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Undergraduate Program

Chemical engineering deals with the creation, design, operation, and optimization of processes that derive practical benefits from chemical or physical changes. The profession is quite broad and has traditionally provided the technology for: supplying energy and fuel; synthesizing materials such as plastics, chemicals, fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals; and managing environmental and safety concerns of physical and chemical processes.

Chemical engineers have a variety of traditional job opportunities in industries such as petroleum production and refining, chemical and petrochemical manufacturing, mining, pharmaceutical production, and equipment manufacturing. Job opportunities may involve research, development, design, manufacturing, sales, or teaching as professional activities. The chemical engineer can also move easily into environmental engineering, nuclear engineering, oceanography, biomedical engineering, pharmacology, medicine, or other multidisciplinary fields.

In chemical engineering, the student obtains a broad foundation in chemistry, mathematics, physics, communication skills, economics, and the humanities. Courses in material and energy balances, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, process control, computer methods, safety, and design provide students with the background and learning skills required of the practicing chemical engineer. The curriculum includes elective courses that enable a student to prepare for immediate employment or further study at the graduate level. The chemical engineering program also serves as an excellent preparation for medical, dental, pharmacy, or law school.

The following section contains the list of courses required for the Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree and a suggested sequence. All courses are not offered every semester so students who deviate from the suggested sequence must pay careful attention to course scheduling and course prerequisites. Technical electives are to be selected from a list approved by the Department.

Suggested Curriculum Diagram Showing Prerequisites (PDF)

The educational objective of the Chemical Engineering undergraduate program is to provide students with a foundation in mathematics and the basic sciences, the humanities and social sciences, engineering sciences, engineering design methods, and specific chemical engineering skills, and to thereby prepare them, in a global context, to face the challenges of today?s complex and difficult problems.

Chemical engineering skills include mass and energy balances, single and multi-component thermodynamics, basic fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer operations, process economics, process design, process safety, process control, and laboratory practice. Chemical engineering principles are applied to biological processes in several courses in the undergraduate curriculum including Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Process Safety, and CHEG elective courses as well as undergraduate research opportunities. No specific background in biology is required for this work. The list of upper level chemistry electives includes courses in biochemistry which provides students the opportunity to supplement their background in biochemistry if desired.

The educational outcomes of our four-year curriculum are to assure that each student has had the opportunity to:

• apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering;
• locate, interpret, and use physical property data; when data are unavailable, design and conduct experiments, and interpret the resulting data;
• design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs including, for example, determining the capital and operating costs for chemical process equipment and performing technical economic projections;
• function in collaborative teams in preparation for work in multi-disciplinary teams;
• identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems including, for example, development of the critical thinking process and the solution of mass and energy balances;
• understand professional and ethical responsibility;
• develop and use effective written and oral communication skills;
• understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global or societal context including, for example, being conscious of social, environmental, and safety concerns;
• recognize the need to engage in life-long learning;
• be familiar with contemporary issues; and
• use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice including, for example, writing structured computer programs and using commercially available technical computer software.

These outcomes are reinforced and demonstrated in a senior capstone safety and design sequence.

The following section contains the list of courses required for the Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree and a suggested sequence. All courses are not offered every semester so students who deviate from the suggested sequence must pay careful attention to course scheduling and course prerequisites. Technical electives are to be selected from a list approved by the Department.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM

Freshman Year - First Semester

Second Semester

Sophomore Year - First Semester

Second Semester

Junior Year - First Semester

Second Semester

Senior Year - First Semester

Second Semester

132 Total hours required