Enriching the Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Curriculum through Tracks: A Case Study of the Biopharmaceutical Engineering Track at the University of Kentucky

The advantage to the chemical engineering degree is the wide diversity of potential career paths available to the graduating student. It is the solid education in the engineering fundamentals that provides this high flexibility. However, as the job market changes and competition for positions increase, it is important that students who are particularly interested in a specific field obtain skills and knowledge that would make them more competitive in the global market. One method to achieve this goal is to develop modular track programs within the chemical engineering curriculum that enriches the core curriculum.

As an example of this education philosophy, the College of Engineering and College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky collaborated to form a Biopharmaceutical Engineering Track, which offers students an exposure to both upstream (Drug Research and Development) and downstream processes (e.g., Good manufacturing Practices) The goal of this program is to provide students with an understanding of the multiple aspects of the industry that will better prepare them for either a job in manufacturing & processing or to enter graduate school. In addition to taking core courses in the College of Pharmacy (e.g., Basic Pharmaceutics and Good Manufacturing Practices), additional electives (e.g., Drug Delivery) are cross taught between the colleges. This provides a true multidisciplinary take on special topics integrating the pharmaceutical aspects with engineering fundamentals such as mass transfer and process control.

In this talk, we shall provide overview of the curriculum, examples of student experiences and future goals of the track program.