Interdisciplinary Learning for Chemical Engineering Students from Organic Chemistry Synthesis Lab to Reactor Design to Separation

A novel approach to the Chemical Engineering curriculum sequence of electives here at West Point enabled our students to experience a much more realistic design process, which more closely replicated a real world scenario.Students conduct the synthesis in the organic chemistry lab, then conduct computer modeling of the reaction with ChemCad and Mathematica, analyze chemical separation processes, and design a reactor system.This interdisciplinary learning approach demonstrated to students that all of their courses are meant to compliment each other, their learning, and experiences.