MISSION / VISION / GOALS

The 2003-2004 Department of Chemical Engineering Strategic Plan is completed and available in Adobe PDF format for download.

2003-2004 Chemical Engineering Strategic Plan

In summary, the mission of the Department of Chemical Engineering is to develop, implement, and maintain a high quality undergraduate and graduate programs. Some highlights towards accomplishing those goals include:

Goal 1: To maintain an undergraduate chemical engineering program nationally recognized for educational excellence.

• Objective 1: To systematically renovate our teaching and laboratory facilities to be the best in the nation. Since AY 2000 the chemical engineering department has raised external funding (over $300K) to complete the renovation of 2 classrooms into modern, technologically advanced lecture halls (rooms 211 and 102). A new, junior undergraduate laboratory has been designed and built with the help of alumni gifts (room 103) at a cost of approximately $100K. We continue to upgrade our senior Unit Operations (UO) laboratory using alumni and corporate gifts in excess of $150K To date we have completely renovated or replaced 5 of our experiments, and they have been incorporated into the laboratory teaching cycle. The process control and data acquisition for the senior laboratory has been completely upgraded with cash and in-kind gifts in excess of $1 million. Our biochemical engineering laboratory has been created and equipped through the generosity of our alumni sponsors (~$75K)
• Objective 2: To establish the department as a leader in the use of information technology in teaching. Both of new lecture rooms are equipped with videoconferencing, recording, and current computer equipment. These are being used extensively in our technical communications program, and design sequence. Approximately half of our faculty are applying Web-based materials in their courses.
• Objective 3: To maintain a nationally recognized departmental assessment program. The faculty have presented papers every year at national meetings, including ASEE, on the development and execution of our academic outcomes assessment program.
• Objective 4: Strive to create friendly and supportive relationships between students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The Chemical Engineering Advisory Board has been rebuilt to a current membership of 12 key corporate and academic representatives. We have added 8 new members to our Distinguished Academy. A new office and workspace for our student AIChE chapter and the chemical engineering honor society, OCE, has been created. We have been selected as host for the 2003 Regional AIChE student conference.

Goal 2: To develop nationally recognized research within the Departments areas of strength.

• Objective 1: Secure funding for endowed chairs in core research areas. In addition to the existing Dow Chair in Process Safety, we have added the James and Lorna Mack Chair in Bioengineering ($2 million). We are currently conducting a nationwide search for the new chair.
• Objective 2: Increase national recognition of faculty in core research areas. Our faculty have won several prestigious awards over the past 3 years, including: Dr. Komar Kawatra received the Frank F. Aplan award from the American Institute of Metallurgy, Miming, and Petroleum; and Dr. Dan Crowl received the Norton H. Walton award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and named an Institute Fellow.
• Objective 3: Increase the scholarly output of the department. In addition to a modest increase in faculty publications, Drs. David Shonnard, Dan Crowl, and Faith Morrison have published 4 nationally recognized textbooks since 2001.
• Objective 4: Develop externally funded research experiences for undergraduates. Over 90 undergraduate students have participated in undergraduate research experiences with faculty since 2000. Notably, an endowed undergraduate research fund has been set up by an alumnus to allow more students to have a research experience. This has been funded by almost $100K to date.
• Objective 5: Systematically renovate the departmental research facilities. We have extensively renovated several of our research laboratories since 2000 using external funds. These include the graduate student office area (room 308), the hazard laboratories (rooms 207 and 209), the carbon technology center (room 307), and the spectroscopy lab (room 307A).