Chemical Engineering Overview - Overview PDF - PowerPoint - Podcast

	B.S. - Chemical Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
	Associate Process Engineer
	"Keep plugging away. It's a rough road and we suffer a lot, but later on it pays off. It's really not the journey, it's the destination."

Q: What do you do as a process engineer?
Munda: I do drawing reviews, specifications of equipment, and design.

Q: When you say specifications of equipment, what does that mean?
Munda: Specifying a piece of equipment is making sure that all the requirements, as far as utilities and finishes on the equipment, are sanitary. Basically, what the operations people require of a piece of equipment. We have to make sure that it can do what they need and, at the same time, be safe. It must be sanitary, clean in the area that they're going to be using it, and functional.

Q: How do chemical engineers fit into this?
Munda: Some of the courses that we take, like unit operations, teach you how to specify pumps, heat exchangers, and other types of equipment. That's where you get some of your education. Then, at the same time, you have to know how to do calculations on different things that a certain piece of equipment might require-flow rates, fouling, and fouling rates.

Q: How did you first get interested in being a chemical engineer?
Munda: I actually think it was in high school. I was always pretty strong in math all through my education. When I went into high school, I had a really good chemistry instructor who made me want to go more into chemistry. My basketball and volleyball coach was actually a guidance counselor. I was talking to her at one of our tournaments and she said, `What do you think you're going to do when you graduate?' I didn't think I knew, and I said I really liked chemistry, so she suggested chemical engineering. And I thought, chemical engineering, that sounds exciting-I could tell people I'm a chemical engineer. So that got me to look into it, and then I decided that's what I wanted to at least try when I went into the university. And when I started at the university, I just followed the path, not really thinking about anything else. Then, in my third year, I had a senior advisor who introduced me to biotechnology. He was starting a program at the university in biotechnology. I heard about Genentech, and came here to work.

Q: Has reality differed from what you first thought chemical engineering might be?
Munda: For a while it was tough for me, because when I graduated I was told by my senior advisor that it would be really tough to get right into the engineering group. I'd probably have to start off in an entry-level position, something like manufacturing. He said most engineering professions require somewhere on the range of five to ten years of some kind of experience. What I didn't understand was how do you get that experience if no one's going to take you? So I decided to go ahead and work with Genentech. I liked what the company did and the culture that they portrayed when they came to recruit at my school. I got in and started working in manufacturing. I heard, `maybe two to five years and then I could move into engineering.' So I said, that's fine, it's worth it to at least get my foot in the door. It kind of got me down, though, because I was slowly moving away from being in engineering work. I had some projects that did involve engineering but, for the most part, it was manufacturing, which in this company, is technicians who run the facility. They run the equipment and make sure that we get the product out into the market.

Q: How are you involved in biotechnology?
Munda: We're involved with the equipment that produces all the drugs. We have scientists who create the process. They say we need to do this, that, and the other thing in order to produce this drug. Then they come to engineering and let engineering know that they need the equipment to produce it. That's where we step in. We design facilities that will have all the utilities that they need. We design the equipment. We make sure that it's aesthetically pleasing for operators-they won't have to reach two places to do the same thing at the same time. It's pretty exciting to know that we still get a part of the science because we are pretty involved with the process, since we need to design the equipment. And we still do the engineering.

Q: Who do you work with on a daily basis?
Munda: We basically work with process scientists. They're the ones who developed the process to produce the drug. In the engineering group that I work in, I think that people do have the communications skills. We have to deal with sciences for validation, quality assurance, quality control, regulatory-even human resources when we need to go out and get extra help for our group. We deal a lot with outside contractors that we bring in to help us do some design work. Or they might be the construction folks who work on the facility. So it's important to have strong communications skills.

Q: When you mention communications skills, what specifically are you talking about and how can a chemical engineering student get those skills?
Munda: I think being involved in clubs helps, maybe being involved in things where you interact with a lot of people. Definitely in lab work. In labs, you tend to work in groups where you get some teamwork experience. I think being involved outside of that as well gives you a chance to interact with other people. That really helps. Going out and doing intramural sports, joining clubs, just being out and about. It's important to meet people and learn how to deal with them.

Q: How can you learn job- and industry-specific communication skills?
Munda: I think you can develop them in school and outside of school. I never took an internship when I was in university, but now I think it's really valuable because you get to learn what goes on in industry and interact with people on a different level, people who are actually professionals. As an intern, you might even deal with the contractors, depending on the company you work for. You get to see the whole gamut of people with whom you might be working. Just being out there and meeting people is really helpful.

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