110 Chemical Engineering Education Drawing the Connections Between ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PRACTICE

Change is a fact of life, and engineers make their ca-reers out of bringing about changes in their surround-ings. In today’s chemical engineering departments we hear of the need for changes in our institutions and meth-ods. Alumni, employers, and researchers in the field bring back news of the need for new priorities for the curriculum— the need for students to have more teamwork experience, to develop better communication skills and critical thinking skills,[1] and to acquire specialized knowledge in emerging areas such as bio- and nanotechnology. In addition, there is continuing pressure for better preparation of graduates in each of the established, and diverse, fields in which chemical en-gineers find employment. The passive approach to these demands would be to pack more and more into the chemical engineering curriculum, extending the undergraduate years and demanding more of the students. This runs counter to other institutional an