Freshman Engineering Design Design And Siting Of A Municipal Wastewater Facility

To bring “practical” engineering into the freshman year, a hands on lecture/laboratory chemical engineering introductory course was developed which meets twice a week for a total of 3 hours for seven weeks. The course was well received by students. In order to broaden the design experience and include concepts of manufacturing into the freshman course, an interdisciplinary Environmental Engineering course problem has been developed. This new course is team taught by a combination of Chemical and Civil Engineering faculty, meeting for 2 hours per week for fourteen weeks. The problem chosen was the siting and design of a municipal wastewater facility with the siting being the responsibility of the Civil Engineering faculty, and the process flowsheet, equipment design, and the process cost estimation addressed by the Chemical Engineering faculty. The course was enthusiastically received and the students particularly enjoyed working in teams to achieve their common objective.