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ChE’s Teaching Introductory Computing to ChE Students -- A Modern Computing Course with Emphasis on Problem Solving and Programming

David E. Clough

Department of Chemical Engineering University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0424

Abstract

An easy recipe for fomenting heated debate among ChE faculty is to inject the topic of introductory computing for ChE students into a discussion. Most faculty will have strong opinions that are only muted by the threat of a teaching assignment to such a course. There are many questions: Who should teach introductory computing to our students? Faculty from computer science, a general engineering department, the ChE department, or others? What should be taught? Traditional programming with Fortran, object-oriented programming with C++, problem solving with tools such as Excel and Mathcad, or various mixtures?

In ChE at the University of Colorado, we are no different from many other institutions in that these debates have raged on for decades and continue today. In fact, over the years, our students have taken courses in all the various categories mentioned above. Recently, however, we have settled on a scheme and a course design that is working particularly well and bears consideration by others.

In engineering here, introductory computing is taught under an umbrella course number (GEEN 1300 Introduction to Engineering Computing, 3 credit hours). The various engineering degree programs (chemical, mechanical, civil, architectural, environmental, aerospace) each teach a section of this course, and these sections take on “flavors” according to the preferences of the particular program. Students in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science do not take this course, rather a typical “CS101” course based on C/C++. A significant fraction of the entering students, typically 30%, are "open option," not having declared an engineering major. These students are included in the sections of the GEEN 1300 based on their interest in and leanings toward an engineering major. Also, there has occasionally been an additional section of the course for "open option" students and students not yet in the College of Engineering.

Two years ago, ChE at Colorado initiated a change in this course, taking it away from its traditional Fortran/Excel base. In this transition, two central themes were preserved: scientific/engineering problem solving and structured programming. The new course is divided into four roughly-equal parts. First comes a segment on engineering problem solving using the

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Clough, D. (2002, June), Che's Teaching Introductory Computing To Che Students A Modern Computing Course With Emphasis On Problem Solving And Programming Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10800