Food for thought: Delicious problems for Process System Engineering (PSE) courses

Active learning is widely recognized as an effective teaching approach that can improve classroom outcomes. This is enabled by providing the time for students to apply new knowledge, make mistakes, correct them, and repeat the process until mastery is achieved. One way to implement active learning is through the flipped classroom paradigm. However, to be effective, active learning depends on providing students with a variety of open-ended problems, ranging in difficulty from introductory to advanced levels. This paper presents four food-themed problems for use in numerical methods and process control courses: 1. Formulating Willy Wonka�s new chocolate bar: An introductory linear programming problem focused on translating verbal descriptions into mathematical models. 2. Optimal production for the Matrix Pizza company: A more advanced mixed-integer linear programming problem involving multiple scheduling scenarios. 3. Optimal frying time for fried ice cream production: A transient heat transfer problem modelled by an initial-value partial differential equation. 4. Control system design for Uncle Kane�s pancake batter machine: A control design problem involving uncertain process models and the selection of an appropriate operating mode and PI controller design. These problems aim to engage students in practical, problem-solving activities central to the active learning process.