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.