing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a practitioner of powder processing for over 35 years I thought I knew everything that there was to know about the subject,\u201d said Ed Laughlin, Global Chemical Catalyst Business and Marketing Manager for W.R. Grace & Co.<\/p>\n
Laughlin called the short course a \u201cperfect example of how the University can partner with local industries to create value for students and the local businesses.\u201d\u00a0 Laughlin noted that the UTC undergraduate students who attended now have a better understanding of solids processing, an advantage their peers will not have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students were able to actually run experiments alongside industry engineers.\u00a0 They had a chance to see how we approached the problems.\u00a0 We had a chance to collaborate and it reinforced my view that UTC attracts great students,\u201d Laughlin explained.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a networking opportunity for the students to solicit jobs or internships.\u00a0 I made a note of several candidates whose names\u00a0I have passed on to our Human Resource department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laughlin is hopeful the short course can be a model for future collaborations.<\/p>\n
Ennis says powders and bulk solids mixtures used in solids processing are often misunderstood.\u00a0 They differ greatly from designing processes for gases and liquids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe odds are four in five that a chemical engineer will be faced with a solids handling problem within their first two assignments in their career.\u00a0 It\u2019s important for students have some exposure to solids processing in their undergraduate education,\u201d Ennis explained.<\/p>\n
The students and industrial participants who attended the course had a chance to solve a variety of team design problems and conduct hands-on experiments in the laboratory.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite\u00a0part of this workshop was definitely the lab work.\u00a0It really helped drive home the concepts Dr.\u00a0Ennis\u00a0presented and also sparked an idea.\u00a0UTC student\u00a0attendees want to implement\u00a0what we learned\u00a0and design a hopper for one of our\u00a0design projects, the Chem-E Car,\u201d said Zo\u00eb Braden, captain of the ChemE car team.\u00a0 A ChemE car is powered and stopped solely by a chemical reaction.\u00a0 The UTC team will enter a ChemE car in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) southern regional competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was rewarding to see the collaboration of our students with local engineers, as they worked through the problems together,\u201d Ennis added.\u00a0 \u201cStudents are even now measuring flow properties of lunar regolith simulants in their unit operations laboratory class, in collaboration with NASA researchers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Fall break is the time many students go home for a short visit. A motivated group of chemical engineering students instead used their fall break to add a short course to their higher education experience.\u00a0 The students, who are part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter at UTC, received formal training… <\/p>\n