Richard Skeirik, PE

My Teaching in Continuing Education

Since 2017 I have been preparing and teaching continuing education workshops. I use an active learning approach which draws from teaching and learning techniques articulated by Richard Felder of NCSU (his AICHE webinar) and language learning techniques advocated by Paul Pimsleur. Workshop attendees listen to a presentation of concepts for a short while, then work in small teams to apply what they've heard. This pattern repeats through the workshop. In addition, topics shift away from the core content and then return, creating what is called interval repetition. Attendees absorb (input), then apply (output), then think about something else for a bit. Compared to passive listening, which has no requirement except silence, this creates much better understanding and retention of the workshop content. Applying the content demands both active listening and the forming of a sound understanding. This is more challenging than it might sound, and for this reason these workshops take longer than the usual passive 45 min CE lecture.

At this writing my schedule is quite flexible, so if you would like any of these workshops presented to your group, please contact me. For professional engineers in DE, these workshops qualify for professional development hours (PDH). The AIChE Delaware Valley section has certified my presentations for PDH hours for my presentations to that group. Other settings depend on the host group and the organization accepting the hours. Contact me if you have questions about this.

My workshops slides and content, including the active learning materials, involve a significant effort in study and preparation, and are protected by copyright. They may not be copied, posted, forwarded, presented etc. without permission. Contact me if you would like to discuss a license for such use.

1. Professional Ethics
   1. From the Great Philosophers to Prof Practice
   2. Professional Codes: Ethics or Law?
2. Kinetics and Reactor Design
   1. Part 1 - Kinetics
   2. Part 2 - Liquid Reactors
   3. Part 3 - Bioreactors and Fermenters
   4. Part 4 - Catalytic Reactors

Engineering Ethics - From the Great Philosophers to Professional Practice
1.5 hour workshop - 1.5 PDH equivalent
First offered: Sept 24, 2017, DVS AIChE

Most chemical engineers have never studied ethics (except those who attended Catholic or Jesuit universities; kudos to you). Nevertheless, our professional societies and state licensing authorities expect us to comply with codes, which are usually called "Codes of Ethics". We can't design a reactor without knowing kinetics, and it seems a stretch for us to comply with codes of ethics without knowing how ethics works.

This workshop presents the core tenets of philosophical systems and builds understanding as whether they are individual, societal, or universal in their dictates, and whether based on rules or outcome. We then decide which can be effective for ethical decision-making in engineering and apply the most workable ethical system - knows as pluralistic utilitarianism - to choose the "right" or best option for a small rural community that must decide whether and what size and location to build a proposed new chemical plant.

Professional Codes: Ethics or Law?
2 hour workshop - 2.0 PDH equivalent
First offering: May 15, 2018, DVS AICHE

Engineers are held to codes created by our professional organizations and regulators which seek to regulate conduct of members or maintain a high standard of integrity, skills, and practice in the profession of engineering. Mostly these exist under the title "Code of Ethics", with one exception called "Prohibited Acts".

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that focuses on right and wrong, while law is a system of rules motivated by punishment for non-compliance, whose goal is to maintain social order. In this workshop, we'll explore first philosophical ethics, then the philosophy of law, to understand what is involved in each. Then we explore the Code of Ethics of the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers. We'll break down its strictures into those that fit into a system of laws, and those that express ethical intent. Then we'll explore how we can best respond to these strictures, both to comply and to be the most ethical engineers we can.

Kinetics and Reactor Design 1: Kinetics
2 hour workshop - 2 PDH equivalent
First Offering: June 11, 2018, DVS AIChE Conshohocken
Second Offering: Sept 11, 2018 DVS AIChE Newark

In the first of a series on kinetics and reactor design, this workshop will lay the foundation of chemical kinetics on which the following reactor design workshops will focus. Chemists focus on the molecules involved in chemical reactions and how their substructures interact. Chemical engineers need to design and operate reactors in which these reactions take place. Kinetics is the link between the structure and the design, and gives us the computational handle on reactions.

Following workshops (below) are already on the drawing board for (2) homogeneous liquid reactions and (3) bioreactors and fermenters. If there is sufficient interest, possible other workshops can cover (4)reactors using supported metal catalysts; (5) polymer reactors; and even the (6) overlap between modeling polymer systems and modeling petroleum refining.

Kinetics and Reactor Design 2: Liquid Reactors
1.5 hour workshop - 1.5 PDH equivalent
First Offering: Oct 9, 2018 DVS AIChE Newark
Second Offering: Oct 16, 2018 DVS AIChE Conshohocken

The second of a series on kinetics and reactor design explores homogeneous liquid phase reactors. When we combine a kinetic rate expression with a material balance, we have the most simple chemical reactor design. In this workshop, we’ll develop the design equations for the three reactor types that are important in industry: batch, continuous mixed flow, and plug flow.

All ChemEs should be familiar with these basic design tasks. We'll look at them from two angles. First, as on the PE exam in chemE, we’ll look at the already-solved designs laid out in Perry’s and in Levenspiel's pre-computer-era reaction engineering text. Second, we’ll write material and energy balances and solve these. Impossible in Levenspiel's time, this is easy today on any computer and allows us to model any reactor system.

This future workshop will use active learning, listening for a bit and then applying what was heard.

Kinetics and Reactor Design 3: Bioreactors and Fermenters
1.5 hour workshop - 1.5 PDH equivalent
First Offering: April 22, 2019 DVS AIChE Conshohocken
First Offering: April 23, 2019 DVS AIChE Newark
DVS AIChE Cont Ed Schedule here

The third workshop in a series on kinetics and reactor design explores bioreactor and fermenter design. Bioreactors use an enzyme to catalyze the reaction, while fermenters grow a population of living cells that produce a product. Enzyme kinetics, while complex, can be used within a conventional reactor balance for design. Fermenters can be thought of reactors that grow their own reactors, and so the kinetics of cell growth must be combined with the kinetics of product production by cells.

In this active learning workshop, you’ll listen for a bit and then work with a partner to solve reactor balances by computer. We’ll focus on the simplest reactor systems, and only glance at more complex systems.

Kinetics and Reactor Design 4: Catalytic Reactors
1.5 hour workshop - 1.5 PDH equivalent
First Offering: Jun, 2019 DVS AIChE Newark
DVS AIChE Cont Ed Schedule here

In the fourth of a series on kinetics and reactor design, this workshop will cover the design of reactors using supported metal catalysts. These reactors are the most complex of any type. Chemical reactions take place on a metal surface dispersed inside the pores of quasi-crystaline particles. Products are formed through a long series of physical/chemical steps: bulk flow; interface mass transport in; diffusion in; adsorption; reaction; desorption; diffusion out; and interface transport out. Inhibitors and poisons may also compete with the desired reactants. Practical modeling demands an understanding of which of these steps are limiting and which can be simplified or ignored. Those remaining give a complex mathematical model that can be difficult to solve. Mass balances, mass transfer and kinetics are usually needed to effectively model these reactors.

This workshop will aim to use active learning. Likely, students will be running small programs or macros to handle some of the detailed calculations, while focusing on how to set up and understand those calculations.

Possible Future Workshops
(5) Polymer synthesis reactors;
(6) Modeling polymers and petroleum refining - strange bedfellows.

 

It's a long i like the sky - Sky´ rick