Media Advisory: Carnegie Mellon Chemical Engineering Students Invent Products for Consumer and Industrial Users

April 28, 2008

Contact: Chriss Swaney
Carnegie Mellon University
412.268.5776

Event: Carnegie Mellon University chemical engineering students are creating a variety of products for home and office use in a required laboratory course. In a project based on a new concept of “invention-based learning” at Carnegie Mellon, Sarah Sukal created a portable Jacuzzi system. Sukal, a junior in chemical engineering, reports that the new $250 system is more economical than existing commercial systems costing more than $1,500 to install. Paul Sides, a professor in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon and class co-instructor with Matt Cline, said the class “is not your typical undergrad lab project.” Sukal’s team is one of 13 teams preparing to unveil new products in an experimental assignment designed to improve student learning of chemical engineering principles by promoting student creation and ownership of ideas. Other team projects include a way to dry hair at lower temperatures and converting parking lots into solar thermal collection centers. 

When: 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Thursday, May 1.

Where: Doherty Hall, Room 100, Carnegie Mellon University, off Frew Street.