(510g) Teaching Aspen Plus and Other Engineering Software through Video at the University of Delaware

Many students learn to use ASPEN Plus® simulation software as part of their Senior Design course.   The University of Delaware (UD) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) has recognized the importance of introducing students to advanced engineering software such as ASPEN Plus® early in the curriculum.  UD freshman taking their first chemical engineering course in material and energy balances (CHEG112) are now taught how to model industrially relevant chemical processes using ASPEN Plus®.  This year, freshman in CHEG112 were taught how to simulate the hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane using ASPEN Plus®.  Often, the lack of time available in the classroom and knowledge of ASPEN Plus® prevent the inclusion of such material in the first chemical engineering course.  Therefore, we have created a series of ASPEN Plus® tutorial videos that students can access on-line outside of the classroom to learn how to model a variety of unit operations including mixers, heat exchanges, reactors, separators, etc.  One advantage to introducing advanced topics using ASPEN Plus® is for the students to make a connection between what they are currently learning and what they will learn in future course work.

This presentation will focus on the use of screen-shot software using Camtasia® to create a library of videos for teaching chemical engineering students how to use ASPEN Plus®.  We have also used Camtasia in the Fluid Mechanics course to teach AFT Fathom and ANSYS Fluent.  Other courses have used screen-capture software to introduce Matlab to chemical engineering students.