In this blog post, we will look at how inconvenient our lives and industries would be without chemical engineering and highlight its importance.
Chemical engineering is an important discipline that has fundamentally changed the way people live and the way industry operates. In history, the “if” assumption is meaningless, but if chemical engineering did not exist, how would our lives have changed? Since most of the clothes we wear are made of synthetic fibers such as polyester, without chemical engineering, we would have to make clothes only from natural fibers such as hemp, cotton, and silk. Even the cases of electronic devices used in everyday life would have been replaced with heavy metals instead of polymer materials or plastics, making it difficult to expect the light portability that we enjoy today. It is also likely that many products made from natural gas and crude oil have disappeared, so PET bottles, asphalt, and various chemical products may have disappeared from our surroundings. As such, chemical engineering and its products are deeply ingrained in our lives, affecting even the parts we don’t notice. This is why it is difficult to even imagine a society without chemical engineering.
Chemical engineering has developed through connections with various disciplines, including biology, electrical and electronic engineering, and mechanical engineering. This has opened up endless possibilities for applications, including the development of medicines and beneficial substances and the innovation of various processes. Therefore, chemical engineering can be said to be a discipline that was needed in the past and will continue to be needed in the future.
So, what will we learn in our undergraduate program and what path will we take? The undergraduate curriculum is designed to build a solid foundation from the ground up. In the first year, students build a foundation as science and engineering students through basic subjects such as physics and chemistry, and in the second and third years, they learn the principles of fluid mechanics and heat transfer, which are the core subjects of chemical engineering, and learn how the theory is applied in practice through undergraduate experiments. Starting from the second half of the third year, students will take elective courses in their major in preparation for research or employment according to their career path. This process can be compared to the process of building a skyscraper. Just as it is impossible to build a tall building without a strong foundation, the undergraduate curriculum is designed so that students can build a solid foundation from their freshman year and easily understand applied courses in their senior year.
After completing the undergraduate program, students can go on to graduate school to further study their field of interest or find employment at a research institute or related industry. After graduating from undergraduate school, students can join chemical and oil refining conglomerates such as SK Energy and Honam Petrochemical, where they can take on various roles such as plant management, R&D, and production process management. In addition, many students are contributing to the field of work by making use of their chemical engineering major at various companies. In graduate school, laboratories are mainly operated according to five research areas. Process development research that manages the operation of chemical plants and the production process of products, nanomaterial and catalyst process research that studies catalysts and nanomaterials that increase reaction speed, semiconductor and electrochemical research that studies fuel cells and semiconductors, biological and environmental research that develops environmentally and biologically friendly materials, and organic and polymer materials research that studies organic and polymer materials. Through such research, many of our seniors are contributing to society by achieving outstanding results in various industries.
Currently, the research of our department is also playing a major role in solving global problems such as environmental issues and resource depletion. The pollution problem caused by the increasingly depleted fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas has reached a serious state, and chemical engineering research is being actively conducted to solve this problem. Research is being conducted on the development of secondary batteries such as fuel cells that do not emit pollutants, the development of eco-friendly catalysts in the field of biology and the environment, and the creation of compounds that are harmless to the human body. Internationally, economic sanctions can be imposed if environmental standards are not met, so the demand for eco-friendly technologies is increasing day by day. Therefore, research and investment are actively taking place not only in existing chemical engineering research but also in the fields of environment, biology, and alternative energy.
Our department has an environment that allows us to actively pursue research for an eco-friendly society through various academic connections and cooperation. Research laboratories in various fields, such as biology and environment, are located within the same department, providing ideal conditions for collaboration and joint research. This will not only further develop the research of traditional chemical engineering to produce good chemical engineering products, but also provide an opportunity to effectively prepare for the upcoming energy crisis and environmental problems.
Therefore, I believe that our department is an academic space that is ready to meet today’s social needs and solve various problems in the future.
