Curriculum & Capstone

Curriculum

Chemical Process Engineering Specialization

Any deficiencies preventing from enrolling in core courses may result in a one-year delay.

• ECH 148A: Chemical Kinetics and Reaction Engineering | 3 Units | Fall
  Ideal chemical reactors. Rate laws and stoichiometry. Design and analysis of isothermal reactors with multiple reactions.
• ECH 148B: Chemical Kinetics and Reaction Engineering | 4 Units | Winter
  Design and analysis of non-isothermal reactors. Reactions in packed beds with pressure drop. Adsorption and heterogeneous catalysis. Transport limitations.
• ECH 155: Chemical Engineering Kinetics and Reactor Design Lab | 4 Units | Winter
  Laboratory experiments in chemical kinetics, reactor design and process control.
• ECH 158AN*: Separations and Unit Operations | 3 Units | Fall
  Senior design experience with multiple realistic constraints. Heuristic and rigorous design of chemical process equipment. Separation by filtration, distillation and extraction. Synthesis of reactor and separation networks, heat and power integration.
• ECH 158BN*: Process Economics and Green Design | 4 Units | Winter
  Senior design experience in process and product creation and design with multiple realistic constraints. Cost accounting and capital investment estimation. Profitability analysis techniques. Green chemistry, health risk assessment and life cycle assessment concepts.
• ECH 158C: Plant Design Project | 4 Units | Spring
  Senior design experience for chemical and biochemical processes. Impact of multiple realistic constraints. Design, costing and profitability analysis of complete plants. Use of computer-aided design techniques.
• ECH 272**: Process Safety | 4 Units | Spring
  Process safety. Development of source and dispersion models, evaluation of toxic chemical impacts and fires/explosions, and assessment of risk and potential process hazard scenarios. Design of mitigation measures including pressure relief systems and inherently safer design.

Electives Courses (9 units)

• ECH 290: Seminar | 1 Unit | Fall, Winter, Spring

ECH 290 can be taken each quarter, but only 1 unit may be counted towards degree requirements. The remaining 8 elective units should be comprised of letter-graded graduate level courses (200 series) chosen with approval of the Graduate Adviser.

Biochemical Process Engineering Specialization

Any deficiencies preventing from enrolling in core courses may result in a one-year delay.

• ECH 148A: Chemical Kinetics and Reaction Engineering | 3 Units | Fall
  Ideal chemical reactors. Rate laws and stoichiometry. Design and analysis of isothermal reactors with multiple reactions.
• ECH 158C: Plant Design Project | 4 Units | Spring
  Senior design experience for chemical and biochemical processes. Impact of multiple realistic constraints. Design, costing and profitability analysis of complete plants. Use of computer-aided design techniques.
• ECH 161AN*: Bioseparations | 4 Units | Fall
  Product recovery and purification of biochemicals. Cell disruption, centrifugation, filtration, membrane separations, extraction, and chromatographic separation.
• ECH 161BN*: Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals | 4 Units | Winter
  Biokinetics; bioreactor design and operation; transport phenomena in bioreactors; microbial, plant, and animal cell cultures.
• ECH 161C: Biotech Facility Design | 4 Units | Winter
  Design of biotechnology manufacturing facilities. Fermentation and purification equipment, and utility systems. Introduction to current good manufacturing practices, regulatory compliance, and documentation.
• ECH 161L: Bioprocess Engineering Lab | 4 Units | Spring
  Laboratory experiments in the operation and analysis of bioreactors; determination of oxygen mass transfer coefficients in bioreactors and ion exchange chromatography.
• ECH 272**: Process Safety | 4 Units | Spring
  Process safety. Development of source and dispersion models, evaluation of toxic chemical impacts and fires/explosions, and assessment of risk and potential process hazard scenarios. Design of mitigation measures including pressure relief systems and inherently safer design.

Electives Courses (9 units)

• ECH 290: Seminar | 1 Unit | Fall, Winter, Spring

ECH 290 can be taken each quarter, but only 1 unit may be counted towards degree requirements. The remaining 8 elective units should be comprised of letter-graded graduate level courses (200 series) chosen with approval of the Graduate Adviser.

Capstone Design Project or Internship

A key component of our graduate program in the Master of Engineering is the capstone engineering design project and ability to do an internship during the summer to provide students with hands-on, practical experiences. 

Hands-on experience – the ECH158 and ECH161 series are the senior design sequences for chemical and biochemical process engineering specialization, respectively. These course sequences include group projects and assignments that focus on the practice engineering skills. ECH155 is a lab course focused on learning quantitative control of chemical reactions and careful data analysis. Masters of Engineering students will be embedded in engineering teams and will be expected to practice engineering skills and bring an outside perspective to heterogeneous design teams throughout the program. 

Students will have four options to fulfill this requirement.

1. Students can choose to use their participation in the senior design sequence as their final project. In this case, Masters of Engineering students must submit (in addition to the regular course requirements) an individual report that will include an in-depth presentation, beyond the regular design report requirements, of 1) the use of process simulation software to design and optimize key unit operations assigned by the instructor, 2) the derivation and application of a source and dispersion model for an assigned release scenario, 3) any other project specific requirements as assigned by the instructor, and 4) a reflection on the performance of the design team, the leadership role of the Masters student, and specific examples of challenges and how they were dealt with. Report guidelines will be provided.
2. Students can organize a 10-week internship (usually over the summer following courses) with a company. At the end of the internship, the student writes a report detailing the main issue that they worked on, the progress that they made, and recommendations. Report guidelines will be provided. Degree completion will be conferred when the report is reviewed and accepted by two chemical engineering graduate group faculty members.
3. Students can organize a 10-week research internship (either over spring or summer) with a chemical engineering graduate group faculty member. At the end of the internship, the student writes a report detailing the main issue that they worked on, the progress that they made, and recommendations. Report guidelines will be provided. Degree completion will be conferred when the report is reviewed and accepted by two chemical engineering graduate group faculty members.
4. Students can organize a 10-week teaching pedagogical research internship (either over winter-spring or spring-summer) with a professor of teaching in the department. This is not a TA position. The research project could include quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of the impact of an educational intervention on student outcomes in a specific course or courses, or another topic related to engineering education as defined by the supervising faculty member and the student. At the end of the internship, the student writes a report detailing the main issue that they worked on, the progress that they made, and recommendations. Report guidelines will be provided. Degree completion will be conferred when the report is reviewed and accepted by two chemical engineering graduate group faculty members.

Learning outcomes include:

• Hands-on Experience: Students will gain hands-on laboratory and experimental design experience for chemical processing 
• Practical job training: Students are encouraged to tailor internships into their final design projects, combining job training with engineering education.
• Tailored Elective Options: Students are expected to use electives to tailor their degrees to emphasize catalysis, electrochemistry, bioprocessing, biotechnology, sustainable energy, biomedical, semiconductors or polymer areas.
• Communication Skills: Students will demonstrate written and oral communication, professional and ethical responsibilities.
• Process Safety: Students will demonstrate firm understanding of process safety and incorporate safety into all aspects of engineering design.
• Economics and Green Design: Engineers will demonstrate firm understanding that economic and green design considerations affect optimal engineering design.