Course Descriptions
Graduate Courses
Principles of statistical thermodynamics. The stable states of macromolecules. Molecular interactions. Diffusion, reaction kinetics and electrostatic properties related to biomolecular and polymeric systems. Cooperativity and binding. Applications of principles of statistical thermodynamics to biological systems and polymers using simple models.
Categories of polymeric materials. Morphology and structuring of polymers; surface properties. Analysis of polymer processing operations such as injection moulding, extrusion, calendaring, coating, fiber spinning, tubular film blowing and mixing. Computer modeling and design of polymer processing machinery.
Prerequisite:
Consent of the instructor.
Atomistic and nano-scale modeling of complex polymer systems. Techniques for bridging the gap between atomistic and coarse-grained simulations. Applications of these techniques to multicomponent, polymeric and biological systems.
Modeling and simulations of biomolecular systems. Sequence-structure-dynamics and function paradigm in proteins. Bioinformatic approaches in sequence analysis and structure prediction. Computer modeling and engineering of protein-protein, protein-DNA and protein- drug binding interactions. Molecular aspects of biochemical and biophysical networks. The relationship between microscopic and macroscopic properties of biological systems.
Structural and configurational properties of polymer chains. Random walk approach, freely jointed chain models. Rotational Isomeric State formalism. Stochastics of rotational motions, Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations of real polymeric systems in solution and in the bulk state.
Separation and purification of biochemicals. Removal of insolubles by filtration, centrifugation and sedimentation. Isolation of products by adsorption and solvent extraction. Purification by nonlinear multicomponent chromatography, electrophoresis, dialysis and membrane processes. Polishing by drying and crystallization. Mathematical modeling and scale-up of selected operations.
Aims of metabolic engineering and examples of applications.Cellular metabolism and construction of metabolic networks. Transcriptional regulation and signal transduction. Properties of stoichiometric matrix and the solution space. Flux balance analysis. Metabolic control analysis.
Fundamental principles associated with different types of catalytic microreactors. Modeling, simulation and operation of microreactors. Microreactor design and construction techniques. Selected applications of microreactors in industrial processes.
Analysis of natural sustainable energy resources: agricultural, biomass, solar, wind, geothermal and other resources. Existing and near-future sustainable energy technologies. Economical analysis of sustainable technologies. Legal, social and environmental aspects. Basic design of sustainable energy conversion processes.
Environmentally benign catalytic production technologies for energy and materials. Catalysis for mobile and stationary power generation. Adsorbents for hydrogen storage. Catalysts and adsorbents for reduction and prevention of greenhouse gas emissions: methane conversion, carbon dioxide utilization and sequestration.
Review of statistical principles as applied to chemical engineering problems. Linear and non-linear regression analysis. Factorial and optimal designs of experiments. Multivariate statistical process analysis. Time series analysis and forecasting methods.
Credits: 3
Modeling and mathematical formulation of lumped-parameter and distributed-parameter systems encountered in chemical engineering. Review of analytical and numerical methods used in the solution of ordinary and partial differential equations.
Modeling of stagewise processes and the solutions of resulting difference and difference differential equations by operator and Z-transform methods. Applications of the theory of matrices to chemical engineering processes. Operator theoretic methods and their use in solving problems of transport phenomena and chemically reacting systems.
Introduction to process analysis and conceptual process design via a study of the creation and assessment of processing alternatives, optimization of recycle systems and engineering in the presence of uncertainty.
Review of probability, statistics, and optimization. Feasibility, flexibility, and operability. Flexibility targeting and flexibility indexing. Design and operation under uncertainty and risk. Flexible design and feasible operation. Flexibility maximization and risk minimization for static and dynamic systems via optimization models. Monte Carlo simulation for design under uncertainty. Flexibility and risk assessment and targeting in design and operation.
Optimization of chemical processes under unsteady-state operation. Application of the optimal control theory and numerical algorithms to lumped-parameter and distributed-parameter chemical engineering systems. Iterative and simultaneous solution of differential/algebraic optimization problems. Nonlinear-model-based predictive control of chemical engineering systems.
Prerequisite:
Consent of the instructor.
Credits: 0
The widening of students' perspectives and awareness of topics of interest to chemical engineers through seminars offered by faculty, guest speakers and graduate students.
Introduction to Process Monitoring and Soft-Sensors; Process Industry as a "Data Source". Introduction to Statistical Learning Theory; A review of Maximum Likelihood and Linear Regression. Basics of Machine Learning, Shallow Feedforward (FF) Networks. Applications of FF Networks in Chemistry-related fields. Deep Feedforward (FF) Networks. Applications of Deep FF Networks in Soft-Sensor Design. CNN and Recurrent Nets. Applications of CNN and LSTM nets in Soft-Sensor Design and battery life/capacity prediction. Autoencoder (AE) nets. Applications of AEs in Process Monitoring. Application of Large Language Models, i.e. seq2seq, attention mechanism in chemical processes.
Biophysical principles of biomolecular machines. Conformation energy landscape. Protein structure, dynamics and function. Binding, allostery and evolution; concepts and models. Computational methods to protein dynamics and mechanism of action; molecular simulations, elastic network models, and hybrid computational model and simulations with enhanced sampling techniques.
Recent advances in theoretical and experimental approaches for the investigation of polymeric systems. Statistical mechanics of homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. Advanced methods for the characterization of molecular structure and properties. Segmental orientation in polymer networks and liquid crystalline materials. Techniques and approaches for high technology materials design.
Literature survey on selected topic(s) in biological systems engineering. Rational design approaches in biotechnological processes. Developments in biotechnology in post-genomic era. Recent computational methods in systems biology and their applications. Discussion of future research directions.
An advanced study of fundamental concepts in classical and molecular thermodynamics. Solution thermodynamics, vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibria, and chemical reaction equilibria in multicomponent systems; estimation of related thermodynamic properties.
Credits: 3
Review of classical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Ensembles and partition functions. Estimation of thermodynamic properties. Fluctuations. Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics. Ideal gases. Crystals. Imperfect gases. Introduction to lattice statistics and to liquids.
An advanced computational study of multicomponent vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibrium systems. Computer calculations of nonidealities in gas and liquid phases using theories of molecular thermodynamics.
Credits: 3
Tensor algebra; continuum hypothesis; continuity and momentum equations; Lagrangian and Eulerian approach; ideal and potential flows; Navier - Stokes equation; exact and approximate solutions; creeping flow; laminar and turbulent boundary layer theory; lubrication theory.
Modeling linear and nonlinear liquids with a deflecting interface. Jump conditions; physical properties at the interface. Formulation of interfacial conditions. Solution to mass, momentum, and constitutive equations. Perturbation methods and linear stability analysis; applications to various problems including Rayleigh jet, Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and other problems.
Mechanisms of mass transfer. Equations of change for multicomponent systems. Mass transfer in laminar and turbulent regimes. Concentration distributions with more than one independent variable. Mass transfer with chemical reactions. Interfacial mass transfer. Interphase transport in nonisothermal systems.
Credits: 3
Fundamentals of heterogeneous catalytic reaction systems with emphasis on the interaction of chemical and physical rate processes. Microkinetic analysis of solid-catalyzed reactions with and without external and/or internal heat and mass transfer resistances at the particle level. Macrokinetic analysis of two-phase catalytic reactors including design and simulation of fixed-bed reactors by pseudohomogeneous and heterogeneous models; scale up strategies. Introduction to two-phase catalytic micro-structured reactors and design by numbering up.
Review of time series analyses; applied stochastic control theory including minimum variance control, LQG control, self-tuning control and adaptive control. Generalized predictive control. Current topics in chemical process control.
Review of conventional control. State space basics observability, controlability, state variable feedback, Luenberger observer, Lyapunov stability. Multivariable process control. Interaction concept, multivariable controller design, decoupling control. Digital process control. z-transform, difference equations, discrete control algorithms.
Credits: 0
