Presenter: Richard Turton, West Virginia University

Transcription

1 Experience in Augmenting the Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Curriculum with OTS and ITS Technology Presenter: Richard Turton, West Virginia University

2 Background West Virginia University is a land grant university that has approximately 32,000 students and a full complement of academic programs (Arts and Science, Engineering, Humanities, Law, Medicine, creative arts, etc) Situated in Morgantown WV (with satellite campuses in Keyser, WV and Montgomery WV) Chemical Engineering program has approximately 200 students in sophomore-senior years Curriculum is traditional ChE material and energy balances, heat transfer, Thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, reaction engineering, separations, unit operation labs, control, and capstone design. 2

3 Current Challenges in Education Education paradigm is changing students learn differently from 20 or even 10 years ago The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Kenneth John Freeman, Cambridge dissertation in 1907 (often misquoted as Socrates) Despite the age-old complaint about the young made by the old, learning methods are changing 3

4 Current Challenges in Education Research conducted over the past few decades shows it s impossible for students to take in and process all the information presented during a typical lecture, and yet this is one of the primary ways college students are taught, particularly in introductory courses Don t Lecture Me: Rethinking How College Students Learn, Students (high school) today Things that separate us from the students: They have never used a card catalog and most don't know what the Dewey Decimal system is. They have never lived in a world with out a search engine ( ) and most of them before Google.(1998) They have never lived in a world without DVD's. (1995) Most of them were toddlers when the first imac (1998) and ipod (2001) were introduced. They have never lived in a world without SMS (Text Messaging) (1993) Nicholas Negroponte's book, "Being Digital," which laid out the future of digital communication was published 20 years ago. (1995) Most have never lived in a world where individuals could not publish their own work on the Internet. (Blogger ) (Yahoo Photos ) (YouTube ) 4

5 Current Challenges in Education November 1, 2012 New York Times article, Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say. Although individual responses are subjective, the results of the surveys are considered significant because of the vantage points of teachers who spend hours a day observing students. One survey, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, examined responses from 2,462 teachers. The other, conducted by Common Sense Media, surveyed 685 educators. It all comes down to attention span. In both surveys teachers expressed concern that students, used to fastpaced, always changing activities, are less able to focus on an academic task for a prolonged period. Many teachers feel that they must change the way they teach to ensure that their students concentrate enough to learn. Most teachers seem to feel that children learn differently, however there are differing opinions about how much technology can be used to address the problem. 5

6 Solutions for teaching students Flipping the classroom has become something of a buzzword in the last several years, driven in part by high profile publications in The New York Times (Fitzpatrick, 2012); The Chronicle of Higher Education (Berrett, 2012); and Science (Mazur, 2009); In essence, flipping the classroom means that students gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then use class time to do the harder work of assimilating that knowledge, perhaps through problem-solving, discussion, or debates. Flipping the Classroom, Cynthia J. Brame, 6

7 Solutions for teaching students Senior Design Class (traditional) Process Diagrams Structure of PFD/Process conditions Batch Processing Review of design and performance of equipment Engineering Economics Optimization Heat Exchanger Networks/Integration Ethics Safety Project develop a new process Lecture series Problem assignments In-class exercises Discussions Project outside class 7

8 Possible Solutions What we have been doing Talk about processes and PFD, P&ID, control loops, etc., but do students understand or really get it! What we are starting to do Experiencing a process through an OTS and ITS gives a completely different and deeper experience. One that will stay with them much longer than some lecture notes and worked examples 8

9 Possible Solutions - OTS Facilities at West Virginia University 9

10 Possible Solutions - OTS P&ID and HMI Displays for Process Information and Control Static P&ID Dynamic HMI change a valve and see the effect 10

11 Possible Solutions - OTS See how changes in operating conditions propagate through process Response of process variables to changes in inputs Conventional Process Control Problem 11

12 Possible Solutions - ITS 3D Virtual Plant Model 3D computer-aided design (CAD) Plant photos for photorealism 3D Immersive Interaction/Content Avatar represents field operator Navigation using game pad Remote field functions Collision geometry and sound Variable trends and web pages Transparent equipment objects Virtual malfunctions and animations Applications Plant familiarization and walkthrough OTS/ITS integration for control room and plant field personnel, promoting teamwork on operations and safety Avatar Valve Pump Trend Column Gasifier Gas Leak Training 12

13 Possible Solutions - ITS 13

14 Possible Solutions - ITS Internal Operation and Size of Equipment 14

15 Possible Solutions - ITS Safety Training 15

16 Lessons Learned At WVU we have successfully implemented learning with an OTS/ITS in the following courses: Freshman introduction (1 st year) Fluids and Heat transfer (3 rd year) Design Course (4 th year) Control (4 th year) Currently have a student designing modules for self-guided instruction using the ITS/OTS system: Self guided walk through of a process Instrument and control (i/o lists) check against P&ID Tutorial for plant layout and equipment arrangement (pumps, control valves, overhead condensers/reflux drums, heat exchangers, etc.) Open loop/closed loop response to process change 16

17 Acknowledgements Profs. Bhattacharyya and Lima (WVU) Dr. Steve Zitney (DOE/NETL) Department of Energy for funding the original development work for the ITS and OTS 17