Week 1

  

Module Overview 📓:

For the Module overview, we were informed of what is to be expected in the module and what is expected of us. It also allows the group to be able to understand what the module is about and helps us to understand better to what Chemical Engineering is. The teaching plan for the module was also shown so that we are aware of the time period of what we are going to do for the module through the semester. Finally, the assessments and submission date were given so that we are aware of when we need to complete the work given to us to ensure that we are not lagging behind.

Team Formation 💪:

There is consist of 5 Stages in the Team Formation Model:

1.  Forming 👐

2.  Storming ⛈

3.  Norming 👪

4.  Performing 💃

5.  Adjourning 🙌

The 5 stages that were mentioned are essential in every team in order to have an effective and efficient team. 

Forming 👐 is the initial stages of team forming where everyone is getting to know one another. It is also when the rules and where the Do's and Don't are established. This is usually the stage where each team member is not comfortable with one another and is very conservative to themselves. 

Progressing on from Forming is Storming ⛈. This stage is where members will start to communicate and get to know one another even better but they are still not to the point where they consider themselves as a whole. Team members would tend to not agree with the group leader and may even lead to arguments due to differing views. 

After some time, team members will eventually get to know one another even more and go to a point where they start working and thinking as a team, not as an individual. This stage is known as   Norming 👪. This is the stage where team members realize that by accepting other team members' points of view, the task given will be completed in an easier time. 

Moving on from Norming is Performing 💃. This is the stage where the team works most efficiently and effectively as they are able to trust one another and understand one another to the point where hierarchy in roles plays little significance. Each team member will be flexible enough to cover the other team members if necessary.

The final stage is Adjourning 🙌. This stage occurs when the task is done. Assessment is done on each team member and constructive feedback is given. Contributions by team members will also be recognized and implementation of the transitioning roles will occur.

Team Formation activity 👦👧👦:

What did we do? 🤔

During Team Formation, since it was randomized, we were unsure of who were our team members before the class (Forming). However, Dr. Noel gave us an excellent activity of team bonding for 15 minutes before going through some of the theories to allow the team to have a better understanding of one another and break the ice among each other! He suggested that we go to a Food Court to have breakfast which we did along with the rest of the class.

What did we learn? How did we do it?

After a good 5 minutes of walking, we finally reached Food Court 1 where we saw almost everyone in class hanging around the area. Jun Ying went on to buy a watermelon to eat while Trisyia and John went to sit down while waiting for Jun Ying. When Jun Ying came, the group went on to talk and got to know each other more making us more comfortable with each other (Storming). It was raining quite heavily during that day so it was noisy due to the thunder and raindrops but nonetheless, we still managed to have a good time. Soon, 15 minutes passed by and we all went back to the classroom where we proceeded to share what we did as a team with the rest of the class.

Documentation 🗎:

After sharing with the class what we did for team bonding, Dr Noel continued on with the lesson and showed us how to do documentation by creating a blog for us to document what we are going to do for the module. We were then taught on how to make our own blog to document our whole process. We are using this blogsite to jot down what we did for the week so that we are able to recall them on later on as the week passes by. We originally had difficulty handling the blog due to not having any prior experience to this, however, we were able to get around and finally managed to work our way around the blog site and created our first page.

We also took a picture to commemorate that day! 😁

What is a chemical product? 🔗

A chemical product is any product that is designed and/or manufactured using chemical engineering principles that can be defined as a chemical product. Chemical engineering principles refer to processes that use chemistry, physics, and mathematics to make new materials and products. Examples of chemical engineering principles include fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer, mechanical processes, reactions, thermodynamics, and many more.

Categories of Chemical Products:

        1. Commodities 🌐

• Made in large quantities
• Sold at the lowest possible price
• The traditional focus of chemical engineering
• Made through reaction engineering and unit operations

        2. Chemical devices 📱

• Miniature processes which accomplish a particular chemical transformation
• Provides convenience

        3. Molecular products 🔍

• Possess a specific chemical structure
• Discovered through research

        4. Micro-structured products 🔬

• Products with specific function

Chemical Product Design: Refrigerator ⛄

Description:  

The Carnot Cycle is a reversible cycle which comprises of 2 isothermal and 2 isentropic which can be reversed (known as Reversed Carnot Cycle).

A refrigerator or heat pump that acts on the reversed Carnot Cycle is called a Carnot Refrigerator or Carnot Heat Pump respectively. In the first stage of the cycle, the refrigerant absorbs heat isothermally (temperature remains constant) from a low-temperature source, T_L, in the amount Q_L­. Next, the refrigerant is isentropically (No heat is added or removed and adiabatic) compressed and its temperature rises to that of the high-temperature source T_H.

At this high temperature, the refrigerant rejects heat isothermally in the amount Q_H. During this stage, the refrigerant also changes from saturated vapor to a saturated liquid in the condenser. Lastly, the refrigerant expands isentropically until its temperature falls to that of the low-temperature source, T_L.

Reflection 📜:

~Trisyia 🐌 ~

This week we got to know who were my group members. At first, I was pretty nervous as I am not so close to my members. However, through the bonding time activities, I managed to get to know them more and realised we may be a good team. We also learned how to create and post on our blog. At first, it was confusing but with time, practice and the help of Dr Noel, I got the hang of it. It was very interesting as I did not know there was a platform for this. I had fun looking through the themes and even designed my own custom theme that we ended up using!

~Jun Ying🚲~

In this week, we had our first ICPD lesson. I was quite nervous as I did not know what this module had in store for me, but after a while, I realized that my concerns were unfounded. The time spent in this class was such a great refresher and a change of pace to our usual modules, which were about attending lectures and doing tutorials into the late of night. It was honestly quite boring to repeat the same cycle for each week. However, in this module, we were introduced to Blogger: a website for writing and recording down our experiences and thoughts of each lesson. We were also grouped randomly. I was grouped with John and Trisyia, and we spent some time bonding in the middle of class. I enjoyed the lesson and I look forward to the next!!!!!!!

~John 👽~

In this week, we had our very first lesson for the module. It was not what I anticipated it to be especially with the introduction to the blog. The blog was very new to me as I never really interacted with anything related to a blog before so I do not have any experience regarding it. At first, there was so many technical difficulties as none of my group members and I have prior experience to blogging but we managed to get the hang of it eventually by the end of the lesson. Apart from the introduction to the module, the introduction to my team members was also done. They were a group of people that I never really had much interaction with them before which made me slightly nervous on how I was going to work with them as I wasn't sure if I will be able to work with them, but thankfully they are amazing people and really easy to work with so I feel that for this module we will be able to do well and I do hope that we will be able to understand one another more as the week goes by.