{"id":11365,"date":"2018-05-15T12:03:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=11365"},"modified":"2018-05-15T12:31:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:31:17","slug":"go-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2018\/05\/go-figure\/","title":{"rendered":"Go Figure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"JHU<\/a>
In the Senior Lab class, chemical and biomolecular engineering undergraduate students learn to become working engineers who troubleshoot and find solutions. (Image: Will Kirk \/ Homewood Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/a>, there\u2019s one course where everything starts coming together. It\u2019s here\u2014in a class fondly known as Senior Lab\u2014that they begin to transform from passive receivers of knowledge into engineers who troubleshoot equipment quirks and adjust experiments on the fly.<\/p>\n

Student teams rotate through three experiments\u2014complete with built-in pitfalls\u2014exploring distillation, membrane separation, biocatalysis, bioreaction, and gas absorption. They are charged with responding to challenges (intentionally vaguely worded) related to scaling up manufacturing processes and maximizing product outputs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t tell you what to do; you\u2019re going to have to figure it out,\u201d Lise Dahuron<\/a>, senior lecturer, tells a recent group of undergrads. \u201cThere is no right solution. There are 100 answers to any question.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the most part, students seem to take the challenge in stride. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing at first, but you learn when to recalculate, which data you need to get [again], and what factors you need to be careful of\u2014what you have to consider before you do the experiment,\u201d says third-year student Yoon Ki Joo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Joseph L. Katz<\/a>, now professor emeritus, created Senior Lab back in 1979. His intent was to move beyond the purely theoretical to provide students experience with practical tasks in the lab. \u201cThe students become capable of self-teaching in a complicated, unknown situation,\u201d Katz says. \u201cThat\u2019s the key thing about an engineer: that he or she can figure out what needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Senior Lab has gained a reputation for being one of the most difficult but worthwhile courses. Teams design and carry out their own investigations, analyze their results, and document their conclusions in professional reports and oral presentations, supported by a writing professor from the Johns Hopkins Center for Leadership Education<\/a>. In addition to Dahuron, instructors include professors Sharon Gerecht<\/a>, the Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar, and Marc Ostermeier<\/a>, as well as senior lecturers An Goffin<\/a> and Carmo Pereira<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, I would just think about the instructions I was given to follow,\u201d says fourth-year student Jieun Park<\/strong>. \u201cNow, I try to figure out what parameters I need to consider to get a good result, how to determine what a good result is, and what limitations I need to work within.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a class fondly known as Senior Lab, chemical and biomolecular engineering students begin to transform from passive receivers of knowledge into engineers who troubleshoot equipment quirks and adjust experiments on the fly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[170,174,812,1158,1162,3128,3133,3138,3143,3148,3153,3158,3163,3168],"class_list":["post-11365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-sharon-gerecht","tag-department-of-chemical-and-biomolecular-engineering","tag-center-for-leadership-education","tag-johns-hopkins-university","tag-engineering","tag-lise-dahuron","tag-yoon-ki-joo","tag-joseph-l-katz","tag-senior-lab","tag-marc-ostermeier","tag-an-goffin","tag-carmo-pereira","tag-jieun-park","tag-design","issue-summer-2018"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGo Figure - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2018\/05\/go-figure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Go Figure - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a class fondly known as Senior Lab, chemical and biomolecular engineering students begin to transform from passive receivers of knowledge into engineers who troubleshoot equipment quirks and adjust experiments on the fly.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2018\/05\/go-figure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-15T16:03:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-15T16:31:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Go-Figure_THUMB-e1526148938328.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/go-figure\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/go-figure\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Go Figure\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-15T16:03:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-15T16:31:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/go-figure\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":418,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/go-figure\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/Go-Figure_THUMB-e1526148938328.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sharon Gerecht\",\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\",\"Center for Leadership Education\",\"Johns Hopkins University\",\"Engineering\",\"Lise Dahuron\",\"Yoon Ki Joo\",\"Joseph L. 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