Projects in Design: Alternative Energy
3.0
creditsAverage Course Rating
This course is a group design project (i.e. not a lecture course) to use chemical process simulation tools to model a real-world, alternative-energy process of interest to Chemical and Biomolecular Engineers. The goal of the project will be to develop a process model that is sufficiently complete and robust that it can be used to understand the important factors in the process design and/or operation. This design project is focused on the role alternative energy will play in our country’s future. About a third of the course will be devoted to understanding the role of energy and alternative energy in the US and world economies. The remainder of the course will be devoted to a technical and economic analysis of the an alternative energy technology. This course is organized to replicate group project work as it is practiced in industry. The class is divided into groups (typically 3 or 4 students) and each group will meet separately each week with the instructor. Hence, there is no regularly scheduled class times; student groups sign up for weekly meeting times using Starfish in Blackboard. These meetings typically will be 60 minutes long. The expectations and assignments for this course are quite different from most other courses. There are no weekly lectures by the instructor. Rather, each week each group will make a PowerPoint presentation on the week's topic or their progress on their project. Meets with EN.540.619
Fall 2013
Professor: Marc Donohue
The professor was one of the best aspects of this course. Students thought that she taught the materials thoroughly, and that many of the materials discussed in class were put into real-world context, which made the information easy to grasp. Students did believe that the lab was a bit incongruous as it did not apply to what they learned in the lecture. They also thought that the lectures relied too heavily on the textbook, so they recommended using a different, more up to date book instead. They also thought that the lab should be updated and moved to earlier in the semester. Prospective students should read the materials before class and attend every lecture to hear al the details that may end up on the exams. The