(60a) Past, Present and Future of Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, now in its ninth edition, with authors Joe Mauk Smith, Hendrick Van Ness, Michael M. Abbott and Mark Swihart is one of the largest selling chemical engineering textbooks of all time and remains one of the reasons that RPI is known for its undergraduate education program. Similarly, Henry R. Bungay was a pioneer in the use of computer aided simulation tools for undergraduate courses in biochemical and environmental engineering. Michael M. Abbott (who coincidently was a Van Ness PhD student) was an extraordinary teacher that developed a number of courses at RPI (including broader Engineering courses). In this talk, Professors Plawsky and Bequette discuss the influences of their mentors -- Van Ness, Abbott and Bungay -- that lead them to author textbooks on Transport Phenomena and Process Dynamics and Control. They also discuss a history of RPI-wide initiatives in interactive learning and related topics, and how these techniques were incorporated into their textbooks. They close with a presentation of the new chemical engineering curriculum.