2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Chemical engineering students are introduced to topics in chemical kinetics, mechanisms, and reactors in traditional chemical reactor design courses. However, additional work is needed to infuse entrepreneurial mindset skills into coursework, specifically in enabling students to expand their curiosity and make connections to their everyday world. This work documents the efforts undertaken in two spring semesters (in 2021and 2023) of a required junior level Introduction to Chemical Reactor Design class at Arizona State University to enable students to (a) investigate common processes to determine the function and importance of chemical reactors, and (b) to acquire and integrate reactor design, sustainability, and consumer demand information in order to enhance the commodity production process. The factors that were explicitly assessed in this work relate to the “curiosity” and “connections” elements of entrepreneurial mindset learning, and include assessing how well students (1) investigate common processes to recognize potential opportunities, and (2) integrate and synthesize different types of knowledge. Introductory material regarding reactors was presented to the class, and opportunities to have students discuss the different reactor types that they encounter in their everyday lives was provided during a class session. Students then formed groups to carry out two homework assignments over an approximately 4-week period. The assignments consisted of a written report and also a creative presentation that focused on the use of chemical reactors in one of four different industries/sectors: food generation, pulp / paper-based products production, energy and environmental control, or pharmaceutical/therapeutics production. A quantitative rubric was developed and used to score the written reports, and student peer review was used to evaluate the creative presentations. The quantitative assessment data from the written reports show that the majority of the student teams met or exceeded expectations. Suggestions for how the project may be expanded in the future are provided.