Session

International Conference on Engineering Education August 18-21, 2002, Manchester, U.K.

EARLY PROCESS DESIGN EXPERIENCES FOR ENGINEERINGSTUDENTS

Kauser Jahan1, Stephanie Farrell2 and Robert P. Hesketh3

1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-17012 Department of Chemical Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-17013 Department of Chemical Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701

Abstract--Typically traditional engineering schoolsemphasize design in the upper level engineering courses.Students experience open-ended engineering design intheir senior capstone course. The College of Engineeringat Rowan University has integrated engineering design atall levels of the curriculum. Students are exposed to thestudy of engineering design as early as their freshmanyear. In the first semester of the freshman year, studentslearn basic engineering skills (problem solving, teamworkfundamentals, engineering measurements) and areintroduced to a variety of activities in each of the fourdisciplines at Rowan (Chemical, Civil and Environmental,Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering).This is followed in the second semester by intense study ofengineering design through reverse engineering(“dissection”)and competitive assessment(instrumentation, testing and side-by-side comparison oftechnical performance) of a consumer product. In thismanner, students are introduced to design by studying thedesigns of practicing engineering designers.

This paper focuses on a multidisciplinary effort tointroduce principles of chemical and environmentalprocess design to freshmen through reverse engineering ofconsumer products. Three familiar consumer products-beer, bottled water and coffee are ideal for exposingstudents to fundamental physical/chemical treatmentprocesses important for environmental and chemicalengineers. By reverse engineering the processes by whichthese products are produced, students dissect operationssuch as mixing, grinding, heating, filtration, adsorptionand ion exchange. Students are also exposed tofundamentals of fluid flow, mass and heat transfer andchemical reactions. The unique aspect of this entirecourse is the use of three common products to introducethe concepts of engineering process design andconventional treatment processes. Course assessmentindicates that the students enjoy the experience ofreversing a process and the semester long experienceenhances their understanding of engineering designconcepts. This early innovative early exposure toengineering design also impacts engineering studentretention at Rowan University.

Index Terms: unit operations, chemical processes,freshman engineering, measurements,

INTRODUCTION

In recent years most engineering programs haveintroduced freshman engineering courses to attract and

retain students. These courses are typically structured tointroduce the fundamentals of engineering design.Students traditionally work on a design project or studythe design of practicing engineers. Reverse engineeringon common household items is becoming a popularmechanism for introducing product design to engineeringstudents [1,2,3,4,5]. Many schools have used variousappliances or common household products such astoasters, hair dryers, toothbrushes, electric drills etc. tointroduce reverse engineering to students [6,7,8]. Reverseengineering is defined as the process that helps indeveloping sufficient information about a (product) formand function to allow replication with or withoutenhancement in original or current technologies,materials, and manufacturing processes [2].

Freshman engineering students at Rowan Universityare introduced to the concepts of engineering designthrough a series of hands-on engineering experimentsfocussing on the principles of engineering measurementsand reverse engineering. During the fall semester eachengineering discipline introduces students to basicconcepts of measurements through three-week modules[8,9]. These modules are focussed on the followingtopics:

• Manufacturing and Fabrication

• Structural Measurements

• Process and Flow Measurements

• Electrical Measurements

The above discipline specific exercises expose stu-dents to engineering design even though they lack thetechnical and analytical tools to solve realistic designproblems. The first semester is followed by a semesterlong project focusing on reverse engineering. This coursesubtitled Competitive Assessment Laboratory, consists of asemester long project that introduces freshman engineer-ing students to reverse engineering of a consumer appli-ance [4,5,6]. The major goal of this semester long experi-ence is to expose students to engineering product design.The course is a 15-week, 3 credit course consisting of a1.5-hour lecture and 3.0-hour hands-on laboratory. Lec-tures and laboratories are typically relevant to the assignedproduct. However some general topics such as life cycleanalysis, design for the environment (DFE), ergonomics,engineering economics, intellectual property rights, pro-fessionalism and ethics are also included in the lectures toraise students’ awareness about important aspects of engi-neering design.

Session

International Conference on Engineering Education August 18-21, 2002, Manchester, U.K.

This paper focuses on three products that were intro-duced for the freshman reverse engineering module by theChemical and Civil and Environmental Engineering Pro-grams at Rowan University. These products were instru-mental in exposing students to product design and processdesign. The product design aspects have been well docu-mented [8,9,10]. This paper describes the early introduc-tion of unit operations inherent to process design to afreshman class. Process design is an integral part of thechemical and environmental engineering curriculum.However most of the unit operations and process designcourses are typically placed in the upper level (jun-ior/senior) years. Products introduced to the freshmanclass included portable water filters, coffee makers andbeer. Each product has a liquid end product for humanconsumption namely water, coffee and beer. Thereforereverse engineering of these products is intimately in-volved with chemical and environmental processing.

PORTABLE WATER FILTERS

Portable water filtration units are becoming popularfor outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, mountainclimbing, backpacking etc. A number of companies mar-ket these products (MSR, PUR, SWEETWATER,KATADYNE). A typical MSR water filtration unit withits components is shown in Figure 1.

.

These water filtration units typically have a number ofconventional water treatment processes built-in to producesafe drinking water. The water filters have ceramicmembranes, synthetic membranes, pleated syntheticfilters, activated carbon, ion-exchange resins and iodinatedcomponents. Students have to indentify and understandthe basic principles of common water treatment processessuch as filtration, ion-exchange, adsorption anddisinfection. A hands-on laboratory is dedicated toenhance student learning and understanding of eachtreatment process. Each process introduces students to theneed of a specific material for the treatment process. A

list of processes, materials and engineering designconcepts learned are indicated in Table 1.

Table 1: Major Water Filtration TreatmentProcesses

Process EngineeringMaterial

Design Concepts

Filtration Sand Headloss

Adsorption Activated Carbon Isotherms,Breakthrough

Ion-Exchange Resins Selectivity, ResinCapacity

Disinfection Chlorine, Iodine BreakthroughCurve, ChlorineDosage

MembraneSeparation

Ceramic, HollowFiber, PES

Flux, SurfaceArea, Selectivity

Students also enhance their learning in three otherareas:

a) the importance of process variables such asflowrate, pressure and temperature on eachprocess,

b) the measurement of water quality variables toassess the performance of every process, and

c) the characteristics of safe drinking water andenvironmental regulations dictating watertreatment.

Water quality parameters that students use to assessthe water filtration units include

• Turbidity• Color• Conductivity• Organics• Inorganics (such as nitrate)• Presence and Absence of Bacteria

The water filters spark the students’ attentionirrespective of their engineering choices because of theinherent human interst in drinking water quality. Safedrinking water is of utmost important to all engineeringstudents as evidenced by the increase in use of bottleddrinking water and Brita pitchers. Many students usewater filtration units during camping and hikingexpeditions. This accounts for their enthusiasm to learnabout the engineering principles involved in the design ofthe water filters. The entire semester long module is costeffective. The cost of the filters vary from $50 to $120.

Session

International Conference on Engineering Education August 18-21, 2002, Manchester, U.K.

All other analytical equipment are already available in theEnvironmental Engineering Laboratory at RowanUniversity. The class also visits the New JerseyAmericam Water Company’s Delran Treatment Plant toobserve surface water treatment.

A number of topics covered in general and disciplinespecific engineering courses are thus introduced to thestudents at the freshman level. The courses are presentedin Table 2.

Table 2: Courses in Civil &Environmental Engineering

Engineering MaterialsOrganic ChemistryMicrobiologyFluid MechanicsIntroduction to EnvironmentalEngineeringWater Treatment and DesignWastewater Treatment and DesignAdvanced Unit Processes inEnvironmental Engineering

COFFEE MAKERS

Coffee makers are a common household product and cof-fee is a popular drink amongst students. The use of coffeemakers to demonstrate common engineering processes isan innovative yet simple idea. Hesketh [11] and Heskethand Slater [12] have demonstrated the use of this commonhousehold product to teach freshman common engineeringprocesses. The unit demonstrates principles of materialbalances, fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer, thermo-dynamics, materials, process instrumentation and controls.Thus basic understanding of engineering design and re-verse engineering can be demonstrated. A typical coffeemaker with identified unit operations is presented in Fig-ure 2.

Some of the major unit operations in a coffee maker areoutlined in Table 3.

Table 3: Major Chemical Processes in a Coffee Maker

Process Raw Material Design Concepts

Grinding Coffee Beans Particle Size

Leaching Coffee Beans Surface Area andSize Reduction

Filtration Coffee Filtersand Coffee Beans

Filter Porosityand Material

Solubilization Coffee Beans Effect ofTemperature,ConcentrationGradients

The process of leaching the organic compounds from thecoffee beans uses principles from mass transfer, which isunique to chemical engineering. The process of grindingillustrates the impact of particle size on leaching and fi-nally the final concentration of the product. The filterpaper demonstrates material separation principles.

Parameters that students use to assess the various proc-esses include:

• Color• Coffee Concentration• Taste• Grinding time• Particle Size• Temperature

The coffee maker is thus a cost effective product to intro-duce students to basic chemical processes. The prices forcoffee makers are as low as $15 to expensive automatedones up to $250. The coffee maker module is instrumentalin introducing students to various chemical-processingconcepts early in the freshman year. Courses impacted arelisted in Table 4.

Table 4: Courses in Chemical Engineering

Fluid Mechanics

Thermodynamics

Organic Chemistry

Heat Transfer

Unit Operations

Mass Transfer

Engineering Materials

leaching andfiltration

Condenser and Distributor

heat transfer

tubular heaterwith two-phase flow

one-way valve

Coffee Beans

bypass lever

timer, switchthermal fuses, and digital display

AC Powerthermal switch

no-drip valve

Figure 2: Unit Operations in a Coffee Maker

Session

International Conference on Engineering Education August 18-21, 2002, Manchester, U.K.

BEER

The third product that introduces students to chemicalprocessing is commercial beer. Farrell et al. [13,14] havedocumented the use of the beer brewing process in en-hancing student learning of product and process design. Inreverse engineering an end product such as beer, studentshave to identify raw materials, chemical processing of theidentified raw materials and parameters relevant to evalu-ate and assess the quality of the beer. The following tableindicates the processes, raw materials and design conceptsthat are exposed to the students through this semester longreverse engineering exercise.

Table 5: Major Chemical Processes in Beer Brewing

Process RawMaterial

Design Concepts

Grinding/Mashing MaltedBarley

Particle Size

Fermentation Wort,Hops,Yeast

Microbiology/ReactionKinetics/Biochemistry

Sterilization/Pasteurization

HeatTransfer/Microbiology

Clarification Remove particles,colloids, contaminants

Filtration Separations

Carbonation CO2 Vapor-Liquidequilibrium

Parameters that students use to assess the quality of beerinclude

• Color

• Foam

• Pressure

• PH

• Specific Gravity

• Alcohol Content

• Sugar Concentration

Beer brewing also involves numerous science and engi-neering principles such as fluid flow, heat transfer, mate-rial balances and biochemical reaction kinetics. Thecourses outlined in Table 4 build up on topics introducedto the freshman through the brewing process. This projectis also cost effective, as it requires common analyticalequipment for analyses of various parameters. Malt ex-tract kits are readily available for making beer. Most ofthe vigorous fermentation occurs in the first 3 days withsuch kits. The class also visits the Iron Hill Brewery and

Restaurant (West Chester, PA.) for observing beer brew-ing in an industrial set-up.

SUMMARY

This paper demonstrates how reverse engineering ofconsumer products can be used to demonstrate not onlyengineering product design but also engineering processesto students as early as their freshman year. Products se-lected with some creativity can easily be used to introducevarious aspects of unit operations in chemical and envi-ronmental engineering. Bottled drinking water, coffee andbeer are popular household drinks. Therefore the initialunfamiliarity associated with unit processes is absent inusing the above-mentioned products. All three modulesare simple, cost effective yet innovative and interestingways of introducing engineering processes inherent tochemical and environmental engineers. Each module caneasily be adopted to include numerous multidisciplinarytopics such as engineering business, marketing and eco-nomics, environmental and regulatory issues, manufac-turing processes, electrical timing circuits, switches, re-mote sensing and data acquisition.

Students work in teams of 3 to 5 on an assigned prod-uct. The entire semester long project meets several edu-cational objectives. Students are exposed to the creativityof engineering product and process design and basic sci-entific principles drawn from relevant freshman classessuch as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology.Students gain hands-on experience in analytical measure-ments and experimental design. Furthermore, studentsdevelop and strengthen their communication skills (writtenand oral) through frequent progress reports, laboratoryreports, a final project report and oral presentations.Course evaluations indicate that all modules are effectivein enhancing student learning and capturing students’ at-tention. The most important impact of these innovativefreshman modules is the impact on student retention at theCollege of Engineering. Student retention for male andfemale students for the graduating classes of 2000, 2001and 2002 are similar and is presented in Figure 3.

CONCLUSIONS

Session

International Conference on Engineering Education August 18-21, 2002, Manchester, U.K.

Commercial beer, coffee, and water can be easilyincorporated in a simple, cost effective innovative way tointroduce concepts of reverse engineering and engineeringproduct and process design. All three products are anexcellent means of introducing basic chemical andenvironmental unit operations as early as the freshmanyears. The water filter and coffee maker projects canspark interest in engineering careers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are very grateful to the New Jersey AmericanWater Works Company for providing an excellenteducational plant tour for their Delran Water Treatmentplant.

REFERENCES

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3. K. Jahan, Marchese, A. J., Hesketh, R.P., C.S. Slater,J.L. Schmalzel, T. R. Chandrupatla and R.A. Dusseau(1997), "The Rowan Engineering Program :Preparing Students for the Future Job Market",Proceedings of the 1997 Zone I Fall Meeting,Wilmington, Delaware, October , 1997.

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