CHBE 464 Laboratory Manual

(Version 2010)
Problem-Based Laboratories
Problem-based laboratories give students the opportunity to use their
problem-solving skills to come up with solutions to realistic engineering
problems. During the laboratory, each team will design an experiment in
attempt to resolve an industrial problem, conduct the experiments, analyze the
results, and apply the results towards the solution of the particular problem.

These laboratories are open ended, meaning that there is more than one
correct solution to each problem. After receiving their problem statements,
teams will have the opportunity to come up with their own set of procedures
rather than blindly following the experimental procedures and calculations
outlined by the instructor/TA.

Expectations

Students are expected to find all the data and devise all the procedures needed
to come up with a solution to the problem. Literature searches using Google,
Google Scholar and UBC library electronic and hard resources must be
carried out to find and understand the basic theory and data needed to solve
the problem. Every member of the team must demonstrate that they have
carried out a literature search, found good resources and read them before
they are permitted to carry out an experiment. Only a brief description of the
problem and access to equipment operating manuals will be provided. The
team is expected to consider safety and the environment during the
experiments and in the application of their results. Each member of the team
is expected to carry out their part of the experiment and report writing with
minimal help from their team members. All members will act responsibly in
regard to time management.

Students are given more freedom in the laboratory with the constraint that
only non-invasive testing is allowed. That is, the experimentation must be
done without dismantling the laboratory set-up. It is expected that the
laboratory equipment is left in working order, and glassware is carefully
cleaned and returned to storage. If the equipment malfunctions, it is the
responsibility of the team to notify their TA, and help their TA find solutions
and alternatives. It is expected that the team will give the TA and Ms. Qi
Chen (technician in charge of the student laboratories) the list of chemicals
(and concentrations) that will be needed in a timely fashion (one week notice
for common chemicals and longer for others), and procure the necessary
glassware, etc from stores. In all aspects, the team will consider the budget in
consultation with their TA and Ms. Chen.

Schedule

The specific problem will usually be given to the team approximately 1 week
before the problem-based laboratory begins. For problem-based laboratories
beginning the first week in January, the problems will be given out the first
week in December. This will give all teams equal and sufficient time to do
some preliminary research. It is highly recommended that the team have a
good understanding about the process under consideration (e.g. theory and
workability of hydrocyclones, how extractions work, etc ) before coming to
the first lab period.

Teams will have the first laboratory period to become familiar with the
laboratory equipment, examine manuals (if available) and carry out basic
measurements needed to define the experimental conditions(depending on the
laboratory). For example, basic measurements could include diameter and
lengths of available, hydrocyclones, calibration of rotameter, identification of
max and min flow rates, etc. The team will have one week to collect more
information and devise a research proposal. The basic measurements that
were conducted during the first laboratory period can be used to justify flow
rates, chemical concentrations, etc. in the proposal.

The proposal will be orally defended during the second laboratory period in
room 318 CHBE between 1:30 and 3:30 P.M. (check website for exact
times). The written proposal will be turned in to the department before the
third laboratory period. If the proposal is accepted, the team will begin
working on their experiments during the third laboratory period. Each
successful team will be given four weeks including the third laboratory to
carry out their experiments. A progress report will be written and reviewed
by the TA. It should contain a description of any changes to the initial plan
and presentation of preliminary results.

All experimental work must be completed in the allotted four week

experimental period, and only after the proposal is accepted by the
instructor/TA. This is to better relate to what is expected in industry, where
the time spent on experimentation is kept to a minimum due to the investment
involved. Time reasonably spent outside of the laboratory periods in the
procuring of materials, laboratory preparation outside of laboratory periods,
extra laboratory work, etc can be considered part of the permitted
experimental time (i.e. can be deducted from the scheduled experimental time
period). Time for report and proposal writing is considered outside of the
experimental period.
See the calendar on the website for important deadline dates.

Instructor/TA Role

The position of the instructor/TA will change during problem-based

laboratories. They will not guide the team through the laboratory equipment,
as done in the goal-oriented regular labs. They will, however, provide
assistance to teams in dead-end situations or stop experiments if it is evident
that the team is not prepared and safety risks are detected.

Reasoning Behind Problem-Based Laboratories

These labs are designed to prepare you for life after University. Engineers
need to be able to solve open-ended problems effectively. When learning is
done in the context of problem solving, knowledge is stored in a memory
pattern that enables the knowledge to be recalled later for solving problems.

Also, spending a longer period of time on one problem based lab, rather than
rushing through two shorter labs, provides students with a greater depth of
knowledge on the subject area. Students in the past have really voiced their
desire to have hands-on labs. We have developed problem-based laboratories
to address this wish. Year 2010 is the 6th year that problem-based labs have
been offered. Initially there were two four week problem based laboratories
per group. An in class survey in the spring of 2007 indicated that in
comparison to regular labs, students had after completing problem-based
laboratories :

 Improved leadership qualities

 A better understanding of unit operations, and chemical and
biological processes.
 Improved document research skills
 Improved oral skills
 Improved management and organizational skills
 Improved problem solving and critical thinking skills

Survey results also indicated that students felt that having a second problem-
based laboratory was not a good test of what was learned in the first one, the
time frame could be improved, and that problem-based laboratories were
more work than regular labs.

To maintain the advantages of problem based laboratories while eliminating

the downsides of too much work, in 2008, the number of problem based
laboratories was reduced from two to one, and the time frame for the
remaining one was increased from four weeks to six weeks.

In additional, ten years ago there were ten regular labs. Due to the problem
based labs there are now four that help demonstrate concepts taught in
reaction engineering and unit ops 2 as well as other key courses. The work for
problem-based labs is spread out over a much longer period of time with
intermediate deadlines. This means that much of the work will be completed
before writing the final report. This allows the team to focus more on the
procedures and analyses.

ABET Findings

Based on what employers desire from graduating engineers, ABET

(Accreditation board of Engineering and Technology) has outlined the
necessary skills for a graduating student to have. They include:

 An ability to design and conduct experiments as well as to analyze

and interpret data
 An ability to identify, formulate and solve engineering problems
 An ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams
 An ability to communicate effectively.

Technical abilities are not enough; they must be linked with skills such as
problem solving, management, leadership, teamwork, decision-making and
ethical responsibility.

Other University Findings

Other universities have used similar problem-based labs, where more

industry-specific models were used. Ideas and concepts from such courses
were compiled to create the problem-based laboratories at UBC. A few
universities with such courses include:

 Michigan Technology University

 University of Washington
 Cornell University
 University of California
 University of Nevada
 University of Florida
 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
 Manhattan College Parkway
 Indian Institute of Technology
 Johns Hopkins University

The findings from such courses are predominately positive, with some student
comments including:
  "Due to this lab alone, I can say I know some 'chemical engineering'"
(Indian Institute of Technology)
 "I really liked this lab. It was complicated, but not impossible. Overall,
I learned a lot" (Cornell University)

Job (Role) Descriptions

Throughout the experimental period, each team will have a Project Engineer,
Safety and Environmental Engineer, and Process Engineer. Groups of four
will also have a Design Engineer, while groups of five will have a quality
control or assurance engineer (new in 2010). Position assignments will
rotate three times. Each member of the team will have a different role for
the proposal, progress memo and final report. Roles will change after the
written proposal is submitted and after the progress memo is submitted.
Position assignment will be decided by the group before the first laboratory
period, and given to the TA. Note that all members are also responsible for:

 Attending all lab periods.

 Assisting in the operation of equipment.
 Assisting in troubleshooting when needed.
 Communicating their findings to all group members.
 Writing the group sections of the reports.

Outlined below are the general and specific responsibilities of each position:

ROLE DESCRIPTIONS (General responsibilities):

(A) Project Engineer: Project coordination, General strategy development

for experimental plan, Supervises data collection and data logging, Shares
some experimental duties, Responsible for reporting and meeting deadlines.
Responsible for setting up meetings with team and TA. Coordinates
information flow between group members. Must be aware of what the team is
doing at all times. Works closely with the members to assure that deadlines
and instructions are understood.

(B) Process Engineer: Responsible for carrying out the process section of the
experimental strategy, data accuracy and processing. The role is very
important, because the results depend on the accuracy of the calculations.
Seeks advice to make sure that the calculations are properly done, and
assumptions are clearly defined.

( C) Safety and Environmental Engineer: An environmental health and

safety specialist is responsible for developing, implementing, and monitoring
industrial safety programs within the company. He or she inspects plant areas
to ensure compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) regulations. He or she evaluates equipment and raw materials for
safety, and monitors employee exposure to chemicals and other toxic
substances. A safety specialist, depending on the job level, may also conduct
training programs in hazardous waste collection, disposal, and radiation safety
regulations. He or she is responsible for carrying out the chemical analysis
section of the experimental strategy, reviewing pertinent environmental
regulations regarding effluent disposal (e.g., from EPA, municipalities etc.),
assuring safety for lab operation and offering advise and approval of
environmental aspects related to scale-up and plant layout (if applicable) .
The safety engineer has the authority to stop work if serious environmental
and safety issues arise.

(D) Design Engineer: Responsible for scale-up considerations, obtaining

quotations for equipment needed for larger scale implementation, economic
analysis and shares some experimental duties. The design engineer is
generally considered to be second in command after the project engineer. The
design engineer must have a close relationship with the other team members,
as the design must consider project management, processing steps and
accuracy, as well as environmental and safety concerns.

(E) Quality Control or Assurance Engineer (new to bio option in 2010)

A quality control engineer is responsible for developing, applying, revising,

and maintaining quality standards for processing materials into partially
finished or finished products. Quality Assurance is the activity to ensure the
quality of a product so that customers can buy with confidence and
satisfaction. According to the ISO 8402 Quality Assurance is all activities
planned and systematically applied within the quality system and conducted
in accordance with the needs, to provide adequate confidence that the
company will meet the quality requirements. The engineer designs and
implements methods and procedures for inspecting, testing, and evaluating
the precision and accuracy of products and prepares documentation for
inspection testing procedures. Depending on the job level, a quality control
engineer is responsible for ensuring conformance to in-house specifications
and good manufacturing practices and may conduct training programs.

Each product with its quality dimensions produced by various processes,

means any process will result in part of the final product and every process
needs the input and output. The success of the process is measured by how
much output from the process meets the consistency of quality dimensions. In
order for a process to satisfy the next process, there are several requirements
that must be met, among others:
1. Understanding the requirements of the next process.
2. Do not produce non-conformance
3. Do not send non-conformance to the next process.
4. Do not accept non-conformance of the previous process.
In summary, the Quality Engineer focuses on inspection process development
and product improvement, while the assurance engineer acts as the manager
for administering quality assurance efforts. In small companies one person
takes on both roles.

Specific responsibilities:

Project Engineer

 Organize and plan the work to be done by team members in each

laboratory period.
 Coordinate information flow between members and TA.
 Communicate plans effectively to both group members and
TA/instructor in the form of reports and/or e-mails.
 Demonstrate leadership abilities and motivate team members to do
their best possible work.
 Perform "what-if" scenarios on project-planning and time management
issues.
 Research the significance of the problem and the theory behind the
solution. For this 6 books or research articles on the problem and
theory should be consulted and cited and referenced within the
proposal text. Each member of your team will study one reference, and
the remaining will be your responsibility. All references should be
shown to your TA at the pre-proposal meeting.

Safety and Environmental Engineer

 Collect and summarize MSDS sheets, addressing the potential safety

risks and necessary controls.
 Perform safety audits of the laboratory before, during and after its use.
You can use Google to research how to do this (cite and reference
important references in the proposal and reports). This will require
preparing a check-list and updating it as new concerns arise.
 Arrange to have waste properly disposed. Hazardous Waste disposal
Information (which depends on the Province and Institution) can
be found in the link to the university laboratory hazardous waste
disposal procedure manual (http://www.hse.ubc.ca/occupational-
research/hazardous/files/2006HazardousLabWasteDisposalManual.pdf
), ad in the UBC Chemical safety Manual (Pages 45-48)
(http://www.hse.ubc.ca/occupational-
research/chem_hygiene/files/ChemicalSafetyManual.pdf ). Please note
that the approval process for surplus/experimental by product
chemical waste was recently changed and is done now through UBC’s
on line system (- refer to link http://www.hse.ubc.ca/CWIF/ ).
Information regarding Laboratory inspections can be found in the
 UBC Lab Chem. Safety Manual Pages 41-44 .
(http://www.hse.ubc.ca/occupational-
research/chem_hygiene/files/ChemicalSafetyManual.pdf ).

 Perform "what-if" scenarios relating to safety and environmental

issues.

 Identify unsafe situations that occur in the laboratory, and recording:

1. the specific situation observed (i.e. Personal protective equipment

violations, procedural concerns and equipment issues).
2. the actions taken to address the situation.

 Ensuring that all group members are aware of the safety risks, and the
precautions each member needs to take, in form of written
communications.
 Create an emergency shutdown procedure and review the procedure
with team members before running the equipment.
 Identify the effluents in the lab and their disposal methods, identifying
any environmental risks.
 Address issue of waste minimization.
 Prepare a PID flow diagram of the process.
 Help the design engineer design safe and environmental scale-up.
 Help the project engineer with the theory by finding and studying one
out the six required references. Communicate your findings in writing
to the project engineer in a timely fashion.

Process Engineer

 Determine the data needed to be collected during the laboratory, and

determine how the data will be collected in a well-organized manner.
 Determine calculations that will be needed for the given problem, and
perform the necessary calculations.
 Ensure that the experiment is performed in a reproducible manner,
identifying possible sources of error (experimental and systematic)
and taking the steps necessary to minimize the effects of such error.
 Perform an error analysis on the experiment.
 Perform "what-if" scenarios for experimental problems, such as
reproducibility problems.
 Help the project engineer with the theory by finding and studying one
out the six required references. Communicate your findings in writing
to the project engineer in a timely fashion.

Design Engineer

 Only required for teams of 4 persons

  Perform a scale-up of the process.
 Perform an economic analysis of the process, determining the most
cost-effective alternatives.
 Determine the most economical solution.
 It is essential that the Design Engineer to have good communication
with the other group members.
 Help the project engineer with the theory by finding and studying one
out the six required references. Communicate your findings in writing
to the project engineer in a timely fashion.
 Conduct a literature search on how to scale up this type of operation
(at least three references). Show your TA the references.

Quality Control or Assurance Engineer

 Only required for teams of 5 persons

 Help the project engineer with the theory by finding and studying one
out the six required references. Communicate your findings in writing
to the project engineer in a timely fashion.
 Conduct a literature search on the quality requirements demanded
from the customer, and how different aspects of the process could
affect that quality.
 Develop a quality assurance plan.

Proposal

The proposal is necessary to ensure that the team has a sound understanding
of the problem before beginning the experiment. This is important to ensure
that experiments are completed efficiently and safely. The research done for
this proposal will also be helpful in preparing the final report.

The proposal must be accepted by the instructor/TA before any experimental

work is performed. It consists of both a written memo and oral presentation.

To ensure the proposal can be accepted in a timely manner, the instructor/TA

must be made aware of the group's ideas during a formal meeting between the
project manager and TA before the oral presentation (the Tuesday after the
1st lab period). The project engineer must set up that meeting. The proposal
must also be orally presented at the beginning of the 2nd lab period. After the
proposal is orally presented, the team must take the comments given by the
examining team seriously by incorporating the recommended changes in the
proposal. The written proposal must be submitted by 4:30 the Tuesday before
the third laboratory period. If the proposal is accepted by the TA, then the
team may begin work (as was mentioned in the schedule section) the third
laboratory period, and have four laboratory periods to finish the work.

If sufficient information is not provided to the instructor/TA by the Tuesday

following the 1st lab, late marks of 10% per day will be deducted from the
proposal mark. If a team fails the oral proposal, the oral proposal will receive
at least a 50%. If the oral proposal is not acceptable, the team's
experimentation will also be delayed and experimental period shortened, as
procedures will not be accepted until sufficient review of the written proposal
is made. It is the duty of the team to arrange a meeting with the TA to address
any concerns about the proposal.

Written Format

The proposal should be written in correct memo format. It should be 4-6

pages in length excluding appendix. This will require a concise writing style,
with only relevant information being included. Reference citations (e.g.
Petrell and Alie, 2006 for single or two authors, and Petrell et al., 2006 for
multiple authors) must be included when appropriate in the text. Additional
proposal guidelines are outlined below. Marks will be awarded to individual
where specified.

1. Introduction

 Briefly explains why the proposal is being written and what it will
include.

2. Background - Project Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Describes the engineering problem being addressed, the theory behind

the problem and the significance of the problem.

3. Objectives

 The specific objectives of the laboratory.

4. Management Plan - Project Engineer (Maximum 1/2 page)

 Assignment of team members as the project engineer, safety and

environmental engineer, process engineer and design engineer (if in a
team of 4)
 Outlines the proposed schedule of how the next four lab periods will
be utilized.
 Identifies what specific supplies (i.e. glassware, quantity of chemicals,
stopwatch) must be available in the laboratory, and how they will be
procured

5. Plan of Action - Process Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Describes the procedures (excepting those relating to quality) to be

 followed. Specific information such as flowrates, temperatures,
number of trials, etc.
 Explains the reasoning behind the procedures being chosen.
 Describes what variables need to be measured and how they will be
recorded.
 Explains what calculations will be performed and how the results will
be presented.

6. Safety and Environmental Issues - Safety and Environmental

Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Identifies the major risks (chemical and mechanical) present in the

laboratory.
 Explains what personal protective equipment is needed.
 Describes the information used in the safety audits
 Describes how the waste will be disposed.
 Explains what is being done to ensure that the process is
environmentally sound.
 Describes and explains the regular start-up and shutdown and
emergency shutdown procedures

7. Design Considerations - Design Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Describe the possible equipment options to be used for this process.

How will the results affect the chosen design?
 Describe the procedure that will be used for the economic analysis.

8. Quality issues-Quality Control or Quality Assurance Engineer.

 Describe the quality as demanded by the customer, and how the

process and raw materials might affect that quality.
 Describe how quality will be measured in the experiments.

9. Conclusion

 Summary of deliverables and projected final report.

10. References

 References must be provided for all books and published articles from
which equations or values are taken.
 List references alphabetically by the surname of the lead author using
the format described at the end of this document.

Oral Format
Each team member will receive 10% of their proposal marks from a Power
Point presentation (.15-minute for teams of three, 20 minutes for teams of
four, and 25 for teams of five, questioning time is extra). The proposal should
cover all the points in the written proposal. In addition, process and
equipment diagrams must be illustrated. All teams having a problem-based
lab will make this presentation for the instructor/TA during the second lab
period. Team members will receive individual grades based on their
demonstrated knowledge and ability to answer questions related to their roles
and responsiblities.

It is important that one group member records any modifications to the

proposal that are deemed necessary by the instructor/TA during the
questioning period. The Safety and Environmental Engineer is responsible
for ensuring that these changes are followed through with.

Once the written proposal has been accepted, experimental work can begin
the third laboratory period.

See grading document on the website for more information.

Progress Memo

The progress memo is to be written based on the findings of the initial

experimental runs. It must be submitted the Tuesday before the second to the
last laboratory period (5th lab period) at the latest. Its purpose is to determine
whether or not further experimentation will be needed, and if any major
changes in procedures had to be made. Preliminary results should be
presented, and compared to literature expectations. The memo should be
presented in a concise manner, using correct memo format and include the
following:

1. Introduction - Project Engineer

 Brief description of why you are writing the memo and what it
includes.

2. Background - Safety and Environmental Engineer (Maximum 1 page,

excluding figures)

 Describe the experimental procedures that were followed.

 Include a PID of the process

3. Results and Analysis - Project Engineer, with help from Process

engineer doing the appendices (Maximum 2 pages, excluding figures)

 State the results from the experimentation to date and explain their
 significance. Were the results as expected and compared to literature
expectations?
 Were the objectives met?

4. Future Work - Project Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Determine what subsequent runs, if any, are necessary to ensure that

the objectives are met. Explain the procedures that will be followed.
 Describe what will be done to ensure time limitations are met.

5. Safety and Environmental Issues - Safety and Environmental

Engineer (maximum 2 pages)

 State the findings of the safety audits conducted before, during and
after the lab. Explain any additions made to the checklist.
 Did any unexpected safety or environmental concerns become evident
during the 1st experimental runs? Explain the situation and what was
done to correct it.
 Will the next set of experiments pose any new risks due to a different
procedure being followed, different flow rates being used, etc.?

6. Design Considerations - Design Engineer (maximum 2 pages)

 Explain if the findings from the experimental runs limited the design
options.
 Conduct a preliminary economic analysis of the process and describe
the results. What improvements could be made?

7. Quality Considerations-_- Quality control engineer (max. 2 pages)

 Explain the quality issues that can be surmised from the experimental
runs, and how they might be dealt with.
 Are changes needed in the experimental plan to address quality issues
that have arisen?

8. Conclusion - Project Engineer

 Summary of deliverables and projected final report

9. References – Process Engineer

10. Appendices Relating to Data and Calculations

 Raw and Worked Data (Appendix A) - Present results in tabular

and/or graphical format
 Sample Calculations (Appendix B) - Include all equations used to find
the results
  Error Analysis (Appendix C) - Determine the reproducibility and
accuracy of the results, explaining the probable sources of error. What,
if any, steps are necessary to decrease the error in the next set of
experiments?

Note: follow the guidelines for tables and figures as presented in the
regular report writing manual.

Final Report

The final report is due 1 wk after the final lab period (extensions can be
granted for reports due at the end of the term or for overlapping submissions
with regular labs). It is to be written as an internal report, where the reader is
concerned with both the team organization and the technical findings. It is
expected that the team will collaboratively come up with a possible solution
to the engineering problem. Reference citations (e.g. Petrell and Alie, 2006
for single or two authors, and Petrell et al., 2006 for multiple authors) must be
included when appropriate in the text. An explanation of the report format
and marking guideline are given below. Note that there are both individual
and group marks awarded.

1. Letter of Transmittal - Project Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Include title of the report, date of submission, names and duties of

team members, signatures of team members
 Must clearly state that the report is for the attention of the addressee.
 Briefly explain what the report is about and what the most important
findings were.

2. Title Page (Maximum 1 page)

 Course Number (e.g., CHBE 464)

 Title of experiment (more specific than that given in the lab manual)
 Date(s) of experiment
 Date of report submission
 Instructor's name
 Author's name and group number
 Author's signature

3. Summary (Maximum 1 page)

 Present a concise statement of the experiment performed, the theory

used, the objectives and the results obtained.
 The agreement (or lack of it) between theory and results should be
briefly discussed.
 Briefly present the safety and environmental findings as well as the
 proposed design (if applicable).
 The Summary is meant to stand alone. The reader should be able to
obtain the important results and conclusions from the Summary
without having to read the remainder of the report.

4. Table of Contents/Figures

 List the page numbers on which the various sections of the Report
begin.
 List Tables and Figures listed separately. These lists include the
Figure or Table number, the Figure caption or the Table label, and the
page number.

5. Introduction - Project Engineer (Maximum 1 page)

 Describe the problem and its significance.

 State the objectives of the lab and explain how the lab was organized
and scheduled in order to meet these objectives

6. Theory - Project Engineer (1 to 2 pages)

 Where appropriate, begin with a statement of the principles (e.g.

conservation of mass, momentum, etc.) and assumptions before
proceeding with the detailed development of the theory.
 Simple but tedious derivations of equations should be put in an
appendix.
 Equations should be written to permit direct substitutions of or
comparison with experimental data. Some explanation may be
required on how this can be achieved.

7. Experimental Apparatus and Techniques- Project Engineer

(Maximum 3 pages)

 Provide a description of the experimental apparatus stressing those

features that are crucial for its operation.
 Diagrams of the apparatus or flow diagrams should be included in
figures.
 Calibration curves and tables should be placed in an appendix and
referred to.
 Provide a comprehensive description of the experimental techniques,
such that the reader could repeat the experiment, given the same
experimental apparatus. The procedure must be written in past tense.
 Explain why these techniques were adopted.

8. Results and Discussion (Maximum 3 pages, Team, see grading

 sheet)

 The results should be presented in figures and tables.

 Short tables are useful for presenting or comparing results; lengthy
tables should be placed in an appendix.
 Avoid duplication of information presented in both figures and tables.
 Briefly describe how the results were obtained from the raw data,
include references to Sample Calculations and to appropriate
equations in the Theory. Discuss any assumptions or approximations
that were made in obtaining the results. Discuss reproducibility and
experimental errors.
 Present any constant and equations that were found together with their
ranges of applicability and error estimates.
 The discussion of results is probably the most important part of your
report because it gives the reader an understanding of the meaning and
significance of your results. You may accomplish this by discussing
the form of your graphs and equation in reference to the physical
phenomena underlying your experiments. Unusual behaviour such as
breaks, slope changes and asymptotic behaviour of curves frequently
provide valuable clues and should therefore be discussed.
 Compare your experimental results with your theoretical equations
and the finding reported in the literature by other workers to assess the
accuracy of your work.

9. Safety and Environmental Findings - Safety and Environmental

Engineer (Maximum 3 pages)

 Describe the effect your presence had on the laboratory procedures

that were used.
 Analyze how the environmental and safety implications would effect a
full-scale operation. What type of effluent treatment would be used?
 Examine whether a different process could offer either a safer or more
environmentally option. If such a process exists, analyse its
advantages and disadvantages.
 Include a copy of the safety audit checklist.

10. Proposed Design - Design Engineer

 Describe what and how equations were used to scale up the

operation(s)
 Describe the proposed design, and critically analyze its advantages
and disadvantages.
 Perform a cost analysis on the design. Is the process economical? How
is the cost affected by error? What are the limits?
 How labour-intensive is the process?
  Are their more cost-effective alternatives?

11. Quality issues

 Describe methods and procedures for inspecting, testing, and

evaluating the precision and accuracy of products resulting from the
processes.
 Describe documentation for inspection testing procedures (this
documentation should be placed in the report appendix).

12. Conclusions and Recommendations (Environmental and safety)

 Briefly summarize the conclusions of your report. The conclusions

should relate to the objectives given in the Introduction and be as
quantitative as possible. The range of validity should be indicated.
 Do not refer to tables, figures or equations in the report.
 Provide a set of recommendations for improvements to the
organization, scheduling and laboratory procedures.
 Provide recommendations on how the experiment could be extended.

12. Nomenclature

 List all symbols alphabetically with their definitions and units.

13. References

 References must be provided for all books and published articles from
which equations or values are taken.
 List references alphabetically by the surname of the lead author using
the format described at the end of this document.

14. Appendix – Team, see grading sheet

 Raw and Worked Data (Appendix A)

 Sample Calculations (Appendix B)
 Error Analysis (Appendix C)

Note: follow the guidelines for tables and figures as presented in the
regular report writing manual.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is "the ability to solve problems related to the process, the

equipment, and the environment in order to restore normal conditions"7. If a
problem is encountered in the laboratory, the following troubleshooting steps
could be helpful:

1. Defining the problem:

 Feeling and recognizing difficulties;

 Gathering information (symptoms, deviations, data) and exploring
them;
 Talking about the problem (to yourself and to others using your words
in simple terms);
 Is there a problem? Can you feel it? Can you define it? Is there a
solution? Do you know how to implement it?

2. Setting goals and strategies to generate alternatives by using thinking

techniques and tools such as:

 Analyzing;
 Synthesizing;
 Seeing patterns;
 Using analogy;
 Predicting using rules and laws;
 Challenging methods, definitions, and assumptions

3. Practicing attitude: being ready to change goals and plans; (and if you
are stuck leave it for a while, take a walk, or ask for help depending on
the degree of emergency).
4. Choosing and implementing the best solution.
5. Evaluating the effectiveness of the solution.
6. Reflecting on the procedure and the key factors.

Referencing style.

Please use the following referencing style for research papers, books, and
chapters in books.

Research paper:

Hacking S, Bobyn J, Toh K, Tanzer M, Krygier J. Fibrous tissue ingrowth and

attachment to porous tantalum, J Biomed Mater Res. 2000; 52: 631-638.

Book:

Abe H, Hayashi K, Sato M. Data Book on Mechanical Properties of Living

Cells, Tissues and Organs. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1996.

Chapter in book:

Iverson SJ. Blubber. In: Perrin WF, Würsig B, Thewissen HG, editors.

Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. San Diego: Academic Press; 2002. pp

107-112.