February 2013 - Che-student-staff-list

ChE Director of Graduate Studies
by Varma, Arvind 28 May '14

28 May '14

Dear Colleagues, After serving since January, 2009 as our School's Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), Prof. Litster recently requested relief from this service, to devote more time to his teaching and research. Reluctantly, I accepted his request. On behalf of our School's faculty, staff and graduate students, I express deep gratitude to Jim for his outstanding service in this role. Simultaneously, I am pleased to inform that, effective July 1, Prof. Mike Harris has accepted to become our School's DGS. In this capacity, he will advise the graduate students and oversee the operations of the graduate office. I am grateful that Mike has accepted this position of leadership and service. Sincerely, Arvind Varma R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering Purdue University

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Candidate Seminar Announcement - C Gounaris
by Ewing, Virginia G 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering Faculty Candidate SEMINAR Dr. Chrysanthos Gounaris Princeton University "Microporous Materials Informatics: Computer Algorithms to Elucidate Structure-Function Relationships" Thursday, March 7, 2013 9:00-10:30 a.m. FRNY 3059 Abstract: Due to their shape-selective properties, microporous materials are being routinely utilized for separations and catalysis applications. Zeolites, a notable example, have evolved to a market in excess of $2 billion per year, and the recent research attention to metal-organic frameworks is expected to lead to additional commercial applications. With the hundreds of distinct structures that have now been synthesized, as well as the millions that have been hypothesized, the selection space for adsorbent materials has become too big to explore thoroughly via experimental techniques. To that end, robust computational frameworks are required to swiftly analyze structures and perform high-throughput screening of large databases in order to identify the most promising candidate materials for a given application. In this seminar, we will discuss innovative modeling approaches and the use of well-established computer algorithms, such as nonlinear optimization solvers among others, to characterize microporous materials and identify their functionality. We will start by demonstrating our characterization frameworks, ZEOMICS and MOFomics, which geometrically describe the three-dimensional porous networks of such materials. We will then address gas separations applications of industrial interest (e.g., air separation, carbon capture from flue gas) and predict the most promising materials to achieve selectivity. Next, we will focus on catalytic selectivity and demonstrate the ability of microporous materials to preferentially produce certain products over others as well as their ability to induce certain reaction pathways within a larger reaction network. Finally, we will discuss current research efforts to elucidate the diffusion anisotropy of microporous materials, as well as present interesting open questions in the area.

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Seminar Abstract/Announcement - Mahmoud El-Halwagi
by Ewing, Virginia G 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering Graduate SEMINAR SERIES Prof. Mahmoud El-Halwagi Texas A&M University "SUSTAINABLE PROCESS DESIGN THROUGH MASS AND PROPERTY INTEGRATION" February 26, 2013 9:00-10:20 a.m. FRNY G140 Reception at 8:30 a.m. in Henson Atrium Abstract: Industrial processes exert some of the most profound impacts on the ecosystem. These impacts are attributed to several factors including the significant usage of natural resources, the environmental discharges associated with the processing, and the ecological effects of the products. Sustainable design of industrial processes is aimed at achieving several objectives including resource conservation, recycle/reuse, pollution prevention, yield improvement, and profitability enhancement. These objectives can be methodically addressed using systems-based approaches. In this context, process integration offers an effective framework for sustainable design. The presentation focuses on two branches of process integration: mass and property integration. Mass integration has evolved as a holistic approach to the generation, separation, and routing of species and streams throughout the process. It is a systematic methodology that provides a fundamental understanding of the global flow of mass within the process and employs it in identifying performance targets and optimizing the allocation and generation of streams and species. The presentation starts by discussing key concepts and tools in the area of mass integration and how this methodology can be used to provide global insights on the process performance. Special emphasis is given to the notion of targeting which enables the benchmarking of process performance ahead of detailed design. The second part of the presentation discusses the concept of process integration which is defined as a functionality-based, holistic approach to the allocation and manipulation of streams and processing units which is based on tracking, adjustment, assignment, and matching of functionalities throughout the process. In particular, the presentation will show systematic rules and visualization techniques for the identification of optimal mixing of streams, their allocation to units based on their properties, task identification, and integration with molecular design. Case studies will be used to illustrate the basic concepts and applicability. Bio: Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi is the McFerrin Professor at Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University. Dr. El-Halwagi's main areas of expertise are process integration, synthesis, design, operation, and optimization. Specifically, Dr. El-Halwagi's research focuses on sustainable design. In addition to the theoretical foundations he helped lay down in these areas, he has been active in education, technology transfer, and industrial applications. He has served as a consultant to a wide variety of chemical, petrochemical, petroleum, gas processing, pharmaceutical and metal finishing industries. He is the coauthor of more than 200 papers and book chapters, the co-editor of five books, and the author of three textbooks. Dr. El-Halwagi is the recipient of several awards including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Sustainable Engineering Forum (AIChE SEF) Research Excellence Award, the National Science Foundation's National Young Investigator Award, the Lockheed Martin Excellence in Engineering Teaching Award, and the Fluor Distinguished teaching Award. Dr. El-Halwagi received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and his M.S. and B.S. from Cairo University.

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EFTPS: Company Tax Payment Batch Has Been Rejected.
by Rolando Calloway 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

Your Federal Tax Payment ID: 7399381264 has been rejected.Return Reason Code R225 - The identification number used in the Company Identification Field is not valid. Please, check the information and refer to Code R966 to get details about your company payment in transaction contacts section:EFTPS_report_1334022012.pdf (Adobe PDF)In other way forward information to your accountant adviser.EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax PaymentPLEASE NOTE: Your tax payment is due regardless of EFTPS online availability. In case of an emergency, you can always make your tax payment by calling the EFTPS.

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Caltech’s President Will Depart for Top Job at Saudi University
by Varma, Arvind 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

Unexpected news below, which you may have read – fyi... Arvind Caltech’s President Will Depart for Top Job at Saudi University Jean-Lou Chameau, who has served as the California Institute of Technology’s president since 2006, will depart the institution later this year to become the next president of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia, both institutions<http://www.caltech.edu/content/chameau-step-down-caltech-president> announced<http://www.kaust.edu.sa/media/pressreleases/kaust-new-president.html> on Tuesday. KAUST, as the Saudi university is known, enrolled its first students in 2009 and is trying, with the government’s help, to flourish as a higher-education powerhouse<http://chronicle.com/article/Saudi-Arabias-10-Billion/128041/> despite being located in one of the world’s most restrictive countries. In a letter<http://www.caltech.edu/content/dr-chameaus-statement-community> reflecting on his tenure at Caltech, Mr. Chameau said he and his wife had believed they would complete their careers at the university, and did not expect to be presented with the “unique and life-changing opportunity” that his new job represents. He added that he would dedicate his energy to leading the Saudi institution “toward achieving its bold vision.”

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FW: Disability Awareness Month
by Valley, Jeffrey L 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

FYI...................... From: Wilson, Rhonda L. Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 2:55 PM Subject: Disability Awareness Month Importance: High Building Deputies, As most of you know, March is Disability Awareness Month in Indiana. Please forward the attached flyer to anyone you believe may be interested. This flyer fully accessible and contain live links to registration. As our goal is awareness, the more people we reach, the greater the impact. Thanks, Rhonda ************************* Rhonda Wilson Office of Institutional Equity Ernest C. Young Hall, 10th Floor 155 S. Grant Street West Lafayette, IN 47907-2114 Ph: 765-494-7253 Fax: 765-496-1295 Wilson73(a)purdue.edu<mailto:Wilson73@purdue.edu> www.purdue.edu/ethics/oie<http://www.purdue.edu/ethics/oie>

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Seminar Announcement - Dr. Emre Gunduz
by Murray, Chris L 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

Please see attached ME seminar notice, Dr. Emre Gunduz from Northeastern University. Seminar title: Self-propagating exothermic reactions in nanoscale multilayer foils and ball-milled powder compacts of the Nickel-Aluminum system

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Candidate Seminar Announcement - Selen Cremaschi
by Ewing, Virginia G 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

Purdue University School of Chemical Engineering FACULTY CANDIDATE SEMINAR Dr. Selen Cremaschi The University of Tulsa "On Tactical and Strategic Decision Making Under Uncertainty" Tuesday, February 19, 2013 9:00-10:15 a.m. FRNY 3059 Abstract: Most tactical and strategic decisions in process industries, such as research & development (R&D), capital, and infrastructure investments, are made in highly uncertain environments. The explosion of the alternatives with increasing uncertainty prohibits the generation of a comprehensive search space for such problems, and limits the applicability of existing tools and methods developed by the process systems engineering research community. This talk will give an overview of our research activities on developing novel methods to optimize the operation and design of a wide range of applications under uncertainty: (1) surrogate model generation and derivative-free optimization for process synthesis and design of multi-scale processes, (2) systematic procedures for uncertainty propagation and reduction for robust design of chemical processes, (3) efficient solution algorithms for optimization under endogenous uncertainty for strategic decision making. Superstructure optimization is, in theory, a very powerful approach to address tactical problems such as process synthesis for energy applications. However, the resulting mathematical program is difficult, and in some cases impossible, to solve. Surrogate models, simpler functional representations of the underlying complex system, can be used to simplify the problem. We developed three sequential design algorithms to construct accurate surrogate models to be used in optimization problems. These algorithms scale well to problems in high dimensions, and investigate the trade-off between space-filling and adaptive nature of sampling methods. Our results reveal that an adaptive sampling approach is required in order to accurately model strong nonlinearities. Whether we are able to use the fundamental models or surrogate models to define our systems, there are many sources of uncertainty in these models, e.g., model inputs, assumptions, and equations. This uncertainty leads to uncertainties in the outputs of these models such as plant throughput, and environmental impacts. Our group successfully demonstrated that the unique combination of a novel data clustering approach to identify the relevant experimental data with model fine-tuning and evaluation techniques reduces the prediction uncertainty from up to five orders of magnitude to the same order of magnitude. Although this approach is powerful for systems with uncertainties that are independent of decisions, optimization problems with decision-dependent, i.e., endogenous, uncertainty are commonly observed in process industry, e.g., synthesis of process networks with uncertain process yields, and biomass-to-commodity chemicals investment planning. Despite this, mostly due their challenging nature, the research community strayed away from these problems. Our preliminary analysis using simulation-based optimization (SIMOPT) approach revealed the importance of endogenous uncertainties on the overall cost and the resulting decision tree for these problems along with the significant computational cost of SIMOPT. As a new direction to solve these problems, we have recently developed a novel heuristic approach that decomposes the original multi-period multi-stage stochastic program into a series of two-stage stochastic programs, which are then solved rolling through the stages and periods. This approach is highly-parallelizable, and our preliminary results suggest that the solutions obtained are very close to the true solution.

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FW: Chemical and Biological Engineering - Iowa State University - L.K. Doraiswamy Lecture - Doraiswami Ramkrishna
by Varma, Arvind 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

FYI... From: Edson, Linda K [C B E] [mailto:lkedson@iastate.edu] Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 10:25 AM To: lkedson(a)iastate.edu Subject: Chemical and Biological Engineering - Iowa State University - L.K. Doraiswamy Lecture - Doraiswami Ramkrishna [cid:image002.jpg@01CE0902.DE258AF0]

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REMINDER - Mechanical Engineering Special Seminar
by Ewing, Virginia G 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

Please forward the attached flyer to your faculty and students. Also, please let them know that there will be a roundtable with Ted Alexander in ME 2180 from 1-3 p.m. Thanks so much for your help, Diana K. Akers Secretary Mechanical Engineering Purdue University 765-49-42689 [Description: Description: Description: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRYcqwSQNb8zwUKHmVfmWdKuYe7WOnzP1ea…]<http://www.google.com/imgres?q=purdue+university+symbols&hl=en&sa=X&biw=128…>

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