Students who designed shower thrive in real-world approach

Budding chemical engineers are often surprised and initially a little apprehensive at what they find in James Seferis’ chemical engineering senior design class.

They’re not cloistered away in a laboratory. They struggle with real-world projects, attempting to solve problems the private sector is addressing. And they’re surrounded by students from other disciplines - business, marketing, liberal arts - who think differently than they do.

Most say it’s the best educational experience they’ve had.

“Working with people outside my field, who view things very differently than I do, was both challenging and refreshing,” said Roberta Armstrong, who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and pulp and paper science.

While in the class, her team worked on an in-flight recirculating shower being marketed by Aquajet Appliance Co., a Boeing-backed firm based in Texas. Other viewpoints helped fill in gaps created by looking at the world through an engineer’s eyes, she said.

The idea behind the multi-disciplinary mix, says Seferis, is to provide a catalyst for innovation. “We’re creating new things through integration,” he said. “We’re finding good ways to put things together. Chemical engineering is a process-oriented discipline, but without people outside our discipline in the equation, our process is quite limited.”

Non-engineer participants say they also picked up valuable lessons.

“When we got involved in building relationships, we got a broader view of what value is. These are the things we’re supposed to learn - in my opinion, what everyone at the entire University is supposed to learn,” said Jessica Prince, who recently earned her bachelor’s degree in the comparative history of ideas.

Joy Wu, who as teaching assistant for several classes working on the shower provided the continuity to help move the project forward, admits that she was nervous about her role at the start.

“I’m a chemical engineer, and I wanted to be in the laboratory doing research,” said Wu, a doctoral student. “I was actually very upset.”

But looking back, Wu says that managing teams of diverse students and professionals will give her a leg up on the competition when she graduates. Several of the department’s recent graduates have been able to parlay similar experience into prestigious posts as management consultants and lab and plant managers, which requires more than solid engineering skills, she said.

“It’s one thing to be a good engineer. It’s quite another to be that and be able to lead a team.”