New Directions for Chemical Engineering (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 239-248
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From page 239... ...
These issues are pervasive throughout STEM fields and certainly not unique to chemical engineering. In looking to the future, however, chemical engineers have an opportunity to be leaders among STEM fields in increasing diversity and inclusion within their profession.
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From page 240... ...
Being responsive to those student interests and facilitating this career path can help chemical engineering programs attract those who want to pursue public-sector work and to develop both the tools and the influence needed to have direct impact in bettering their community. This section has addressed recruitment of chemical engineers and barriers to entering the field, in particular for women and BIPOC.
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From page 241... ...
Further, because students at community colleges do not fulfill any major requirements, they do not form a peer support network with other chemical engineering majors. As a result, transfer students are asked to compress most of 3–4 years of chemical engineering curriculum into a 2-year period, and to do so without the same peer support or foundational experience in engineering enjoyed by their nontransfer peers.
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From page 242... ...
, thereby promoting universal acceptance of these courses as satisfying prerequisites for the junior-level curricula at individual 4-year institutions. In addition to academic hurdles, community college transfer students may face financial or other challenges that, while unrelated to their academic abilities, affect their performance.
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From page 243... ...
Curricular Content Evolution As discussed earlier in this chapter, the chemical engineering curriculum has in recent years sought to balance the goals of retaining core rigor (mathematical modeling, thermodynamics, kinetics, and design) and incorporating new important topics (most recently, biochemical engineering and data science)
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From page 244... ...
This trend is likely to be limited, however, by the relatively small size of chemical engineering departments and an inability to teach an entire undergraduate curriculum without the aid of sister departments on campus. Further, as discussed above, one major drive toward college affordability and diversity and inclusion is the broadening of a path for transfer students from lower-cost community colleges and students who change their majors.
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From page 245... ...
That material would include elements from the core subjects covered in the undergraduate curriculum but organized and delivered in a way that is easily accessible to postgraduate scientists or engineers. Interestingly, anecdotal evidence from the members of this committee indicates that while many chemical engineering graduate programs use undergraduate preparation in the field as a major gateway to admission, faculty of their own departments include many members whose training was in related disciplines.
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From page 246... ...
Master's degrees are likely to play an increasingly important role in graduate education. For the reasons outlined above -- whether a need to acquire additional depth in core chemical engineering concepts or to gain breadth in ancillary disciplines such as bioengineering or computing or data science, among many others -- master's degrees could offer an attractive solution for chemical engineers needing to adapt and respond to a rapidly changing marketplace.
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From page 247... ...
The Google program engages more than 100 partner companies that also have positions available upon completion of the common certificate programs. The traditional higher education model is linear, with a student moving from K-12 to some amount of university education and then to work, and there are usually limited feedback loops and a lack of integration across the steps.
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From page 248... ...
Chemical engineers have an opportunity to lead innovation in STEM fields by building a model that emphasizes scalability as well as human connection. Scalability can come from online content that is curated jointly by companies and universities and made available for local use in the classroom, or from the use of standalone modules to address particular topics that are accessed entirely online.
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