How we teach design: A comparison of Canadian and American courses.

Chemical engineering design is a requirement for accreditation under the Washington Accord. Within that requirement there is variation in how chemical engineering design is taught and what is covered in programs in Canada and the United States. Chemical engineering design is somewhat unique with respect to engineering design in other disciplines as chemical engineering design is often taught at a system design level and focused on transforming raw materials into products (including energy products) and treating and/or recycling the waste materials [1]. Chemical engineering design encompasses the design of subsystems and components that are required for the plant or process design and the integration of subsystems into larger plant and/or societal systems [1,2] and in the context of a circular economy [2]. Due to this systemic and integrative perspective, chemical engineering design is uniquely positioned to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)[2,3,4]. In 2022, the AIChE Education Division Curriculum Survey Committee conducted the capstone design course survey and received responses from ten Canadian universities and sixty-seven American universities and reported results [5]. In this paper, we compare American and Canadian programs based on the survey results and examine the similarities and differences based on geographic location and accrediting body among these programs.