Fifty years ago this month, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. This science fiction epic follows a spacecraft bound for Jupiter with the sentient computer HAL 9000. While the movie dealt with issues such as existentialism, human evolution, and extraterrestrial life, it also foreshadowed the widespread use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life.
Fast forward to today. A McKinsey & Co. study reports that about 30% of the activities in 60% of all occupations could be automated (1). This means that many workers will find themselves working alongside rapidly evolving machines, pushing human counterparts to keep pace.
This trend will no doubt filter into the chemical process industries (CPI). In a recent AIChE Job Board posting, a startup sought a petrochemical process engineer for a team whose goal is to disrupt the process industries with breakthrough machine learning technologies. Job requirements included learning the principles of the company’s machine learning technology, applying them to appropriate points in the process, and evolving the machine learning models via chemical process understanding.
Chemical engineers have long worked on cross-disciplinary teams, but AI and automation provide a new twist. “I don’t believe chemical engineers of the future need to be experts in robotics, AI, etc. They need to have...
Would you like to access the complete CEP Article?
No problem. You just have to complete the following steps.
You have completed 0 of 2 steps.
-
Log in
You must be logged in to view this content. Log in now.
-
AIChE Membership
You must be an AIChE member to view this article. Join now.
Copyright Permissions
Would you like to reuse content from CEP Magazine? It’s easy to request permission to reuse content. Simply click here to connect instantly to licensing services, where you can choose from a list of options regarding how you would like to reuse the desired content and complete the transaction.