Development of capstone integrative projects as a tool for learning design and process control in chemical engineering

In 2016, the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana implemented a curricular transformation that includes integration between the Process Design, Process Control, and Process Engineering Laboratory courses through an active learning experience based on projects. It is important that the training of chemical engineers is consistent with this integration, bringing them closer to the reality of professional practice in process development. While creating learning experiences, in which students are confronted with challenging questions, construct their arguments, exchange opinions, accept ideas and conclude based on evidence and reasoning. The capstone projects were developed in randomly selected groups to develop a basic engineering proposal for an industrial process of local or national interest. With the development of these projects, the aim is to develop competencies in the design of the chemical engineer, while fostering an environment for autonomous work and critical thinking, so that these three courses converge harmoniously, and promoting learning supported by computational tools. It was conducted an opinion query and a focus group with professors, students, graduates, employers, and administrators of chemical engineering to analyze the relevance of the capstone project. Between 2016 and 2020, more than 43 processes related to sectors comprising: petrochemicals, bioprocesses, environmental, energy generation, among others, were evaluated with students, evidencing a significant improvement in the skills defined by the Faculty in the graduation profile. 94% of the graduates of the program in that period recognize that the capstone project as an integrator of design and process control contributes positively to the professional development of the chemical engineer. In this work, we present the lessons learned in the development of capstone integrative projects as a tool for learning design and process control in chemical engineering faculty and improve the student outcomes to produce solutions applying engineering in context.