Chemical engineers address large-scale problems. While the chemist investigates the interaction of chemicals in the formation of a new product in a laboratory environment, the chemical engineer develops the processes and procedures needed to produce marketable quantities of the new product. While the physicist analyzes the makeup and properties of a superconducting material, the chemical engineer plans the facility that will manufacture the material in the volume and configurations needed. Many career opportunities await chemical engineering graduates including those involving computer systems and process control, environmental control, biochemical agents, electronic materials, superconducting materials, pharmaceuticals, petroleum engineering, petrochemicals, and synthetics. An individually structured curriculum will introduce students to interesting subjects such as materials, fluid mechanics, economics, and computer science.
Students also investigate the design, construction, and operation of process units.
Oral and written communications, teamwork, and management are also emphasized. Students' backgrounds are developed with courses such as mathematics, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport phenomena. The field of civil and environmental engineering is a creative, people-oriented field. These engineers improve society's quality of life by enhancing the surroundings in which people live and by designing public works, transportation systems, buildings and structures, and much more. Environmental engineering tackles problems such as hazardous waste management, drinking water treatment, municipal waste disposal, and other issues that affect the environment.