We use a variety of computer programs in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Michigan Tech. Microsoft Word is widely used for report preparation. Dr. Morrison has a YouTube video showing some short-cuts for writing equations with Microsoft Word. In the junior laboratory, CM3215 Fundamentals of ChemE Lab, we use Microsoft Excel extensively and we also use Visio for creating Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID).
Microsoft Excel is introduced in the first-year engineering classes (ENG 1101 and and ENG 1102), and so it is assumed that Chemical Engineering juniors have some familiarity with Excel. In CM3215 there are several exercises meant to gauge and build Excel proficiency. We also ask students to learn how to use Excel’s LINEST program for determining least squares fits as well as uncertainty parameters related to least squares fits. Error analysis is a big part of CM 3215, and in that and subsequent classes we add error bars to graphs (using Excel) to show uncertainty. Excel also has a function called Solver that we use in several classes (CM 3215, CM 3450, CM4655 for example) to perform nonlinear curve fitting and optimization.
Here is a list of some of the software programs used in CM courses
- CM2110 Fundamentals of Chem E 1: Polymath, Excel, Visio
- CM2120 Fundamentals of Chem E 2: Excel, Word, and UniSim
- CM3215 Fundamentals of ChemE Lab: Excel, Word, Visio
- CM3110 Transport 1: Excel, Comsol, Word
- CM3120 Transport 2: Excel, Word
- CM3230 Thermodynamics: Excel, Word, Mathcad
- CM3310 Process Control: LabVIEW
- CM3410 Tech Communication for Che: Excel, Word, PowerPoint
- CM3510: Chemical Reaction Engineering: Polymath, Word, UniSim
- CM3450: Computer-Aided Problem Solving: UniSim, MatLab, MathCAD, Excel w/ VBA, and Minitab
- CM4110 Unit Operations Lab: Excel, Word, Visio, PowerPoint
- CM4120 Plant Operations Lab: Excel, Word, Visio, PowerPoint, PI DataLink, PI ProcessBook
- CM4310 Process Safety/Environment: Excel, Word, EPI Suite, SimaPro
- CM4855 Plant Design 1: Excel, Word, Visio, UniSim, SuperTarget
- CM4860 Plant Design 2: Excel, Word, Visio, UniSim, SuperTarget
- CM4861 Plant Design Lab 2: Excel, Word, Visio, UniSim, SuperTarget