Offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2020

This undergraduate course teaches the principles of reaction engineering and reactor design. It is one of the core subjects in the chemical engineering curriculum normally scheduled in the senior year. Students learn how to apply stoichiometry in combination with a rate law to design a chemical reactor that produces the desired conversion of reactants. The design of various types of chemical reactors is discussed at length, including continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR), plug-flow reactor (PFR), and batch-operation reactors. Additional topics include heterogeneous reactors, catalytic systems and fluidized beds, the design and optimization of reactor networks, and safety. The course integrates fluid mechanics and heat transfer to the design and analysis of isothermal and non-isothermal reactors and leads to the capstone design course in which chemical reactors are integrated into a chemical plant.

Offered: Fall 2020

These days, almost everyone is indirectly familiar with "Soft Materials", or at least two examples of them: viruses and soaps! Viruses are self-assembled protein structures, and soaps are long hydrocarbon chains (tail) attached to a hydrophilic head--therefore they can disintegrate viruses! So, please carefully wash your hands!

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, known as the founding father of "soft materials", used this term in his speech title while accepting the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics. Here, in this highly interactive graduate elective course, the foundations of soft matter will be explained using numerous real-life examples and hands-on/do-it-yourself experiments. A comprehensive account of different types of soft matter, such as polymers, colloids, gels, liquid crystals, amphiphiles, proteins, and cells will be provided, and the focus will be placed on engineering this burgeoning class of materials to address current challenges in the food-water-healthcare-energy security nexus.

Offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2020

Formal lectures for graduate students given on a topical or special interest subject by invited speakers. Several different topics are covered each term.