As I’m writing this sentence, it’s the start of Semester Two. I’m watching the birds outside my living room window, it’s 3 degrees Celsius, and my hands are FREEZING! Honestly, it’s so damn cold I don’t even know what else to say in this introduction.
Maybe I’ll start with this. I write to you, eager first years, on behalf of the best specialisation in the world: Chemical and Materials Engineering (which I’m gonna call CHEMMAT now, for the sake of my fingers). But I’m certain that a good chunk of you don’t know exactly what that is. I’ll be honest: I didn’t fully know what it meant either until I did a bit more research in my Part One. But you know what? After finding out, I was counting down the minutes until Part II! Hopefully, by the end of this semester, you’ll feel the same.
But before we get into the meat of CHEMMAT, I want to continue the time-honoured tradition started by Thomas Loho, a lecturer you should’ve met at least once in CHEMMAT 121: horrible dad jokes!
What is a material engineer’s favourite carnival ride?
The ferrous wheel!
Tough crowd…this won’t be the last you’ll hear of these jokes, though…
The Meat of CHEMMAT (CHEMMAT 201)
I want you to think back to ENGGEN 140. Do you remember some sort of energy balance equation?…something that looks like this?
If you don’t, or you’re saying “ugh, what the heck is that,” then no worries. You will have plenty of time to figure it out in Part II, because THIS is one of the core components of CHEMMAT: You’ll meet this dapper fellow in Semester One of Part II, in CHEMMAT 201 (Process Engineering 1: Intro). Its name is the Energy Balance Equation, and in this course, it’ll be one of your two best friends. Your other one is the Mass Balance Equation. This one is simpler, to the point where I don’t even need to screenshot an image. I can just say in – out + generated – consumed = accumulated. Don’t memorise this just yet, I’m not gonna test you…or will I…
Your two best friends, along with some explorations into enthalpy, gas properties, blah blah blah, will help you solve a wide range of problems. And this is just Semester One! If this semester were a Lego set, CHEMMAT 201 is Bag 1. This bag has all the fundamental structural pieces. The course will be quite assignment-heavy. No need to worry, though, as you and your cohort will likely become a great support system for each other. Maybe I’ll cover that in another blog.
The Reason Why It’s Called ChemMAT (CHEMMAT 204)
Remember when I talked about CHEMMAT 121? That’s because I didn’t, and THAT’s because I don’t consider it to be the core; more like a bunch of essential side-components. I’d say this content is built upon in 2 courses in Part II, Semester One: CHEMMAT 206 (Applied Chemistry) and CHEMMAT 204 (Materials). CHEMMAT 204 is your only materials course for this semester. Actually, a lot of mechanical engineering students may cover some of this content, too. Have you ever done stress and strain in high school physics? (I’m sure this was a thing…) You’ll be seeing a lot of that, and how it relates to the performance of given material components. You’ll also see a lot more steels stuff. By the end of CHEMMAT 121 and 204, you’ll be seeing steel in your dreams. Your average Chemical Engineering course won’t have anything like this, but CHEMMAT is far, far from average. In our CHEMMAT Lego set, 204 is Bag 2; a mix of structural bricks and essential filling pieces.
Honestly, if you don’t enjoy this course as much as the others (I didn’t, lol), don’t sweat it; CHEMMAT is very, very versatile. Actually, I could do another blog about that soon…
Jesse, We Need to Cook (CHEMMAT 206)
Last year, when I told my friends I was gonna choose CHEMMAT, they would eventually reference Breaking Bad (a must-watch, by the way). I’m sure if you’re considering CHEMMAT, then you’ve heard that there’s a lot less chemistry than one would think it has. That’s correct, but we still need some knowledge of chemistry. This is where CHEMMAT 206 (Applied Chemistry) comes in.
First thing you need to know: This course is coordinated by the absolute GOAT, Thomas Loho. You’ll see why he’s the GOAT in CHEMMAT 121. If you…”enjoyed”…my bad joke at the start of this blog, then brace yourself, because Thomas Loho will give you one every. single. lesson. In both CHEMMAT 121 and every other CHEMMAT course he teaches. Despite all that, he’s still the GOAT, trust me.
Onto what 206 is actually about. You’ll be going into some chemistry concepts you’ve probably learnt in high school. You won’t have to go TOO deep. As the GOAT Thomas Loho said in my year, and probably yours, “We are Chemical Engineers, not chemists.” Come to think of it, 206 had the easiest organic chemistry course I’ve done…ever. Then, near the end, Ashton Partridge will take your lectures and teach you how to apply some chemistry knowledge to actual engineering applications, mainly polymer-related. He will also heavily promote his roofing tile brand. Don’t worry, the exam questions won’t make you glaze his company over others. CHEMMAT 206 is Bag 3 of our Lego set: Essential filling and other decorative pieces.
Come to think of it, Walter White uses basic chemistry concepts to manufacture products at a large scale. He’s not a chemist, he’s a chemical engineer! Maybe my friends were right in referencing Breaking Bad all the time.
Recap: The CHEMMAT Lego Set
Let’s look inside our set now, shall we? We’ve first got CHEMMAT 201 (Process Engineering 1: Introduction). This introduces you to the concept of process engineering, using your two new best friends: the mass balance and the energy balance. Then, we have CHEMMAT 204 (Materials), a semi-fundamental course that introduces you to the world of materials science, steels and component failure prevention. Finally, there’s CHEMMAT 206 (Applied Chemistry). This course gives you some basic but very relevant chemistry content to help solve engineering problems.
What’s that I hear you say? “Where’s ENGSCI 211?” Well, it’s a continuation of ENGSCI 111. It’s more maths, what can I say? I guess, don’t burn all your notes just yet. You’ll need them. Let’s say 211 is the stickers; you’ll be sprinkling this stuff throughout your CHEMMAT courses.
Well, as I’m writing this sentence, I’m a week into Semester Two. I can’t hear any birds outside because it’s 6pm, and my hands feel quite warm. I hope you’re a bit less confused about what will happen next year should you choose CHEMMAT. I also hope that around 1 year from now, when you’ve finished Semester 1 of Part II of CHEMMAT, you look at your Lego set and are very proud of your progress!
But you’re not finished building, yet. There’s another semester I’ve yet to cover, and that’ll be in the next blog. I’ll catch you then!