Teaching

Typical teaching assignments throughout the year include:

CHE 350 - Statistical Process Control

Semester: Spring

SPC covers quality improvement through reduction of process variability. Tools for recognizing process variability include descriptive statistics, process capability metrics and methods of hypothesis testing. Visual methods for displaying variability include histograms, boxplots, time series and scatterplots. Control charts are useful for real-time process monitoring to detect assignable causes of variation. Additional topics include linear regression, design of experiments and measurement systems analysis. CHE 350 makes use of both Minitab and Excel software. Assessment is based on homework, in-class group assignments, and on written reports for industrial case studies. This class also provides Six Sigma yellow belt training.

CHE 352 - Process Control

Semester: Fall and Summer

This course covers how to interpret and construct Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams using Visio software. We model systems of differential equations using Embed software. Control schemes such as feedback, feedforward, cascade, ratio and split range are studied. We learn how Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers function and how to perform common tuning methods. A series of laboratory experiments are conducted to build a control system for the liquid level in a gravity drained tank.

CHE 361- Chemical Engineering Lab I

Semester: Spring and Summer

This writing intensive lab has groups of 3-4 students rotating through projects on fluid flow in piping systems, process control of a heat exchanger, and concentration of sugar-water solutions in a thin film evaporator. Findings are presented in oral presentations to the class.

CHE 477 - Elements of Chemical Engineering

Semester: Fall

This course covers the economics of chemical engineering: how do we estimate the capital cost to build a plant, how do we estimate the annual operating costs to run it, and how do we compare between projects which have different time scales.

CHE 493 - Senior Seminar

Semester: Fall (0 credits) and Spring (1 credit)

In this class, a number of guest speakers from industry will cover topics relating to professional development. We also watch Chemical Safety Board incident case studies and discuss the root causes. Students will attend department research seminars to learn about current research in Chemical and Biomedical engineering from UMaine grad students and invited external faculty.

CHE 494 - Co-op

Semester: Fall, Spring and Summer (1 credit)

Junior CHE students often will work in industry for either the summer after sophomore year and spring of junior year OR the fall of junior year and following summer. The CHE 494 course reflects this work experience on your transcript.

Other things I do:

Faculty Advisor - Tau Beta Pi 

Tau Beta Pi is the Engineering Honor Society which the top 1/8 of juniors and top 1/5 of seniors are invited to join

Faculty Advisor - American Institute of Chemical Engineers Student Chapter

AIChE is the professional development student organization for Chemical Engineering majors. Students hold weekly meetings, participate in intramural sports, host social gatherings for the department, and travel to regional and national conferences to network with other CHE majors

Academic Advising 

CHE Class of 2026 / BEN Class of 2018

I provide advice about navigating the chemical engineering curriculum. This is intended to help keep students on track for a 4 year graduation, or to plan accordingly if more time is necessary. Some students enter with AP credit or other transfer credit and need help identifying classes they can take ahead of schedule. Sometimes a minimum grade prerequisite isn't met and advice is needed about how to fit in a repeated course. We can discuss potential career paths for a chemical engineer. Academic advisors can also be helpful in pointing you in the right direction if you need to figure out who to contact for other kinds of assistance. 

Students who are not assigned to me for academic advising should still feel free to ask me if you have questions!

Curriculum Committee and ABET Accreditation  

I serve on the curriculum committee for the Chemical and Biomedical Engineering programs. Requests for technical elective approvals come through our committee, as well as any other degree progress exception requests. We also provide preliminary recommendations on curriculum changes to the faculty for approval.

As the coordinator for the CHE ABET review, I prepare our self-study reports for submission to ABET every six years. At the end of every semester, I also summarize results from each of our courses student assessment reports as part of the continuous improvement process for our curriculum.