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Before the semester starts in early January, liaisons provide a brief statement that describes the problem, gives context for the problem and outlines goals for the project. The student team that selects your project will arrange a kickoff meeting in mid-January to discuss the project in greater depth and to set up a regular meeting schedule (usually biweekly) to assess progress. Meetings may be held in person or remotely. Through the 16-week semester, liaisons give informal feedback and guidance to the team.

Students provide a series of deliverables: a project plan, oral reports, possibly biweekly update reports and a final oral presentation to the assembled class and liaisons. The presentation can also be at the liaison's site if local or via zoom. Students also provide a final technical report. We encourage liaisons to offer feedback to the instructor concerning the final reports, but the course instructor is responsible for all grading of student work.

On average, liaisons can expect to devote an average of ~1 hr/wk (15-20 hours total over the entire 16-week semester) to the project and student team.

Capstone design projects can cover a wide range of topics, and any technical problems that can be tackled by people trained in chemical engineering or biological engineering can fit. The common denominator of good problems is that they can be addressed through a "paper" analysis: searching the published literature available at CU to assemble ideas and data, then analyzing those ideas through computer models and other abstract methods.

For chemical process design problems, student teams will typically:

1. Develop a process flow diagram
2. Carry out a process simulation, which may include heat integration
3. Use simulation results, hand calculations, and/or computational modeling to design key pieces of process equipment, and
4. Carry out an economic analysis
5. Address safety, environmental/health/regulatory issues, and discuss the larger benefits of the project to society.

The course does not have a laboratory per se, although special arrangements for laboratory studies are sometimes possible.

Many clients submit topics that would not otherwise get their attention given other workplace priorities. Some clients offer projects unconnected to their current work that they find personally interesting. Accordingly, we sometimes receive "blue-sky," exploratory-type projects, while other projects have a strong tie-in to the client's current business.

Past design project topics include:

• Non-egg based platform for influenza vaccine
• Scale-up of recombinant lectin manufacturing process
• Li-ion cathode battery materials coating
• Manufacture of amorphous spray-dried API/polymer excipient
• Process design for pre-sterilization cleaning of cell therapy consumable components
• Controlled release polymer for drug delivery
• Scale-up and commercialization of a shelf stable, single dose vaccine platform
• Develop a design concept for industrial hemp processing, including identifying new potential products.
• Using process models, compare batch vs. continuous processing for the production of monoclonal antibodies as human therapeutics.
• Develop a photocurable adhesive to bond components of a prosthetic leg together, including a method of application and a cost analysis. (This project included lab work at the liaison's site.)
• Complete a preliminary design of a phenol production unit and analyze the profitability, operability and safety/environmental aspects of the process.
• Design a natural gas processing facility or a gas-to-liquids process for recovering flare gas.
• Design a gas phase polymerization process for manufacturing a polymer.
• Develop alternatives to freezing bulk solutions of protein therapeutics in bags or plastic bottles for stability during shipping and storage.
• Environmental feasibility of a idstream oil and gas processing facility
• Dry ice supply for mRNA vaccine products
• Disposable wound protector device
• Design a 50 L bioreactor and optimize a bioreactor seed train

Problem statements set forth the goals and deliverables you want done by a student team. We can assist you in preparing your problem statement and can provide examples.

After you have heard from the course instructors about your project idea, we will ask you to download, complete and email the Problem Statement Form below to Wendy Young (wendy.young@colorado.edu) and Alan Weimer (alan.weimer@colorado.edu). We will email you back to confirm we received it.

Download the Problem Statement Form

For more information about the projects or to get involved, contact Wendy Young (wendy.young@colorado.edu) and Alan Weimer (alan.weimer@colorado.edu).