Diversifying Technical Projects: The Chemical Engineering Introductory Project

The Chemical Engineering Introductory Project (ChIP) is a technical project that allows participants to learn about fundamental chemical engineering principles and apply them by building a small-scale continuous process system in a team-oriented environment. In past years, our members have built coffee machines, cooling towers, and soap batch reactors as their final project. ChIP is aimed toward incoming freshmen and transfer students, and since its introduction three years ago, AIChE at UCLA has seen an increase in student participation in technical projects and other areas of the club. Topics covered in the workshop will include strategies and difficulties faced in implementing the coffee machine project, connecting coffee machines to core engineering fundamentals, and overall advantages that ChIP has to offer.