Curriculum Overview

A common first semester

Some students enter college confident that a specific engineering discipline - chemical engineering, for instance - is right for them. Other students feel sure they want to be engineers, but are less certain which discipline they wish to pursue. Still others think they might want to be engineers, but don't know exactly what being an engineer means.

Bucknell's curriculum is designed to meet the needs of all these students. Every entering engineering student takes the same courses during his or her first semester - calculus, physics, English literature and composition, and Exploring Engineering. (Those who score well on Advanced Placement tests may receive credit for some of these introductory courses.)

Bucknell is particularly proud of its Exploring Engineering course, which is team-taught by faculty members from every department of the College of Engineering, and open to interested liberal arts students as well as engineers. Through lectures, design projects and group activities, students gain a grasp of engineering problem-solving and the profession as a whole, and each discipline in particular.

Starting out

For those students who choose chemical engineering as their major, the road ahead is both challenging and highly rewarding. As a Chem. E., you will spend much of your first two years studying fundamental science and math, along with the chemical engineering principles that will lay the foundation for your upper level courses.

Much of the expertise chemical engineers traditionally bring to problems involves an understanding of the atomic nature of matter, and an ability to form a bridge from that molecular scale to a much larger application scale. Given the inherently broad nature of modern chemical engineering, a wide science base covering this molecular scale is necessary, and includes courses in chemistry, physics, materials, and biological science.

The heart of the "Chemical Engineering Principles" course, taken in the first semester of the sophomore year, is the study of material and energy balances - the idea that "what goes in must come out." This concept governs all chemical engineering processes, from the production of penicillin and fertilizer to the design of devices used to clean up toxic air emissions.

In this course, you will be given a chance to test out the concepts presented in class on real-life production equipment. You will climb a distillation tower to collect samples; design, build, and test piping systems; assemble and operate a filter press; and use a spray dryer to isolate a powder from a solution.

(The hands-on approach in this this course is repeated throughout the curriculum - most required chemical engineering courses contain a simultaneous laboratory component.)

Digging in deeper

The bulk of the chemical engineering curriculum is presented during the third and fourth years. It is also during this time that electives are typically chosen which focus on specific specialty areas within the discipline (see below). Required coursework includes the study of heat, mass, and momentum transfer, equilibrium stage separations, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, and process control.

To understand what these topics might encompass, imagine that you are a chemical engineer working for a pharmaceutical company. Research engineers and chemists have come up with a chemical reaction that produces a new "wonder drug" - your job is to transfer the technology from the test tube to the production line.

First you'll have to consider where the raw materials will come from, how they will get to the reaction vessel, and how the finished product will leave. Whether the materials are liquids, solids or gases, their flow involves the transfer of momentum. Are your materials very volatile? If so, they must not be stored in open tanks, or they can evaporate - a simple case of mass transfer.

Think for a minute about the chemical reaction used to produce your "wonder drug" - will the reaction take place over two hours or two days? Do you need to add heat? If so, how? If not, does the reaction produce its own heat? How are you going to get rid of excess heat in order to prevent an explosion? Knowledge of reaction kinetics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics is needed to answer these questions.

Once you get your drug produced, you may find that it is contained in a mixture with many other by-products. How will you isolate your compound? The study of separations can help you produce a product that meets the required purity specifications.

Tying it all together

Many of the problems you will solve will focus on specific aspects of engineering - heat transfer or chemical thermodynamics, for example. However, in the "real world," practicing engineers are confronted with problems involving several, if not most, aspects of engineering. Furthermore, these problems rarely have a single "correct" answer, and some of the information needed to solve it may be unavailable or poorly defined.

At Bucknell, you will get practice in solving these multidimensional, open-ended problems in your senior design courses. In the first of these, Process Engineering, you will be exposed to preliminary process design using computer aids such as process simulators. In the second design course, students focus on product development. Here, they are involved in hands-on small scale production of an actual chemical product (e.g., soap), and are concerned with improvement of final properties and quality control, and all aspects of the manufacturing which influence them, from raw material selection to packaging. In both courses, students learn to account for important factors such as economics, sustainability, and environmental impact.

Developing a focus - electives and undergraduate research

Chemical engineering is a very broad profession, and encompasses much more than can be taught in just the courses described above. Chemical engineers are involved with everything from traditional oil refining to cutting-edge biotechnology, from pharmaceutical production to environmental cleanup. While at Bucknell, you can begin to explore some of these areas of specialization through selection of your elective courses.

In addition, opportunities for undergraduate research are considered important educational opportunities in the department. Students can work closely with a faculty advisor in a particular focus area, and many choose to satisfy one or more elective requirements with these "independent study" credits. Research students are encouraged to present their independent work at research symposia and professional society meetings.

Topic areas include:

Biochemical Engineering
Polymer Science and Engineering
Applied Software Engineering
Hazardous Waste Management
NMR Process Imaging
Photolithography and Novel Materials
Biomedical Engineering
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Communication/Teamwork

In conjunction with learning about chemical engineering, the curriculum offers many opportunities to develop communication and teamwork skills through instruction and guided practice. Effective interpersonal skills in these areas may be the most important factor in making you stand out among peers with similar education and training.

Many courses will require and provide instruction in technical report writing and oral presentation skills. Students are encouraged to use the resources of the University Writing Center, where trained tutors are available to assist students in every stage of the writing process. Presentations are occasionally videotaped, so the student may study his or her presentation style. In addition, students conducting independent research are encouraged to present their work at professional society meetings.

As in the professional world, teamwork is an integral part of the Bucknell undergraduate experience. Students work in groups for most laboratory assignments, and for many in-class assignments and projects. In numerous instances, these involve formalized team activities, with students receiving instruction on effective techniques, practicing different roles, and receiving and evaluating feedback from group members and faculty. In this manner, students gain a head start on becoming effective team members and leaders.