Projects

The design project is the opportunity to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired over the undergraduate years in the Chemical Engineering department. As a team, you will develop a solution to a real design problem.

Progress Reports

The progress reports consist of a meeting with the instructor with a one page summary of progress on design project. The weekly progress report should be signed by all group members. (The meeting times will be assigned to avoid class conflicts so that all team members can be present.) Active participation during the meetings is encouraged, because the subjective evaluation by the instructor and team mates is partially based on these meetings.

Report Guidelines

The report should be typewritten, although it may be handwritten in ink, if done neatly.

For the Design Report grade, we will not be able to double check your numbers, but we can decide if we believe in them by examining your report. Allow time to write this report. It pays to start early because writing the report often exposes oversights and inconsistencies which may be easily corrected if time exists.

The grade will be the same for all the group members.

No late reports will be accepted.

Read carefully the Design Report Handout (PDF)

Presentation Guidelines

Presentations to class and clients should last 30 minutes per group.

Evaluation of Team Members

After you submit the report, you will be able to give us your input on the performance of your group members by filling out an evaluation form. This evaluation will be held in confidence, and it will be taken into account for your subjective evaluation.

Some Caveats

This class is about process design. One of the most important features of solutions to design problems is that the answers are typically not unique - usually there is no 'correct answer' nor is the answer in the back of the book. The design process is further complicated by missing or conflicting information, ambiguous objectives, and no clear problem statement. As a result:

• You will have to make a lot of assumptions, document them, understand the implications and then move on.
• Keep to the time limit imposed by the units allocated to this class - the goal is to do the best that you can in the allocated time, not to exhaust yourself. Time management is critical.
• This is a team effort, plan and allocate the work across all members, meet regularly and iterate the design concepts.

2006 Projects

The design problems are different for each team. Each team is sworn to secrecy about its project so that the solutions will be unique and original. The problem topics are listed below along with a brief memorandum.