2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Process safety is an important part of the chemical engineering curriculum, but students often learn little of how to respond to hazards once they occur. Depending on their position, students may find themselves as part of their chemical plant’s incident response team or as resources to provide support for chemical emergency response. A course has been offered at Missouri University of Science and Technology where students not only learn incident response roles and procedures but physically respond to simulated emergencies under the supervision of industry experts. Hazardous Materials Management combines weekly lectures and a term project with two weekend-long simulations such as fixing a live hydrofluoric acid leak and a terrorist threat involving hazardous chemicals using response equipment and implementing an incident command structure. Students must use core engineering problem solving skills, technical concepts from their previous courses, and the material learned here to effectively respond to the emergency, mitigate a complex problem, and communicate technical details to the public through newscasts. This course emphasizes effective teamwork and communication through a clear chain of command and critical thinking in working through an emergency response. Students walk away from the course having also created a fictional incident to which they have crafted a detailed response in the form of a presentation or newscast. Before final submission, the industry experts provide feedback to reinforce the ideas students have learned. In this presentation, we will cover the design of the course and scenarios crafted by students.