Semester 2 Summary

Hey everyone! Sorry it’s been a while, but exams are finally finished woohoo! I’ve got a few days break before I start my internship so thought I’d make the most of the free time to give you guys a summary of all the courses I took this semester just like I did for semester 1.

CHEMMAT 202: Energy and Processing

This course is just an extension of CHEMMAT 201. It’s structured almost the exact same and you have the same three lecturers as well. Because it’s thermodynamics, it does involve a lot of mathematical derivations and equation rearranging and manipulation which some people just breeze through, but others can really struggle with. There are 3 tests, 3 assignments and a lab report for this course which can seem like quite a bit of work at the time however I found that it forced you to study throughout the semester so when it came to exam time I was already pretty sorted with the material.

CHEMMAT 203: Transfer Processes

In a nutshell this course covers the basics of fluid dynamics and statics, hydrostatic forces and types of heat exchange. Just when you thought your coding career was over, MATLAB does make a comeback. Although I was never a massive fan of coding, the projects for this course weren’t actually too bad. They were more about applying the basics of coding you learnt last year to solve problems relating to transfer processes. The MATLAB workshops once a week were also very useful to help you understand the projects so would recommend paying attention in these. Something I did find great about this course is that you can actually see what the practical applications are of the material you’re learning and where you will use it in industry.

CHEMMAT 205: Process Design

As you guessed from the name, this is the design course for the semester. The content is essentially broken down into three main sections.  The first section is all about engineering drawings and health and safety, then the second and biggest section is mechanics. This is pretty much a carry on from ENGGEN 121 which is not usually the most enjoyable for chemical engineers (speaking from experience), but it’s got to be done. And finally, Josh from CHEMMAT 121 in first year is back to teach materials selection. In this section you learn how to use this new software which I found super interesting. As I mentioned in the last post, the other main component of this course is the semester long industry project. I got very lucky and scored beer brewing as my industry and had such an awesome group. Would definitely recommend submitting the form you get sent to rank the industries as fast as possible so you can get one of your top options.

ENGGEN 204: Professional Skills and Communication

Now this is the one course that all Part II’s do in semester 2. It essentially teaches you basic skills for the workplace like how to work in teams and communicate effectively. A lot of it does seem like common sense but it’s not a bad thing to be refreshed on basic skills. Most of your grades in this course come from group projects including a video, a report and a presentation so do make an effort with your group and pull your weight.

Anyway thanks for tuning in and best of luck with choosing your specialisations! Just leave a comment below if you’ve got any questions regarding CHEMMAT and I’ll do my best to get back to you ASAP x

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