Introduction to Chemical Engineering | Lecture 1

Professor Channing Robertson of the Stanford University Chemical Engineering Department gives an introductory lecture, outline, and background for the course.

Introduction to Chemical Engineering (E20) is an introductory course offered by the Stanford University Engineering Department. It provides a basic overview of the chemical engineering field today and delves into the applications of chemical engineering.

Stanford Chemical Engineering Department:
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http://www.stanford.edu/

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Are you in for good ride? Yeah...(sighs). I've had them all in class before. I can't believe they are coming back for more.

(?) is it what? Fourth time you are taking this class, trying to get through it? Good, okay!

You are in E20 and I hope you can find yourself up here somewhere.

I know we have some MSME people. Yeah...right here. See, this is where you guys end up. Not here...not in the dollars, over here in psych, after the burnout.

So here we have, uh, you know, what are your interests entering freshman? Party? Sociology.

If need no sleep, computer science. This is your life unfolding before you. But you know, if you are interest in sewage you are going to CE, civil.

If you are interested in dirt. I don't know what MSME means, but if you are interested in nothing you go to IE (IEOR).

Bombs: Nuclear Engineering. Grease: ME. But all ends up in senior burnout. At internship you are still burnt out, go to ... five, six-year program more parties job offers, grad school, big huge loop here.

Then maybe some money. And I just want to get this out of the way right away.

This is all about money...(laughs)...and I just want to let you know here. Chemical Engineering, 2007, 59 thousand. The only one that beats us out is Petroleum Engineering

only because nobody goes into that major anymore.

So, they can put any number here they want. It is meaningless.

Uh...So, I just want you to know that you are in here for all the right reasons.

So, let me tell you a little bit about the class in the interest of full disclosure.

Well, first of all, my name is Channing Robertson--you probably saw that written somewhere.

I first started teaching this class in 1970. About when you guys were born....or maybe a little before.

...and I have to tell you that this is going to be a special year because this is the last time I am teaching the class.

So, you guys got in right under the wire. So, this is why I am feeling pretty jazzed about this. Not that it is the last time,

but I want to make sure it is a good experience for all of you.

And we have a syllabus. We don't have a textbook and I can tell you when you fill out the course evaluations you will complain that there is no textbook.

So, I am telling you that there is no textbook, so you don't have to complain about the fact that there is no textbook.

Why isn't there any textbook? There has never been any textbook written, good enough for this class.

And so...I wrote one, but it is not good enough to be published. So...

...you can purchase this for 20 dollars from (??) in the chemical engineering department and that is is (?) three which is a building you actually walked by to get here unless you came from the mausoleum.

So stop by and get your syllabus. The nice thing, I think, about the syllabus is, number one, everything I put up here is in the syllabus. So you don't--this is not a copy-fest. It's not, "How fast you can copy from the board into your notes?"

You can take notes in this, you can read the daily, you can--whatever you want. But, it's all here.

Now, one of the things about not having a text is you really do need to come to class. So if you're the kind of person that comes to the first class and then never shows up again--you're going to be at real disadvantage in this class because...if I didn't need to be here to do something for you, then I could have actually video taped this class in 1970 and just turn it on and leave and go sip mint juleps in the Bahamas

And so there is a purpose to this, and part of the purpose is I like to think of my job as passing on to you--not a bunch of content, but--perhaps some of the some of the intuition about how chemical engineers think and approach problems to solve.

You'll have plenty of time to solve problems in this class. There's 8 problem sets--essentially one a week. There's 2 midterm exams and a final. And we have all those dates and I'll show you when they are so that, you know, nothing will sneak up on you. You can make all your plans for the quarter.

So bring this to class each time, and it's in a nice, sort of, spiral-bound so it works for you and you can use this as a platform to take notes on.