Beginning in Fall 2010, a new undergraduate curriculum will be in place that will provide students with greater flexibility in their pursuit of areas of interest to chemical engineers. For students interested in maintaining breadth in their program, the curriculum has been revised to include 17 credit hours of electives.
Beginning in fall 2010, a new undergraduate curriculum will be in place that will provide students with greater flexibility in their pursuit of areas of interest to chemical engineers.
For students interested in maintaining breadth in their program, the curriculum has been revised to include 17 credit hours of electives. Of these, three must be from chemical and biomolecular engineering, six from technical areas, and eight hours are open. Most undergraduate students will pursue the chemical engineering track as it allows them great flexibility and personalization in their course selection to many areas outside of chemical engineering.
For students with specific interests in the molecular, solid-state, biochemical, or biological areas as they relate to chemical engineering, the department has constructed specific tracks to assist them in course selection. These tracks are designed to allow the integration of foundational subjects in these areas with chemical engineering principles by requiring specific interdisciplinary engineering courses in the senior year.
For example, for students interested in biotechnology, students have the opportunity to pursue greater depth in molecular biology and enroll in department courses that integrate chemical engineering principles with biochemical processes.
For students interested in materials, greater emphasis is placed on the physical sciences, and on the study, design, and tailored properties of solid-state systems. Students with a greater molecular interest may want to pursue a newly offered chemical engineering double major with chemistry. Here, students will find opportunities in their selection of elective courses that integrate molecular and engineering scale analysis.
As another addition, the department now offers a double major with biomedical engineering, where a parallel course sequence through both majors has been constructed that allows further specialization in the senior year through selection of electives to supplement the requirements for the two programs.
Complete details on the new undergraduate curriculum and its specific requirements can be found at http://www.che.vanderbilt.edu/index.php/undergraduate-program/new-curriculum where semester-by-semester listings of the recommended course sequences are provided through links on this web page for each of the tracks.
Students interested in pursuing a focus area in biotechnology or materials, or a double major with chemistry or biomedical engineering are recommended to discuss these options with their adviser.