Chemical Engineering - Process Control and Systems Engineering

[cafe_au_lait]

It looks like this forum is mostly full of admissions-related stuff, but I'll throw this question out there anyway. Any perspective on process control/systems engineering programs? In terms of overall outlook for the field relative to other areas of chemical engineering, nature of the research, common paths that PhD's often follow in industry, etc.?

[teerav42]

I'm a 1st year ChemE PhD student in a controls group, so I can give advice on controls at least from the ChemE perspective. Although controls is an extremely important aspect of chemical engineering, particularly at the industrial level, process systems/controls do not get as much attention at the academic level as areas like bioengineering, catalysis, advanced materials, etc.... From what I can tell, it is extremely common for PhD students in process systems/controls to do industry internships during their PhD--I know everyone in my group does this for at least one summer, and usually two or three summers. For all engineering PhDs, the most common path after graduation is industry, and I think this is probably especially true for controls/process systems people, because expertise in those areas lends itself extremely well to industry. Let me know if you have any more questions!

[cafe_au_lait]

This is perfect, thanks for the reply! I am sure I will come up with many more questions and may send you a PM.

 

For now - any reason you picked Wisconsin over other programs (especially UT)? Obviously there is a very strong controls program, but I'm curious if anything in particular stood out to you at visits, etc.

 

I'm definitely interested in doing multiple industry internships if possible, so I'm glad - and not really surprised - to hear it's commonly done by PhD students in this area.

[teerav42]

The biggest reason I picked Wisconsin is that there were multiple professors that I was interested in. All the other schools I considered really only had one professor I could see myself working for. CMU probably would have been the best fit for me research wise, but they didn't let very many people in last year as they had a large 1st year class last year and didn't have room for many new students this year so I didn't get in. I heard MIT had a similar situation as well.

 

Other than that, although I liked all the schools I visited (Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and UT) I did feel Wisconsin stood out a little. And it wasn't anything specific that they did on the visit, because all schools know how to treat their recruits well and make sure they have a good time--it was more that I could see myself being comfortable and happy in a smaller city like Madison easier than a bigger city like Chicago, Minneapolis, or Austin. That's just personal preference though. Also, I connected the best with other prospectives at my Wisconsin visit--I made friends with several of the people I met pretty quickly and knew that several of them were either definitely going to Wisconsin or probably going there. That definitely helped when I moved to Madison as well, I already had a few friends which made the transition easier.

 

Definitely PM me if you want, I'm happy to answer any other questions you think of!

[cafe_au_lait]

Thank you for the response! I have my fingers crossed about Wisconsin.

[happyfeet]

bumping this because i am considering process systems engineering as well and would like to hear other people's opinions to the questions posed in the original post