Professors Joseph Menicucci and Srinivas Rangarajan of Lehigh University’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, along with Dr. Raghuram Thiagarajan from Pratt & Miller Engineering, won a seed grant of $5,000 from Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CAChE Org) to build interactive online visualization-based modules for teaching data science concepts to chemical engineers. The team will develop several python-based web-accessible modules that will allow users to interact with the code by manipulating parameters and observing the impact through real-time visualization. These modules will cover a hierarchy of data science and artificial intelligence concepts within the chemical engineering context, including data collection, analysis, transformation, and model training models and optimization. The team envisions deploying these modules in classrooms as an inquiry-based learning activity. The team has been supported by Mountaintop Summer Experience program for three consecutive summers (2020-22); this has resulted in four modules so far, covering various problems, ranging from modeling infectious diseases to direct air capture systems for scrubbing carbon dioxide.
"This grant was made possible by the generous and ongoing support of The Mountaintop Summer Initiative", Menicucci said. "The programs offered by Creative Inquiry are an asset to Lehigh University and its students."
Prof. Rangarajan will be offering an elective course on data-driven modeling in the spring semester of 2023. Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to take the course.
