How can the interdisciplinary nature of chemical engineering contribute to understanding changes in our daily lives and creating social value?

Chemical and biomedical engineering is a discipline that combines chemistry and biology to understand various changes in daily life and contribute to industrial development and environmental protection. Through this, students develop the ability to create social value based on basic knowledge.

 

My major is chemical and biomedical engineering. This discipline combines chemistry and biology and plays an important role in various industries. However, the predecessors of our department were all chemistry-related majors. It’s only been in the last decade that biology has come into engineering. Initially, there was some skepticism that biology would be difficult to integrate with engineering, but over time, as life science technologies have advanced, it has been recognized that this integration is essential. Therefore, the courses in the cognitive major are 50% chemistry, 40% physics, and only 10% biology. This is a reflection of academic tradition and proportion, but considering the modern trend, the proportion of biology is expected to gradually increase in the future. As biotechnology is promising in industry and society, the share of chemical engineering is gradually increasing, and it is expected that it will soon fulfill its expectations.
The subjects to be studied in chemical engineering are divided into chemical engineering and biological engineering. However, they are not separate subjects, but rather interrelated. This is a prime example of how two different disciplines can work together in synergy. Either way, our undergraduate studies are still only the foundation, and the scope of what we can actually do with it is very narrow. But without this foundation, application and advancement are impossible, and it’s an important process, just like a solid foundation is necessary for a building. It’s a foundation, and you can’t start anything without it.
Chemical engineering is divided into two main parts: the development of materials and substances and processes. You can think of it as the “products” that are produced and the “processes” that go into them. Advances in chemical engineering are directly related to improving the quality of various products used in our daily lives, which has a significant impact on industries across the board. However, you don’t learn about development directly, you learn about the properties and reaction processes of different substances, which provide the basis for development. When it comes to processes, we move on to larger units and learn about the design of reactors to produce products in factories. Of course, in undergraduate courses, we study idealized reactions that are often based on assumptions rather than reality. It’s mainly about finding the optimal conditions to produce a product, how to create those conditions, how to recycle the reactants that are left over when the reaction is not complete, and how to dispose of the waste after production. This academic research ultimately contributes to finding ways to protect the environment and use resources efficiently.
The subject of biological engineering is more biological than engineering. It involves the study of different reactions within living organisms and how they can be utilized in engineering. While this sounds simple, the number of reactions in living organisms and the way they interact is very complex. Understanding biological reactions is key to biotechnological applications, which can be applied in a variety of fields, including drug discovery, biofuel production, and agricultural innovation. As such, research in biotechnology moves beyond mere theoretical knowledge and focuses on developing practical technologies that can be applied in our daily lives.
Building on these studies, my graduate studies focus on process development, nano-inorganic materials and catalytic processes, semiconductors and electrochemistry, biology and the environment, and organic polymeric materials. Each area of research addresses different challenges, but ultimately aims to contribute to building a better society. Process development is literally engineering the process of synthesizing and making a certain chemical, i.e., designing a factory that is economically profitable. Nano-inorganic materials and catalysis processes focus on chemical reactions on the surface of materials, which is important for the development of new catalysts and the advancement of nanotechnology. Semiconductors and electrochemistry exploit the electrical properties and reactions of chemicals, which can contribute to the next generation of energy technologies or increase the efficiency of electronics. Biological laboratories study the properties of biological materials at the molecular and cellular level and how they can be engineered. Environmental engineering can have many branches, but in our major, we specifically study sewage and water treatment. These are important topics related to sustainable environmental management. Finally, organic polymeric materials is the most chemically oriented field of study, where we study the properties and synthesis of organic materials and their usefulness. This variety of research topics equips students with the ability to develop their own expertise and create social value.
The basic subjects of most engineering majors are taught slightly differently depending on the field in which they are to be applied, even if they are studied from the same book. The same subject is viewed from different perspectives. This difference breaks down the boundaries between disciplines and develops the ability to solve problems from different disciplinary perspectives. For example, chemical engineering courses overlap a lot with materials engineering courses because while they focus on materials, we focus on the processes of creating and processing chemicals and products, which is why our courses are called “Process and Fluid Mechanics” even though we study the same fluid mechanics. This interdisciplinary interaction is essential to solving complex problems, and it teaches students to think integrally.
As you study in this way, you tend to become more and more focused on one discipline, and then you suddenly realize. Morning comes, you wake up, eat, wash, go to school, get sick and take medicine, flowers bloom, wind blows, rain falls, you turn on the boiler in your room and turn on the lights, and you start to see the “chemistry” or “change” of all of that. Nothing in the world is constant when you look at it at the molecular level. And that change, whether good or bad, intended or unintended, affects our lives in ways big and small. With this realization, we go beyond simply acquiring knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of how the disciplines we learn are implemented in the real world.
After I started thinking about this, I was talking to a friend about this idea, and her sister, who is majoring in consumer behavior and library and information science, said that nothing in this world is possible without “communication”. She said that “university studies” seem to teach us how to look at things and phenomena. I completely agree with this statement, and it reminded me that chemical and biomedical engineering, which I study, is one of those perspectives.
So, if you want to learn about chemical and biological changes in the world, I recommend studying chemical engineering. In a world that is constantly changing and evolving, it gives you the ability to understand the nature of that change and use it to contribute to the well-being and development of humanity. Your idea of what you actually want to do can change many times over the course of four years of college. This is not determined by your major, but by your own exploration and experiences. I think it’s better to be open to more possibilities and study about what you want to study now, rather than deciding on a major that limits your future work.