NSF-CRCD Chemicals from Biorenewables PI: Charles E. Glatz co-PIs: Surya Mallapragada Balaji Narasimhan Peter Reilly Jacqueline Shanks

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NSF-CRCD Chemicals from Biorenewables
PI Charles E. Glatz co-PIs Surya
Mallapragada Balaji
Narasimhan Peter Reilly Jacqueline
Shanks
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Objectives

• Develop four 1-credit open-ended
  multidisciplinary laboratory courses involving
  Chemicals from Biorenewables to be integrated
  with existing and new bioengineering-related ChE
  classes
• Target audience
• undergraduate (seniors) and graduate students in
  Chemical Engineering
• undergraduate and graduate students in
  Biochemistry and Biophysics.

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Motivation Research

• ChE evolving from a petrochemical-based to a
  biorenewables-based discipline
• Product Species used Company
• Indigo Microbial Genencor
• (Poly)lactic acid Microbial Cargill/Dow
• Biopol Microbial/plants Monsanto
• 1,3 propane diol Microbial DuPont

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Motivation Research

• Although classical chemical engineering and the
  material
  sciences will remain extremely important well
  into the future, it will be difficult, if not
  impossible, to maintain the
• benefits of developed economies and extend them
  to
• developing countries in a sustainable manner
  without
• employing biotechnology". DuPont website
• Current ChE curriculum does not reflect this
  trend
• Introduce new courses to cover this new
  technology

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Motivation Educational

• Problem-based learning
• Open-ended problems
• Learning based approach
• Students direct learning of the topic
• Problems provide motivation for learning
• Interdisciplinary
• Team-based approach
• ABET criteria
• Life-long learning

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Existing Programs/ Resources

• Research of the PIs
• Size of the department - among top 10 ChE
  programs in the country
• Emphasis on quality undergraduate education
• Plant Sciences Institute
• New faculty hire
• Project LEARN
• Bioethics Institute

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Proposed Curriculum Structure

• Four new 1-credit laboratories - each associated
  with an existing or new ChE 400 or 500 level
  biotechnology related theory course
• Each laboratory course has one open-ended design
  project topic and list of desired outcomes
• Students work in teams of three - each team will
  have students with a biology/biochemistry
  background
• Opportunity for problem-based, student-directed,
  multidisciplinary team-based learning
• Bioethics component

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Proposed Curriculum Structure
Investigator Research Instruction P.
Reilly Protein Engineering Biochemical Engr
(425) J. Shanks Plant Metabolic
Engineering Metabolic Engr (new) S.
Mallapragada Materials for Tissue
Culture Biomaterials (595G) B. Narasimhan
Polymeric Materials Polymers (443) C. Glatz
(PI) Bioseparations Bioseparations (562) R.
Seagrave Models of Biosystems Biomed Engr (540),
Assessment
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Proposed Laboratory Modules

• Bioinformatics
• Metabolic engineering
• Plant protein recovery
• Development of materials for skin tissue
  propagation

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Impact

• Make ChE education more relevant for our
  undergraduate students
• Teach students
• problem-based learning techniques
• develop their metacognitive abilities
• life-long learning
• Coupling these educational techiques with valued
  new technologies
• Integrate some of these new experiments in a non
  open-ended manner into the required ChE
  undergraduate laboratories

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Potential Collaborators

• Biochemistry and Biophysics Department
• Food Science and Human Nutrition
• Industrial collaborators
• Advanced Tissue Sciences
• Cargill
• Dow Agrosciences
• Genencor
• Ajinomoto
• Amersham Pharmacia
• Prodigene