Use of a Vertically Integrated Team Design Project as an Adjunct to and Change Instrument for the Chemical Engineering Curriculum at The University of Akron

University Of Akron, Akron OH

Investigators

Abstract

PROPOSAL NO.: 0230649 PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Cheung, Harry INSTITUTION NAME: University of Akron TITLE: Use of a Vertically Integrated Team Design Project as an Adjunct to and Change Instrument for the Chemical Engineering Curriculum at The University of Akron Abstract This project will explore the use of the Vertically Integrated Team Design Project in an expanded role as a component of the chemical engineering curriculum and as a change instrument for the chemical engineering curriculum. Enhancing the Vertically Integrated Team Design Project as a component of the ChE curriculum by: o Increasing and improving the use of outside, industrial mentors o Establishing the Vertically Integrated Team Design Project as an integral part of the core curriculum o Increasing the assessment component of both the students participating in the project and the project itself o Developing additional project modules to incorporate emerging technologies as the project themes Planning for the use of the Vertically Integrated Team Design Project as a change instrument for the ChE curriculum by using it as: o an assessment tool for specific affective and technical skills in our students o a collaborative vehicle for involvement of industrial colleagues in shaping the ChE curriculum o a test bed for incorporating professional level computational tools into the core ChE curriculum o a test bed for material and methods intended to displace rote solution legacy materials and methods in the core ChE curriculum We believe that this use of a Vertically Integrated Team Design Project will provide a tool for continuous improvement of our department's chemical engineering curriculum, the model should be very easily extensible to other chemical engineering departments and easily extensible to other engineering disciplines.