Teaching chemical engineering students to stand up to a computer design

A chemical engineering design course is described. This course is innovative in two respects: (1) the use of a state-of-the-art computer system which enables students to use ASPEN at individual RISC (reduced instruction set computer) workstations and (2) the incorporation of design heuristics with which to formulate and evaluate computer designs. The integration of computer design with engineering heruistics serves as a means of checks and balances to enhance engineering judgment. This approach was used with three sets of projects: conceptual design of new processes, textbook case studies; and computer design for existing plants