Summary of Announcements

1. Teaching with AI Book Club
2. University of Connecticut – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Adjunct Faculty Search
3. NC State – Professional Track Faculty Search
4. University of Michigan – Chemical Engineering Chair Search
5. 2025 USNCO Coaching Program – Apply by October 30, 2024
6. Study participant solicitation – Indian engineering graduate students
7. Study Distribution – Student Responses for Important Lab Learning Outcomes

To submit announcements to future newsletters: Please send announcements to ched.ASEE.newsletter@gmail.com. We send newsletters mid-month, so try to submit announcements by the 10th of the month (November 10 for the next newsletter). Thank you!

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Detailed Announcements

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Teaching with AI Book Club

As a ChED community activity (and a way to help us all keep up with modern pedagogy), ChED Chair Janie Brennan and Chair-Elect Taryn Bayles are hosting a book club this fall on the first 6 chapters of Teaching with AI by Bowen and Watson (2024). The book club meets approximately every 2 weeks during the fall semester on Friday afternoons at 4:30 eastern (3:30 central, 2:30 mountain, 1:30 pacific):

• October 18 – Chapter 4: Reimagining Creativity
• November 15 – Chapter 5: AI-Assisted Faculty
• December 6 – Chapter 6: Cheating and Detection

Note that each chapter is only ~20 pages. Meetings are over Zoom. We will send out a link (and the week’s discussion questions) a few days in advance of the first meeting to those who indicate interest in joining. To participate (at any level): https://forms.gle/BzdQpfkTP12uK2o78 

We understand these times won’t work for everyone. Even if you can’t make every (or any) meeting, you are still welcome to join our mailing list to receive access to the Google Doc notes we’ll be taking. 

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University of Connecticut – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Adjunct Faculty Search

The UConn Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department (CBE, https://chemical-biomolecular.engr.uconn.edu/) seeks an academically and professionally qualified instructor to serve as an adjunct faculty. We are looking for an instructor to teach the undergraduate course CHEG 3124, Heat and Mass Transfer (3 credits). The course description can be found at: https://catalog.uconn.edu/undergraduate/courses/cheg/

This is a temporary position for a period of one semester, Spring 2025, with the possibility of extension dependent upon program needs and available funding. Courses are taught in person at the UConn Storrs campus. Compensation for these positions is subject to the AAUP contract, for current stipends see https://hr.uconn.edu/special-payroll-info/#collapsepanel-49005-0-0-11. Please note that preference will be given to qualified, local CT applicants.

To apply, please submit a letter of application, resume, and the names and contact information of three professional references to Ms. Kristen Wood (Kristen.Wood@uconn.edu). Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. More information is available here.

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NC State – Professional Track Faculty Search

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State University seeks highly qualified candidates to fill multiple professional track (non-tenure track) teaching faculty positions. Successful candidates are expected to teach undergraduate- and/or graduate-level chemical engineering courses, perform internal and external professional service at a level commensurate with rank, and establish a national or international reputation in engineering education, outreach, and/or extension. Review of application materials will begin on October 18, 2024. For more information or to apply, please visit https://jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/205817

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University of Michigan – Chemical Engineering Chair Search

Michigan Chemical Engineering is looking for a new, visionary leader, to be our next department chair. The successful candidate will have an exemplary record of research, teaching and service, a commitment to DEI and a strong interest in mentoring faculty.

The deadline for ensuring full consideration of an application is November 15, 2024, but the position will remain open, and applications will continue to be considered until the position is filled.  Learn more, or to apply.

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2025 USNCO Coaching Program-Apply by October 30, 2024 to become a coach!

The US Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) provides a coaching program to help prepare students for the USNCO local and national exams. Coaching sessions will be hosted on Zoom and coordinated by ACS on Fridays every other week in January and February 2025. The coaching sessions start with a 30 minute tutorial before a problem solving session and group work.  Students will submit an application to be considered for the coaching program. Coaches must be current or retired high school chemistry teachers, university professors or industry professionals with teaching experience in chemistry, and may have private tutoring engagements. Coaches will be awarded with an honorarium at the end of the program. If you are interested in becoming a coach, apply by October 30, 2024! https://fs10.formsite.com/ACS_Outreach/fesd3advuw/index

More information about the program is available on the USNCO website.

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Study participant solicitation – Indian engineering graduate students

Nivedita Kumar is currently looking for volunteers to assist in research to study the different perspectives of Indian graduate students on caste identity in their engineering/computing degrees within the U.S. This research is conducted through a 90-minute interview via Zoom and this survey is only meant to determine our screening criteria and will take 3-5 minutes of your time. It will ask for your demographic and background information, including your caste and religious identities and contact details. If you choose to participate in the interview, I will contact you through the provided details. The interview will be recorded to best capture your responses. The interview would help me to learn about your experiences and perspectives on pursuing your engineering/computing degree in the U.S.

Also, I want to note that I will respect any proprietary information. Any information collected will only be used to recruit participants for the interview. Please see the attached informational letter for more details about the interview study. Please follow the survey link to participate in the study: https://fiu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9G2rjaRKL7o67xs

If you choose to participate in the interview portion of the study, you will receive an email with a copy of the informed consent so that you can read about the interview and how your confidentiality will be protected.

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Study Distribution – Student Responses for Important Lab Learning Outcomes

We are working to understand the key learning outcomes that should be covered in a unit operations laboratory course. Our goal is to reach out to different stakeholders, including students, to understand their perceptions of the key learning outcomes for this course. We will use these data to better understand which learning outcomes are most important for coverage and how we need to better communicate the goals of this course across different stakeholders.

Our goal is to collect 500 responses from undergraduate chemical engineering students across multiple institutions and all years of study. We have attached a draft email that you can use to highlight the study. Please contact Chris Barr (cjbarr@umich.edu) if you are willing to distribute to your students. We also have an advertisement if you are interested.

Email to students:

Hi _____,

A group of ChemE faculty are working to understand the key learning outcomes that should be covered in ChemE laboratory courses. The goal is to reach out to different stakeholders, including students, to understand your perceptions of the key learning outcomes for these courses. These data will be used to understand which learning outcomes are most important for coverage.

The goal is to collect 500 responses from undergraduate chemical engineering students across all years of study. Please complete this short (5-10 min) survey to improve ChemE curricula: https://bit.ly/ChELabSurvey 

Happy August and a (hopefully) successful start of the semester for everyone.  I hope everyone who attended the 2024 ASEE Annual Meeting and Exposition in Portland, OR had a wonderful time.  I’d like to extend an extra thank you to Sarah Wilson for doing such an amazing job as Program Chair last year.  Hopefully, it’s an example that I hope I can live up to, and maybe surpass, as the 2025 ASEE Annual Meeting and Exposition in Montreal, QC, Canada. 

Speaking of ASEE 2025, Abstract submission will be opening September 1st and the call for papers is live on the ChED 2025 Annual Conference webpage and via ASEE’s website starting September 1st.  Abstract submissions close OCTOBER 1, 2024. This is earlier than previous years so please be aware and plan accordingly.  Note: the ASEE websites (including the ChED website) will be completely offline from August 23–26.

Please share this information with friends and colleagues who you think might also being doing interesting work in the ChE (or ChE related) education field. One thing I love about this community is its ability to make us feel welcomed and heard. 

~Chris Barr

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Summary of Announcements

• Mark your calendars – 2025 ASEE Annual Conference abstract submission opens September 1, 2024
• Renew your ChED membership!
• Teaching with AI book club – first meeting September 6 
• Fundraising for Chemical Engineering Summer School in tribute to Daniel Lepek
• Teaching faculty position opening at NC State
• Teaching faculty position opening at Iowa State
• Solicitation for study participants – Faculty motivations and barriers regarding teamwork

To submit announcements for next month’s newsletter, please email announcements to ched.ASEE.newsletter@gmail.com by the 10th of the month.

Detailed Announcements

Mark your calendars – 2025 ASEE Annual Conference abstract submission opens September 1, 2024

The ChED executive committee is inviting you to submit papers for the 2025 Annual Conference and Exposition in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (June 22 – 25, 2025). Call for abstract submissions opens September 1, 2024 and are due by October 1, 2024.  More details can be found on the ChED website ASEE 2025 conference page and will be available on the ASEE NEMO website starting September 1st.

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Renew your ChED membership!

When you renew your ASEE membership, remember to to check your ChED membership! Check your division memberships by clicking on your profile page and the membership link.  If you do not see Chemical Engineering Division Membership listed, you need to email membership@asee.org to be added. More detailed instructions can be found on the Renew your Membership page on the ChED website.

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Teaching with AI book club – first meeting September 6 

Book Club: Teaching with AI
As a ChED community activity (and a way to help us all keep up with modern pedagogy), ChED Chair Janie Brennan and Chair-Elect Taryn Bayles will be hosting a book club this fall on the first 6 chapters of Teaching with AI by Bowen and Watson (2024). The book club will meet approximately every 2 weeks during the fall semester on Friday afternoons at 4:30 eastern (3:30 central, 2:30 mountain, 1:30 pacific):

• September 6 – Chapter 1: AI Basics
• September 20 – Chapter 2: A New Era of Work
• October 4 – Chapter 3: AI Literacy
• October 18 – Chapter 4: Reimagining Creativity
• November 15 – Chapter 5: AI-Assisted Faculty
• December 6 – Chapter 6: Cheating and Detection

Note that each chapter is only ~20 pages. Meetings will be over Zoom. We will send out a link (and the week’s discussion questions) a few days in advance of the first meeting to those who indicate interest in joining. To participate (at any level):

Google Form: ASEE ChED Book Club Fall 2024: Teaching with AI (Part I)

We understand these times won’t work for everyone. Even if you can’t make every (or any) meetings, you are still welcome to join our mailing list to receive access to the Google Doc notes we’ll be taking. 

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Fundraising for Chemical Engineering Summer School in tribute to Daniel Lepek

As a community, we continue to work toward the goal of raising a $1,000,000 endowment for the Chemical Engineering Summer School before its centennial in 2031. One current initiative is to raise $25,000 for the endowment, which will name a poster session after Daniel Lepek at future Summer Schools. Daniel was a member of the 2022 Summer School organizing committee and Education Division Chair before his untimely death in 2023. We are already about 30% of the way to achieving this tribute to Daniel, and we have an anonymous donor who will dollar-for-dollar match all donations in Daniel’s memory. Please help us complete this fundraising goal in 2024.

Steps to donate to the Summer School Endowment at AIChE in memory of Daniel Lepek:

1. Go to: AICHE Giving – Summer School for Chemical Engineering Faculty Fund
2. Click “Give Now” and fill out the information.
3. Insert “Tribute: In Memory of: Daniel Lepek”
4. Complete Donation. THANK YOU!

Taryn Bayles (tbayles@pitt.edu) and Matthew Liberatore (liberatorem@trine.edu) co-chair the steering committee for this endowment at the AIChE Foundation. Please reach out to either of us if you have questions.

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Teaching faculty position opening at NC State

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State University seeks highly qualified candidates to fill multiple professional track (non-tenure track) teaching faculty positions. Successful candidates are expected to teach undergraduate- and/or graduate-level chemical engineering courses, perform internal and external professional service at a level commensurate with rank, and establish a national or international reputation in engineering education, outreach, and/or extension. Review of application materials will begin on October 18, 2024. For more information or to apply, please see:

NC State – Open Rank Professional Teaching Faculty – Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

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Teaching faculty position opening at Iowa State

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) at Iowa State University is searching for a faculty colleague with a dedication and passion for teaching core chemical engineering concepts to join our department. The position is a full-time (nine-month) renewable term teaching faculty position at open rank (assistant professor, associate professor or professor) with an anticipated start date of either the spring or fall semester of 2025. Andrew Hillier (hillier@iastate.edu) is chairing the search committee and is available via phone or e-mail for any inquiries or questions.

A detailed job posting and instructions for applications can be found at:

Chemical and Biological Engineering – Assistant/Associate/Full Teaching Professor

The guaranteed consideration date for applications is Friday, September 13, 2024.

Iowa State University is located in Ames, Iowa, a progressive community of 66,000 located approximately 30 minutes north of Des Moines. The CBE department consists of 28 faculty, 12 administrative staff and 20 scientific staff. Our current program enrollment is approximately 400 undergraduate students and 90 graduate students. The department offers BS, M.Eng., MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering and has a diverse portfolio of research, teaching and service activities.

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Solicitation for study participants – Faculty motivations and barriers regarding teamwork

Campbell McColley, a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University working with Dr. Alexandra Werth conducting Engineering Education Research, invites you to participate in a research study to better understand the current landscape of faculty motivations and barriers regarding teamwork in engineering classrooms

They are recruiting individuals who hold a current faculty or teaching position at a college or university including professors, lecturers, and staff who have taught an engineering course that has incorporated teamwork in an engineering department in the past 3 years. 

If you decide to participate in this study, you will be asked to complete a 15-minute survey reflecting on your experiences, motivations, and learning beliefs related to teamwork. If you are interested in participating in this study, please click this link:

Survey: Identifying Faculty Teaming Beliefs and Motivations in Engineering Classrooms

Additionally, for every completed survey, we will be donating to the Family Reading Partnership in Ithaca, NY. Please feel free to share this survey with anyone who would be interested in participating. If you have questions, please contact us at alexandra.werth@cornell.edu.

 A Message from the Outgoing Chair

In addition to the aforementioned conference information, we have more news of importance. Our elections were recently concluded resulting in some terrific additions to your Division leadership (see page 2). As a bonus for those attending, you’ll have the opportunity to meet those officers (and other members) that you don’t already know. While the scholarly aspect of our meeting is important, I have always believed that the opportunity to engage with our colleagues was the real value-add of attendance. So do not hesitate to reach out and meet a few new people while at the conference.

And if you are excited to get involved with Division activities, we have a range of chances for you to do so. Some are elected positions, and some are appointed. Plus, we’re always interested in supporting our colleagues with ideas we can help make a reality. Just come to our business meeting on Monday of the Conference or reach out to any of our officers.

This conference also marks the beginning of the end of my service to the Division as your Chair. I am grateful for the chance to serve in this role as our Institutional Leadership continues to address the fiscal challenges faced by ASEE. Despite the constraints of deferred financial resources, we’ve still been able to plan our banquet (thanks again Sarah!), award our recognitions (thanks committee co-chairs Margot Vigeant and Ashlee Ford Versypt and our many reviewers), and execute our conference plan. 

In the midst of continued challenges, I have been highly impressed at how our community continues to respond to those adversities. Our commitment to growing the ChED community continues to be, and always will be, a hallmark of why I enjoy being a part of ASEE.  Because of our shared commitment to our students and each other (and the leadership resulting from that commitment), ASEE and the ChED will continue to grow stronger in the years to come.

I am honored to be able to turn leadership of this Division over to the very capable Janie Brennan as incoming Chair and Taryn Bayles as incoming Chair-Elect at the end of the month.  I know Janie and Taryn will leave their mark in service through their leadership. 

I look forward to seeing many of you in Portland!

Reg Rogers
2023-2024 ASEE ChED Chair

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Conference Newsletter