Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering
  • ChE 100L/180 - Chemical Engineering Concepts Lab 1/Chemical Engineering Design Studio 1 Introduction to Professional Engineering and design, with an emphasis on hands-on learning and the joy of engineering. See some of the results from our first two offering of ChE180
  • ChE 360/361 - Bioprocess Engineering. Review of elementary aspects of microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetic engineering. Introduction of biological systems for the production of commercial goods and services, e.g., foods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, fuels, diagnostics, waste treatment, and biomaterials. Introduction to design of bioprocess systems, including biosafety and sustainability. Development of reaction kinetics associated with biological systems. Quantification of metabolism. Development of material balances for key constituents in bioreactors operated in different modes, e.g., batch, fed-batch, continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR), perfusion, recycle. Introduction to mass and heat transfer considerations for bioreactors. Dynamic simulation of cultures defined by ordinary differential equations. Introduction of downstream processes associated with biological systems and recovery of biological products.
  • ChE 482 - Chemical Engineering Design Workshop. In this course, students study the design process including: problem definition and needs analysis; process synthesis, process debottlenecking and troubleshooting; safety and environmental protection in design; written and oral communication for design reports. A significant portion of the term work will be devoted to a group design project, culminating in a design proposal that will be presented to the department.
  • ChE 562 - Advanced Bioprocess Engineering. Application of process engineering principles to the design and operation of fermentation reactors which are widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, brewing and waste treatment industries. Aspects of mass transfer, heat transfer, mixing and rheology with biochemical and biological constraints.
  • ChE 610 - Theory and Application of Transport Phenomena. Mathematical analysis of momentum, heat and mass transport in systems of chemical engineering interest: development of the differential equations of change (continuity, motion and energy) for forced convection in isothermal, non-isothermal and multi-component systems; description of velocity, temperature and concentration profiles and computation of momentum, energy and mass fluxes at surfaces under conditions of laminar flow; description of transport in turbulent flow by time-smoothing of the equations of change; turbulent velocity, temperature and concentration profiles.
  • ChE 660 - Principles of Biochemical Engineering. Aspects of mass-transfer, heat-transfer, fluid flow, cell growth, metabolic engineering and enzyme kinetics related to the design of biological processes and process equipment. Sterilization techniques, fermentation, bioreactor design and operation, including immobilized cell or enzyme systems and aspects of bioseparations engineering.

Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical Engineering
  • BME184/BME285 - Engineering Biology. Introduction to basic concepts of biochemistry and cell biology. Overview of the chemistry of amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acid. Structure and properties of proteins and enzymes. Elements of cell structure and diversity, and relationship of biochemistry with cell metabolism. A focus on biomedical engineering with relevant examples such as biomimetic engineering design, system biology and tissue engineering.

Biology

Biology
  • Biol349: Synthetic Biology Project Design.Synthetic biology involves developing new approaches, based on engineering principles, for genetic engineering of biological systems. Students will prepare a comprehensive research proposal for a synthetic biology project of their own design, under the supervision of a faculty member. Attendance at a weekly journal club focused on synthetic biology will be mandatory.

Public Lectures

Teaching Resources

iGEM

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a yearly competition in synthetic biology geared towards students (mostly but not exclusively undergraduates) working in this area. I have been one of the main faculty advisors (together with Trevor Charles and Brian Ingalls). Together we help the teams navigate through the difficulties of research and design as well as team building and team work. As faculty advisors we have created a condusive environment for the growth of synthetic biology on campus. Our efforts, which have included the creation of an undergraduate course, Biol 349, have resulted in increased recognition at the annual Jamboree (as seen in our successes below).

  • 2020 - Remine: Closing the loop for heavy metal waste Click here for more! Gold Standing. Finalists for Best Manufacturing Project; Finalist for the Inclusivity Category; Finalist for Best Wiki.
  • 2019 - Rooting for Symbiosis: Engineering herbicide tolerance in rhizobia. Click here for more! Silver standing.
  • 2018 - Eco-light: Dynamic optogenetic control of co-cultures. Click here for more! Silver standing.
  • 2017 - Prions be lit: Functional Amyloid as a Biological Tool. Click here for more!
  • 2016 - OFF to priON:Using stop codon read-through and CRISPR to explore S. cerevisiae prion mechanisms Click here for more! Gold standing. Best Poster, Overgrad. Faculty of Engineering News!
  • 2015 - CRISPieR: Re-engineering CRISPR with functional applications in eukaryotic systems. Click here for more! Gold standing. Nominated for Best Foundational Advance Project, Best Poster - Overgrad, Best Software Tool, Overgrad
  • 2014 - STAPHYLOCIDE: Delivering Antibiotic Resistance Gene Silencing Mechanism to a MRSA Population using Bacterial Conjugation. Click here for more! Gold standing. Best Model - Undergrad. Faculty of Engineering News!
  • 2013 - Controlled Modification and Intracellular Transmission of a DNA Message. Click here for more! Gold Standing. Best Poster, North America, Overgrad, Advance to World Championship.
  • 2012 - In Vivo Protein Fusion Assembly Using Self Excising Ribozyme (Part II). Click here for more! Entrepreneurship entry was one of 16 teams to advance to the World Championship.
  • 2011 - In Vivo Protein Fusion Assembly Using Self Excising Ribozyme. Click here for more! Bronze standing. Advance to World Championship
  • 2010 - Staphiscope: a detection system for Staphylococcus aureus. Click here for more! Bronze standing.
  • 2009 - Chromobricks: A Platform for Chromosome Engineering with BioBricks. Click here for more! Bronze standing.
  • 2008 - Genome-free Bacterial Bioproduct Factory: A plasmid-safe, inducible genome-degradation strain for post-kill gene expression. Click here for more! Bronze standing.

Meeting Organization