Integrating Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing into the Chemical Engineering Curriculum

Over the past several years we have explored ways to incorporate concepts of pharmaceutical engineering within the chemical engineering curriculum. Our initial efforts in this area have been directed towards the integration of these concepts in freshman and sophomore level courses. This provides an experience that reinforces core educational objectives and increases student interest in the pharmaceutical field. This paper is a continuation of our educational methods development, and will describe several pharmaceutical and consumer product educational modules. These modules include both laboratory and course-related activities for both lower and upper-level chemical engineering courses. These are based on API manufacturing and finished drug production processes. We are exposing students to the important area of continuous manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. This is a growing area of interest for the drug industry. This work is part of the educational outreach efforts of the NSF ERC for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (NSF grant # ECC0540855).