2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

North Carolina State University has offered a summer chemical engineering camp for 25 years, with structure and content that have evolved over time. The current version of the camp has theme-focused days – biotechnology, nanoscience, sustainability, and process/separations – with demonstrations, tours, and activities that address each area. Here we present the content and structure of the camp during the 2023 and 2024 offerings and discuss enhancements that were made as a result of student survey feedback.

The week is organized so that students are introduced to the undergraduate chemical engineering major on the first day, including a panel of current students to answer questions. We start with activities focused on teamwork and general engineering design before shifting into chemical engineering-specific activities, mirroring the undergraduate curriculum that includes first year engineering design courses before major-specific courses.

Each subsequent day explores various areas of application, including materials and polymers, sustainability, separations, and biomanufacturing. On these days, we invite chemical engineering alumni – including those who work in traditional engineering industries, those who attended graduate school, and those who started their own businesses – to share their experiences and demonstrate the variety of possible career opportunities. These panelists represent a diverse range of backgrounds, industries, and life experiences.

In addition to engineering activities, campers gain experience in teamwork and in public speaking by making presentations to their families on the last day of camp. Ice-breakers, a scavenger hunt, and camp Kahoot! activities interject more fun into the week. Interactions with faculty, students, and alumni as well as relevant tours of campus facilities help campers catch a vision of their potential future as an engineer.

Links to camp activities (and their sources) will be made available for those wishing to implement these at their own universities. Demographics of the campers will be presented along with survey results on student satisfaction. We will also discuss challenges that were encountered in 2023 (and previous years) and how we responded in our 2024 offering.