Chemical Engineering Honors Program

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Introduction:

Honors Program

• Current Honors Students
  Here I have linked a list of the current Chemical Engineering honors students ... working on pictures (if you have a "G-rated" mug shot of one of these people, send it to me). Drop by Dr. Curtis' lab and he will take a picture (312 Wartik)
  

• Honors Thesis Selection
  Honors students should innitiate their thesis by their second semester junior year, but preferably should have started research before this time.
  Information for selecting an Honors thesis can come from multiple sources. A primary source is simply the Faculty research descriptions found on the Departmental Web page.
  Another great source of information is current Honors students. You could ask a potential advisor for the names of those students currently working on an honors thesis.
  The database of former honors students listed below is in the process of having the abstracts of recent honors students linked so that you can see more specifically the kind of work that you might be doing.
  Finally, I am trying to solicit specifc details for projects currently being offered. To provide some degree of confidentiality and issues related to contract & patent issues, these projects are located in a password protected area. Contact Dr. Curtis from your PSU access account (not HotMail etc.) to recieve the password. This limits browsing since some of these topics are Industry and/or patent related; therefore, it is appreciated if you would not provide this password to other people.

  Enter password:

  YOU MUST CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON FOR THIS LINK TO WORK
  

  You can pursue an honors designation outside the department of Chemical Engineering (Math, Chem, ...). In those circumstances, your diploma will have the designation "with Honors in XXX". It may be possible to graduate "With Honors in Chemical Engineering" while your thesis is supervised by a faculty member in a differnt department. You MUST plan for this in advance by referring to The Guidelines for Chemical Engineering students with thesis supervisor in another Department.
  
  

• Honors Courses
  
  ChE 097H - Honors Freshmen Seminar started Fall 2002 with special focus on biomolecular engineering.
  
  ChE 397H - Research Methodology - This course has is designed for thesis preparation; Initial offering by Dr. Curtis was designed for bio-related theses, including experimental lab procedures in media prepration, antibiotic handling, tissue and bacterial culture.
  
  ChE 407H - Honors Senior Laboratory (contact Dr. Vellegol / Dr. Seong)
  
  ChE 446H - Advanced Transport Phenomena (ideal for graduate school prepration; contact Dr. Borhan)
  
  ChE 494H - Independent Research (see thesis selection)
  
  Also note that most faculty will provide honors supplements in most of the chemical engineering courses. Ask!
  
  
• Integrated Undergraduate / Graduate Degree Program - IUG
  The IUG program is an opportunity to work towards a Masters degree in chemical engineering while completing your B.S. Degree. In this program, your honors thesis will become your M.S. thesis, and you can 'double count' courses to overlap the degree requirements for the M.S. and B.S. degrees. Chemical Engineering has developed its own set of guidelines for ChE-IUG students to help students understand its
  

More Goodies For Honors Students

• Graduate School Information
  Talk to your advisor/thesis supervisor. Check into the IUG program above which facilitates obtaining an MS and BS at the same time. There is extensive information on graduate schools in the 'baby-bin' filing cabinits near the rear entrance of Fenske. Feel free to replace outdated graduate school program information for new information you may recieve in the mail.
  

• Summer Research Opportunities
  Dr. Curtis compiles opportunities for "summer research programs" on the bulletin outside his office (108 Fenske). There is also extensive information in the same filing cabinits as the graduate school information (see above). Be aware that many of these programs are funded year-by-year and have a rapid turnaround from funding notification to deadlines. Most of these fill around March each year. The best thing to do if you are interested in conducting research at another university (virtually anywhere in the U.S.) is to search the web on the topic "REU chemical engineering".
  Consider conducting summer research on your thesis topic! There are opportunities to pursue summer research for credit / pay. Talk with your thesis supervisor well in advance of the summer since application for such funds often must take place several months before summer.
  

• Former Honors Students
  Here I am starting a database of undergraduate theses from the past with links to abstracts for numerou theses and a reference to the LIAS database to assist in locating the hard copy. (Note that the current referencing system in LIAS appears to be changing so that the theses URL's may require periodic updating). There are also links to describe the papers that resulted from students theses.
  

• Scholarship Opportunities
  There are a wide arrange of scholarships available to students in chemical engineering. One source of information is the Undergraduate Scholarship Office which includes a special list of scholarships for engineers. (You will need to use your PSU access ID to get this information.) There are also many scholarships that are awarded by the Chemical Engineering Scholarship/Awards committee based on academic performance and need (if you think you might qualify based on need, contact your advisor). There are summer fellowships from the department to conduct research!
  There are also numerous prestigious scholarships to provide supplemental income while attending graduate school such as the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. There are often applications for such fellowships in room 158 Fenske on the counter.
  

• Thesis tools to be linked here. (templates are available)
  The Honors College is developing a rather extensive resource page for honors thesis planning and execution that is well worth the time of looking over.

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