University of Alberta
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
-------f.,SJ ------=-------department ) UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA Tradition I I ! • • I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I i I I and I I I I I j I I j 1, I I I I I I I I j I I I I I I I I Innovation I I I I , t ' I '-~-· 'I Chemical & Materials Engineering Building J. FRASER FORBES, SIEGHARD E. WANKE University ofAlberta • Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G6 hemical engineering has played a key role in the the 1940s and the beginning of large-scale commercial de development of Canada's oil and gas and associated velopment of the oil sands in the 1970s had major impacts C petrochemical industries, and chemical engineering on chemical engineering education in Alberta. The evolution at the University of Alberta (UofA) has been an integral part and current state of the chemical engineering program, with of the growth of the petrochemical industry in western some gazing into the future, make up the heart of this article. Canada. The UofA is located in Edmonton, capital city of the Province of Alberta. The western part of the province is HISTORY part of the majestic Canadian Rockies - The Continental The UofA opened for classes in 1908, about three years Divide makes up a significant part of the western border after the western part of the Northwest Territories of Canada between Alberta and British Columbia. The southeastern became the Province of Alberta. The UofA campus is lo part of the province is part of the Canadian Prairies, while cated on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River, the north is part of Canada's extensive boreal forest. To the which flows through the center of Edmonton. The first An south, Alberta borders on Montana-Big Sky Country. nual Calendar of the university described this site on the Alberta also has a lot of "big sky"; there are more hours of riverbank, 200 feet above the river, as a "beautiful wooded sunshine per year than in any other part of Canada. park, which lends itself splendidly to an architectural scheme Oil and natural gas fields are found throughout the great suitable for university purposes." Today the campus is sur sedimentary basin from the Alberta foothills in the west to rounded by the city of 700,000 inhabitants. Despite the tre the prairies in the east. Heavy oil and oil sand deposits, mendous growth of Edmonton, the river valley that runs which contain more hydrocarbons than the Middle East, are through the center of the city is largely an undeveloped, located north and east of Edmonton. The discovery of oil in beautiful park. As the city has grown, so has UofA. The © Copyright ChE Division of ASEE 2000 /02 Ch emical Engineering Education university's enrollment has grown from 45 students in 1908 to sli ghtly over Application of 30,000 in 1999. Size of the chemical engineering classes has also grown from the first three surface-science graduates in 1928 (when chemical engineering was a special program in the Department of Chemistry) to between 65 and 70 Bachelor of Science degrees principles to awarded annually for the last few years. Many other changes have occurred the process since 1928. In 1946, the department became one of the departments in the Faculty of Engineering, and in 1948, shortly after the discovery of a major oil industries, field just south of Edmonton, it was renamed the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. and the For the next 25 years, the department offered undergraduate and graduate development of programs in chemical and in petroleum engineering; it was also during this period that research began to be an increasi ngly important component of the mathematical and department's activities. In 1973 the OPEC oil embargo precipitated an oil crisis, and the department again became the Department of Chemical Engineering analytical tools when the petroleum engineering faculty members joined another department. In the late 1970s, a co-operative engineering program was introduced in which for improved participants obtain 20 months of relevant industrial experience as part of the five-year undergraduate program. The majority of our chemical engineering process undergraduate students are currently enrolled in the co-op program. The com puter process control (CPC) program was introduced as an undergraduate performance and elective stream in 1986 and the first students graduated from this unique materials program in 1989. (A more detailed hi story of our department can be found 1 in Wanke[ J and MatherY1) characterization, The 1990s witnessed major changes. The department had 18 academic faculty members when the decade started, but by 1996 one-third of them had retired and will be the been replaced and an additional two new positions had been created through focus of our expansion of the program. In addition, nine materials faculty joined the depart ment, resulting in the first Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering in research in the next Canada. The influx of new staff brought with it excitement and new approaches to teaching and research in the department. decade. The changes and growth experienced in the 1990s were accompanied by significant growth in the numbers of undergraduate and graduate students. Each undergraduate engineering program has a quota in the sophomore year; the chemical engineering quota increased from 65 to 75 in 1996, to 90 in 1999, and will increase to 100 in 2001. About two-thirds of the chemical engineering • Tina Barker in the departmental scanning electron microscopy laboratory. Undergraduate student and instructor next to fluidized bed column. • Spring 2000 103 sophomores completed their first year of engineering at the the department, and undergraduate students can choose from UofA; the remaining one-third are transfer students from a variety of program and delivery options. Three degrees are junior colleges and transfers from other programs. A total of offered: a BSc in Chemical Engineering, Chemical Engi- 299 undergraduate students are registered in neering (Computer Process Control), and Ma chemical engineering in the I 999-2000 aca- terials Engineering-all of which can be com demic year. The number of graduate students Teaching pleted in the traditional mode (eight aca has also increased significantly, from about demic semesters) or the co-operative educa 75 in 1996 to 110 in 1999; on the average, 40 chemical tion program (eight academic semesters plus to 45% of graduate students are PhD students principles with twenty months of engineering work experi and the remainder is enrolled in a variety of applications to ence interspersed with the academic terms). master's programs. The department also hosts Alberta's Approximately one-third of the students are a large number of postdoctoral fellows, re industries is pursuing the regular route to their engineer search associates, and visiting faculty; cur ing degree and two-thirds are pursuing the rently 29 postdoctoral fellows, 22 research oneofthe co-operative route. All the programs are ac associates, and 5 visiting professors reside in main functions of credited by the Canadian Engineering Ac the department. the department, creditation Board. The current academic staff consists of 24 and Undergraduate students usually enter the chemical engineering and IO materials engi undergraduate chemical engineering programs after a com neering faculty; 16 of these 34 have been hired students can mon first year of study, summarized in Table within the past five years, and there are four choose from a I. First-year engineering students are placed academic vacancies to be filled within the next in specific programs of study according to a three years. The department also employs 20 variety ofprogram quota for each program, based on their indi permanent support staff: three machinists and and delivery cated preferences and grades. In March of two electronics technicians who run the de options. each year, the first-year engineering students partmental machine and instrument shops and select three programs of study in which they custom-build and repair equipment for under- are interested, ranking their choices in order graduate and research laboratories; two com- of preference. Then, based on each student's puting and network specialists who keep the computing, GPA and the quota for the various programs, the Faculty of data acquisition, and network systems functioning; four labo Engineering assigns students to specific programs of study. ratory technologists who assist with the undergraduate labo The yearly entrance quotas for the chemical engineering ratories and operate special facilities such as the departmen programs currently total 90 students and will be expanding tal scanning electron microscope; and the remaining support to 100 students within the next two years. Of the approxi staff provide the clerical and administrative support neces mately 90 students per year that have been admitted to sary for smooth operation of the department. chemical engineering programs during the last several The staff, graduate students, researchers, and some of the years, almost all have indicated chemical engineering as classrooms are housed in the Chemical and Materials Engi their "first" choice. neering Building. This 8-story, l 84,000-ft2 building was built As shown in Table 2, the traditional chemical engineering in 1968, and currently over 80% of its space is occupied by program is similar to many programs across North America. the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, The key exception is the emphasis placed on both chemical which will be the sole occupant of the building after an engineering laboratories and process design. The chemical Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility is engineering laboratories consist of three separate courses, completed in 2001. Although the building is over thirty which serve the dual purposes of providing the students with years old, it has been well maintained and the laboratory hands-on experience with pilot-scale chemical engineering space is of excellent quality.