Welcome to the Chemical Engineering (ChE) Department at Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR). Chemical Engineering is a versatile and exciting career with many opportunities for your development.
The Chemical Engineering Program at PUPR offers you a thorough curriculum with hands-on experience in modern and fully-equipped laboratories. Thus, as a graduate of this program, you will be well prepared to face the current and future challenges of the field.
The ChE Department offers a personalized service by attending to the specific needs of its students. They are oriented throughout their academic career in the department. Class sizes usually consist of no more than 20 students, giving the professor the opportunity to provide a nearly individualized attention to each student.
At the ChE Department, we are a family. Our students feel comfortable openly offering suggestions for improvement. Furthermore, many of them actively participate in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter and the Instituto de Ingenieros Químicos (IIQ) de Puerto Rico Student Chapter. These student chapters organize diverse activities that complement their technical proficiency with soft skills such as leadership, team work, and community awareness, important ones in the formation of a future professional.
The ChE Department also promotes the students’ participation in summer internship experiences sponsored by federal and private organizations as well as other universities. Students have the opportunity to conduct research with the guidance of a coach of the sponsor institution. These internships usually take place in the United States; however, there are many opportunities in Puerto Rico as well. Studying ChE at PUPR means not only dealing with academic activities within the classroom, but also having the opportunity to explore the real world, visiting different industries and getting exposed to the environment you would most likely be involved with when working.
If you like math and sciences, particularly chemistry, and enjoy looking for and discovering new methods to solve real problems by means of technology, choose Chemical Engineering at PUPR. Here you will be able to study in a familiar environment at your own pace, according to your skills and abilities. If you have any questions or if you want to know more about our department and visit our facilities and laboratories, please contact us and we will be more than happy to help you.
I am looking forward to meet you soon and to have you as part of the Chemical Engineering family at PUPR.
Best regards,
Elba B. Herrera
Department Head
(787) 622-8000 ext. 382, (787) 667-9646 (mobile)
eherrera@pupr.edu
Accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET
http://www.abet.org
The chemical engineering department offers fundamental knowledge in chemical engineering subjects. This will allow the students to understand and apply the principles of mathematical, physical, and life sciences in combination with the principles of engineering, economics, and social sciences to design and develop ways for the optimum use of the natural resources. In this way, the chemical engineer can create goods, products and services for the benefit of humankind, following ethical principles for a sustainable development in order to preserve nature for future generations.
Fundamental studies in physics and mathematics, and a major emphasis on chemistry, are combined with essential courses in chemical engineering and other engineering related areas to develop students’ capabilities to analyze and solve a multiplicity of modern day problems, all together with the synthesis and invention of new methods for the use of materials in production processes. Courses are offered in key areas such as mass and energy balances, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, together with kinetics and catalysis, process design, automatic control, and numerical analysis applied to chemical engineering. In addition, the program offers elective courses in environmental engineering, biochemical technology, polymers technology, nanotechnology, and pharmaceutical operations, among others, to address job market opportunities.
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ENROLLMENT |
GRADUATION DATA |
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| 2019 – 2020 | 181 | 2018 – 2019 | 26 |
| 2018 – 2019 | 174 | 2017 – 2018 | 30 |
| 2017 – 2018 | 196 | 2016 – 2017 | 30 |
| 2016 – 2017 | 190 | 2015 – 2016 | 30 |
| 2015 – 2016 | 231 | 2014 – 2015 | 21 |
| 2014 – 2015 | 212 | 2013 – 2014 | 12 |
A few years after graduation, Chemical Engineering Program Graduates are expected to:
In today’s industries, Chemical Engineers can be found almost everywhere. They are involved with planning, designing, constructing, and operating manufacturing processes in a variety of industries. These industries range from the pharmaceutical, petrochemical and agricultural industries to biotechnology, nanotechnology, and advanced materials to even finance, food, electronics, and consumer products. Growing public awareness of the problems of energy and environmental pollution also provides opportunities for chemical engineers in these areas. The B.S. program in chemical engineering prepares graduates for professional careers in industry, government, private laboratories, in engineering design and construction companies, and also for graduate programs.
As a Chemical Engineer, you will be able to develop a career in various industries, such as pharmaceutics, textile, petrochemical, food, biotechnology, and environmental agencies, among others.
The Chemical Engineering Department encourages their students to participate in summer internships experiences sponsored by federal and private organizations as well as other universities. Students have the opportunity to conduct research with the guidance of a coach of the sponsor institution. These internships usually take place in the United States; however, there are many opportunities in Puerto Rico as well. If you want to get a summer research internship, you should begin to look for them early in October. Usually, universities, federal organisms, and other institutions begin to post their internship opportunities in October and November and the application deadlines are in January or February, some of them have deadlines at the end of December, so it is very useful to be alert. Nevertheless, there are still some institutions that have their application deadlines in March or April, but they are only a few. Following, there are some links where you can find interesting summer internship opportunities.
The student chapters that officially represent the Chemical Engineering students at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico are the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter and the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIQ) of Puerto Rico Student Chapter. Both chapters work together pursuing the same goals, which are:
AIChE & IIQ Student Chapters’ mission is to collaborate to satisfy educational needs of PUPR Chemical Engineering students through seminars, professional activities with experienced engineers from CIAPR (Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico), technical visits, employment aware, and internship and scholarship opportunities, and simultaneously to develop their leadership and team work skills through social and community service activities.
Becoming a member of the student chapters will give you the opportunity to develop yourself to achieve a learning, personal and professional improvement. You will be able to start networking with professionals from the Institute of Chemical Engineers of the CIAPR. You may obtain many other benefits such as access to e-learning courses, discount access to webinars and conference presentations, registration discounts to the AIChE Spring and Annual Meetings, access to the AIChE eLibrary, among others.
The members of the AIChE and IIQ Student Chapters are constantly organizing social activities with the purpose of sharing among students, faculty, and professionals. They are also deeply involved in academic activities such as workshops and conferences to learn more about the profession, and in beneficial activities to serve their community. Among the activities the student chapters organize every year, these are the typical ones:
TORO RODRÍGUEZ, FLORABEL, Esq., PE
Associate Professor
Juris Doctor, University of Puerto Rico, 2006, M.E. Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, 1997; B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, 1984.
E-mail address: ftoro@pupr.edu
Phone: (787) 622-8000 X-362
Chemical Engineering Senior Design Projects are performed in the courses Chemical Engineering Capstone Course I and II. These are probably the most important courses of the program. In these courses, the students apply the engineering concepts learned through their years in their undergraduate studies of the Baccalaureate of Chemical Engineering. They work in teams to complete a design project which correlates all the major areas of their corresponding academic program.
El Laboratorio de Operaciones Unitarias incluye experimentos de mecánica de fluidos, transferencia de calor, análisis y diseño de reactores, control de procesos y transferencia de masa. Además cuenta con un Centro de Cómputos para uso exclusivo de los estudiantes del departamento y con un Laboratorio de Procesamiento de Materiales, donde se realizan investigaciones en esta área de ingeniería.
* En los cursos “Capstone” tienes la oportunidad de aplicar todos los conocimientos adquiridos durante tus estudios de Bachillerato a un escenario de la vida real.
Nuestros profesores proveen una educación de calidad en los principios y aplicaciones de la Ingeniería Química, de modo que los estudiantes se gradúan con todos los conocimientos y la práctica, necesarios para desempeñarse al máximo dentro del mundo laboral y puedan convertirse en profesionales que contribuyan significativamente al desarrollo de la sociedad.
