Course titles are only a 30 character hint at what a course is all about. And course descriptions are cool and all, but they only give a broad overview of the topics a course is expected to cover. If you're like us, you probably only look at classes with a title that piques your interest and then glance over the description to see if it sounds like something you want to take. But that isn’t necessarily the most optimal way to choose a course. You may be overlooking a great course with content that is right up your alley because the title and/or description simply doesn’t tell the whole story.
So, we’ve decided to kick off our new blog - MME Wire - with our first-ever course highlight! Throughout the year, we’ll be interviewing faculty to get more in-depth overviews of our courses in order to help you choose your electives.
To start, we’re highlighting Dr. Derek Tretheway’s ME 447/547 Transfer and Rate Processes course, which is unique to our program as the topics may be considered non-traditional in mechanical engineering or material science programs. This class is applicable across all mechanical engineering and material science disciplines and will be featured in many of the graduate focus areas (coming soon!).
Dr. Trethewey's Transfer and Rate Processes course is one of the best courses I have ever taken because it helped amalgamate the fundamental studies of heat, mass, and momentum transfer while helping me develop my analytical skills from first principles. The skills and knowledge I learned in that course are useful for me to this day as I try and solve new problems.
- Rawand Rasheed, BSME & MSME Alumni
Course:
ME 447/547 Transfer and Rate Processes
What are students going to learn?
Why is acid rain a more significant problem in Canada than in Michigan? How does your body get nutrients to and into a cell? How is a silicon wafer doped? How do mothballs work? What controls the effectiveness of a nicotine patch? Distillation anyone? These processes are all governed by fundamental mechanisms of mass transfer including diffusion, convection, reactions, and mediated transport processes.
What is one thing you want students to know about this course?
Even with its broad applications, mass transfer is often overlooked in mechanical and materials engineering programs. In your future career, it’s quite possible you will be the only one with the knowledge to not only solve problems governed by mass transfer but recognize mass transfer is the heart of the problem.
How can course content be applied to industry or research?
From semiconductor manufacturing to lab-on-a-chip development to environmental pollution and the human body, mass transfer is ubiquitous. It’s present in nearly every process and often is the defining feature.
Recommend preparation:
A strong mathematical foundation in differential equations is beneficial.