Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

" Evolution of an academic department to keep up with demands and changes in a society is a measure of its health."

You as an alumni of the department are possibly wondering if the department whose corridors you thronged with your friends is still in the same shape as it was when you left it. Heres some information on what are visible changes.

Departmental Computer Facility

This is housed in MSB 149. It has around 25 PC's all P IV machines on a local intranet connected to our own department server. All students have an id on the department machine and have 25MB of space allotted to them. They have their own email facility. Consequently communication between the faculty and the students is mainly electronic these days. Tutorial classes for courses which require computer assignments are conducted here. This facility has reduced the rush on the terminals in the computer center and gives students more computer time per time. The cost of setting up the facility was Rs. 30 lacs or 60,000 U.S $.

Seminar Room

MSB 241 one of the biggest class rooms of the department has been converted to a seminar room. Its walls are panelled, floor carpeted and it is centrally air conditioned. It has multi-media projection facility for seminars. With such comforts, the seminar speakers have a challenge on their hands to keep the audience awake. The room can accommodate an audience of 120 people. The cost for setting up the seminar room was around 20 lacs, approximately 40,000 $.

Multimedia Projection Facility

Multimedia projection facilities are available in three of the rooms of the department (MSB 129, 356, 241). Consequently all student presentations by students for courses are power point (PPT) presentations. This has helped the students develop good communication and presentation skills.

Curriculum

The undergraduate curriculum is being constantly upgraded to make the students aware of the state of the art facilities and enable them to be globally competitive. Towards these objectives, the following facilities have been created for the students.

Aspen Plus

A 10 user licence of the state of the art complete chemical plant process simulator (Aspen Plus) has been procured costing Rs 3.35 lacs( 6700 $). Students at the senior level are being trained in this software on issues pertaining to Design, Optimization and Simulation.
A proposal has been submitted to update this software, increase the number of users and include new features such as Advanced Process Control, Batch Operation etc.

Laboratory

The undergraduate laboratory has been modernised and has been significantly upgraded. Many new and compact experimental setups have been added to meet the increase in student intake. Rather than procuring the experiments off the shelf considerable attention was paid to details and modifications were made before purchase. Considerable expertise is also available in house for fabrication of pilot scale experimental setups.

New Experiments :

* Measurment of Vapor Diffusion Coefficient
* York Schiebel Extraction Column
* Natural COnvection Apparatus
* Cooling Tower
* Steam Distillation
* Batch Absorber
* Solid Dissolution Unit
* Gas Chromatograph
* Chemical Reactor

Students are given exposure to on line acquisition of data using the computer. Open ended projects are designed to arouse their curiosity and really experiment in the laboratory. The students enthusiasm has considerably increased over the years. They video capture the experiments conducted during projects and proudly show it in power point presentations. This upgradation has involved a financial outlay of Rs 17.5 lakhs ( 35,000 $)

CRE Lab

The undergraduate Chemical Reaction Engineering Lab has been completely computerised. All measurements of concentrations are made on line using pH meters, conductivity meters with data acquisition systems. This results in getting data continuously with time as opposed to getting data at discrete time instants. This enables the students to carry out experiments efficiently and understand concepts of data acquisition.

We are always happy when our Alumni come and visit us. If you are in the neighbourhood do stop by the department, it does not matter if the PROFs who taught you are not there. You are always welcome to come see how the department which has contributed significantly to your career has grown.

Plans are on the anvil for further development of infrastructure for teaching and research. Check back and see what other things we have added.