Blog Entry 1

 Week 1: Team Formation and Bonding

During the first day of the ICPD lesson, Dr. Noel assigned the class into different groups. I was assigned into team Lions  along with Joelle, Kallysa and Ryan. After assigning the teams, Dr. Noel gave us time to bond with one another. We decided to head down to FC1 to have some snacks while learn more about each other.

After the team bonding activity, we were tasked to assign different roles and responsibility along with our team rules. 

Leader: Joelle

• Help to keep the team on task
• Organize meetings

Scribe: Kallysa

• Takes notes on what is discussed during team meetings
• Document the teams progress

Time Keeper: Ryan

• Keeps the team within the time framed to finish the task

Photographer: Hai Teng

• Take pictures of the team progress at different stages

Team Rules:

1. All the members should be punctual for meetings
2. All members should submit their part of the work on time
3. All members must always do a check up after the project is finish
4. All members should respect each other's opinion

Week 2: DCHE Digital Fabrication Quiz and Chemical Products

In week 2, we were tasked to do the 3D printing safety quiz and the laser cutting safety quiz where we have to get full marks in order to enter the fabrication lab. 

After doing the quiz, Dr. Noel introduced to us about what is a chemical product. So what is a chemical product?

A chemical product is a product designed using chemical engineering principles

There are many chemical engineering principle so of which we have learn during our first year in poly. Such examples are energy and mass balance, evaporation, distillation and grinding.

We then have to apply these chemical engineering principles into chemical products. There are four different categories of chemical products:

1. Commodities 

• Products that is non-differentiate among competitors
• Main engineering challenge is about higher efficiency 

2. Molecular products

• Perform a particular task like curing a disease
• Exemplify by pharmaceuticals  

3. Micro-structured products 

• Chemical organization on the scale of micrometers, typically less than 100 μm
  

4.Chemical devices

• Miniature processes which accomplish a particular chemical transformation
• Provides convenience

We were also introduced to the broad categories and sub categories that chemical products can be classified into.

Board categories include:

1. Household
2. Personal 
3. Food & beverage
4. Healthcare
5. Information technology
6. Transportation energy

Sub categories which falls under the broad categories:

Eg: Household - Electronics

       Food & beverage - Frozen and processed food

We did an activity which requires us to choose a chemical product from the broad category and sub- category. Our group decided to choose a dehumidifier which falls under the category of household and electronics. We then have to present what chemical engineering principles that our chemical product applies.

A dehumidifier applies the chemical engineering principles of mass transfer as the water vapour from the surroundings through absorption. The pain point of the team is that Singapore is a very humid  place and it is very humid indoors. Initially we wanted to make a dehumidifier that can reduce carbon footprint. However, after much thought, we decided to change the user needs to feel cool outdoors. Hence we came up with a portable miniature air-con as our chemical product.

We also had our very first practical of the module called Reverse Engineering. We had to brew coffee and take data of the mass of the coffee grounds before and after the brewing process for our report.

Measuring 30 grams of coffee ground

Brewing process

For the second activity, we have to disassemble a coffee maker which was one of the most exciting process for me. As kid, I was always curious about what is inside of a kitchen appliances and how it works. By disassembling the coffee filter helps me better understand the workings of it. 

Top part of the coffee maker

Bottom part of the coffee maker

We found out that there is a one way valve which prevents the backflow of the heated water and there must be a minimum water level in the coffee maker to act as an air lift pump to cause static lift to allow the heated water to enter filter.

For the third activity we have to submerge a straw into the water to determine the relationship between submergence ratio and pump flow rate. 

Week 3: Needs Identification

In week 3, we have to come up with the project title for our chosen project and write a literature review for it. In order to write a literature review, we have to access relevant and reliable articles on the same research topic. Using articles from the SP library, we began writing our literature report....