Course Descriptions for Required Courses

General Curriculum Core Courses for MS and PhD

155:501 Advanced Transport Phenomena
Momentum transport processes in laminar- and turbulent-flow systems. Development and application of steady and unsteady boundary-layer processes, including growth, similitude principles, and separation. Potential flow theory coupled with viscous dissipation at boundaries. Momentum transport in fixed- and fluid-bed exchangers and reactors. Prerequisite: Undergraduate transport phenomena.
Syllabus

155:502 Advanced Transport Phenomena II
Energy balances derived from first and second law approaches to open systems, with reaction. Conduction in fluids and solids, both steady and unsteady examples. Convection in laminar- and turbulent-flow systems. Diffusion and its treatment in stagnant and flowing media. Two-phase systems, coupled reaction, and mass transfer. Interphase transport. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

155:507 Analytical Methods in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Analytical solutions to deterministic mathematical models encountered in chemical and biochemical engineering, including environmental and safety systems. Emphasis is on purpose, philosophy, classification, development, and analytical solutions of models occurring in transport phenomena, thermochemical, and reactor systems. Prerequisites: Undergraduate differential and integral calculus and differential equations or permission of the graduate director.
Syllabus

155:511 Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
Basic principles of classical chemical thermodynamics. Chemical and physical equilibria and their relationships in simple and reactive systems. Estimation and correlation of thermodynamic functions, applications of thermodynamic principles to transport and rate processes. Irreversible and statistical thermodynamic topics also introduced. Prerequisite: Undergraduate or graduate degree in engineering or chemistry.
 
155:514 Kinetics, Catalysis & Reactor Design

Principles of chemical kinetics, reaction mechanisms and rate laws, and engineering design of reactor vessels. Applications to homogeneous and heterogeneous reaction systems with internal, transphase, and external mass and heat transfer. Stability of chemical reactions and reactors. Micromixing and macromixing in reactor systems. Catalytic reactions and reactors.
Prerequisites: 16:155:501 and 507, or equivalent.

Syllabus

 

ME Core Courses

155:541 Pharmaceutical Materials Engineering
Applications to designing and optimizing pharmaceutical processes and products. Production, characterization, and usage of pharmaceutical materials. The relationship between pharmaceutical materials and pharmaceutical products.

155:545 Synthesis, Separation and Sterile Processing in the Pharmaceutical Industry (Pharmaceutical Process Design I)
This course provides an overview of the pharmaceutical industry and then continues with an exploration of pharmaceutical manufacturing.  The course focuses on the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), a key step in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The course explores critical aspects of API manufacturing including synthesis, separation, and sterile processing and their application to designing and optimizing pharmaceutical processes. Processing methods and optimization will be discussed in the context of synthesis, separation, distillation, filtration, extraction, crystallization, lyophilization and drying. In this course, numerous examples, and projects taken from the pharmaceutical industry will be introduced.

155:546 Pharmaceutical Unit Operations (Pharmaceutical Process Design II)
An introduction to the essential operations used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. The pharmaceutical product life cycle, variability, testing, and specifications of pharmaceutical ingredients. Unit operations including blending, granulation, fluidized bed operations, milling, capsule filling, compaction, tablet coating, and other processes will be addressed. How the output of one process is the input to the next process, and how deviations can cascade along the production sequence until they cause process failures. Design, scale-up, troubleshooting, and optimization.

155:547 Statistical Analysis and Design of Pharmaceutical Operations
An introduction to statistical analysis and experimental design methods and their applications to designing and optimizing pharmaceutical processes. Classic statistical concepts and methods using pharmaceutical examples including product/process development scenarios, routine in-process and finished product testing, and failure investigations. Regulatory requirements for test of samples, sampling plans, tablet and capsule assay, content uniformity, hardness, friability, dissolution, and bioavailability tests.


16:155:549 Advanced Engineering Pharmaceutical Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Transport Processes (Pharmaceutical Development, Administration and Absorption)

 This stand-alone course discusses the application of engineering science principles to drug product development, drug administration to patients, and drug absorption and elimination in the body.  The  course discusses challenges in drug product development, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacologic activity, drug-target concepts and transport processes in the body. Concepts include 
 routes of administration; fundamentals of drug delivery; kinetics of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion; clearance concepts; and compartmental and physiological models. Students  learn how to apply engineering science principles to model pharmaceutical processes and interpret pharmaceutical experiments. Fundamental issues relevant to the design of drug products  having immediate release, delayed release, sustained release, and extended release profiles are reviewed. Generation and fate of metabolites is discussed.