(384b) Design Your Own Experiment: An Alternative Experiment for Seniors in Process Engineering Laboratory

Process Engineering Laboratory (PEL, also known as Unit Operations or Senior Lab) is taught as a two-semester course to provide students with experience working with different processes and understanding fundamental phenomena. Experiments are open-ended to encourage students to explore numerous variables. At the conclusion of each experiment students submit a team lab report and give an individual presentation. Students repeat this experimental cycle several times throughout the year to develop their analytical and communication skills. However, by the second half of the spring semester, seniors often have reduced motivation and enthusiasm for conducting experiments. This year, for the final experiment, students were challenged to design and test their own engineering experiment for PEL. Experiments needed to be safe, cost-effective, open-ended (with a multiple variables that could be tested), and quantifiable. This talk will explain the structure of this experiment and show several experiments designed by students.