40-6 |
Hands-on instruction - opportunities and challenges |
S. S. H. RIZVI, Dept. of Food Science, Cornell Univ., 114 Stocking Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 Food engineering is often the most challenging aspect of food manufacturing operations in which heat, mass and momentum transfer, phase change and changing material properties may interact together simultaneously. Along with a thorough understanding of the fundamental of engineering, chemistry and biology, hands-on experience is essential for a food engineer to verify the validity of concepts learnt in classrooms and the importance of accuracy, error and uncertainty in experimental measurements. This can be achieved through the use of theoretical principles combined with practical knowledge through carefully planned and executed hand-on laboratory exercises. In this presentation, several examples of "designed to teach" laboratory setups to relate theory to practice will be outlined and discussed. The goal of these exercises has been to provide a clear and succinct explanation of the engineering principles and general methods without overlapping into the fields of unit operations and plant design. Attempt to provide experience of actually operating food engineering process equipment are not very rewarding since the equipment is often large requiring lengthy periods to attain steady state operation. Internships in industry together with continued refinements both in pedagogy and technical content of hands-on laboratory exercises to provide opportunities to food engineers to gain first hand experience with modernized systems are needed to meet the future challenges.
Session 40, Educating tomorrow's food engineers -- Global perspectives
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