Archived-Announcements-2012

From Engineering Economics and Problem Solving: 4N4
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Most recent announcements at the top

  • Final grades for 4N4 are now available on Avenue.
    • Grading is according to the Course outline, but this is a more convenient spreadsheet to see how your grade was calculated.
    • Please ignore any calculated grade in Avenue:
      • Ignore the midterm total
      • Ignore the final exam total
Avenue doesn't handle complex grading schemes and it definitely doesn't handle exceptions (e.g. people that miss midterms).
The only values you should read in Avenue are the different values for each assignment and the values for each question in the midterm and final.
The correctly calculated grade is the column called FINAL GRADE. That is an integer-rounded value that will appear on your transcript.
  • Course median 76.4%, with a spread of 7.1 (extremely narrow spread, due to the high degree of group work in the course).
  • Course grades were normally distributed and no curving was done.
  • The final exam was graded out of 100 marks.
  • A short memo from Dr. T. Marlin follows below. Please email Dr. Marlin directly if you discover any other errors in his material, or wish to provide him with feedback on this excellent resource he is working on.

Chemical Engineering 4N04

Date: December 14, 2012

To: Students in 4N04

From: T. Marlin

cc: K. Dunn

Subject: Troubleshooting Chapter


Professor Dunn has shared with me some of your successes during the course. I expect that you are exhausted but proud of your accomplishments.

I am writing you concerning the Troubleshooting chapter. It was a first draft that I hurried to make available to you for this semester. After review, it is apparent that I hurried too much and did not catch some errors. The error that might confuse you as you prepare for the final involves the major example that is used throughout the first half of the chapter - The Drooping Temperature. The text references to some instruments are not consistent with the drawing in Figure 9.6. (I wrote the chapter; then, I decided that the figure was not adequate, so I redrew the figure with much more detail, inadvertently changing instrument numbers.)

To help you study, please consider the following guidance on the instrument naming.

Temperature control In Fig 9.6 = TC30 In the text = TC1
Feed Flow In Fig 9.6 = FC3 In the text = FC1
Fuel Flow In Fig 9.6 = F1 In the text = F2

Thanks to Professor Dunn for pointing out these errors. Sorry that they remain in the version that you have available.

Best wishes on the exam.

  • Nicole mentioned some information about student PEO registration. Please read more about that here.
  • I've received all SDL reports electronically - thank you. I won't be sending individual acknowledgement emails.
  • One final hand-in is due for this course, other than your project: it is a course reflection. Due any time between now and 03 December. Please fill in this electronic form for your reflection. This form covers 3 areas:
You might want to wait until just before the final project hand-in so you can evaluate your peers. Please note that the reflection counts about 4% of your overall grade, and the peer evaluation is mandatory.
For the HAZOP study: please investigate only one unit, 2 nodes, 3 parameters per node, and 3 guide words.
  • For the SDL project presentations: a good rule of thumb for presenters is that you talk about a slide for about 1.5 to 3 minutes. That implies you need 5 to 7 slides for the 10 minutes of talking, and 1 or 2 extra for the class activity: so a total of about 8 slides. There are very few exceptions to this guideline, so please don't generate a lot of slide material: this is one case where "less is more". Another point is on font size. If you cannot read your slide when standing 2 meters away from your computer monitor, then the letters are too small.
  • Note regarding the last class: the last class for 4N4 is on Monday, 03 December, at 10:00 in JHE 342 (tutorial time slot). There was no other way to schedule this given the large number of groups presenting. Group A1 will present the last SDL report, then I will talk about the final exam. The class will be video recorded for those that cannot make it to the tutorial time. I will also answer any questions by email for those that can't make it. The slides for the class are here.
  • Finally! All the midterms are graded and values entered into Avenue. The median is 76.8%, and MAD is 13.3; the distribution is normal.
    • The slope coefficient when regressing the time you took to write the exam on your grade is statistically insignificant, indicating there was no benefit to your grade by having "infinite" time. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this is still an interesting result, given that it was an open-book exam.
    • \(\text{Grade} = b_0 + b_1 \text{Time}\), where \(b_1 = 0.0608\pm 2\times 0.0453\); the standard error, \(S_E = 13.9\), which is huge, and \(R^2 = 2.3\%\), on 76 degrees of freedom. \(\text{Time}\) is in minutes and \(b_0 = 65.1\%\)
    • If the above 2 points don't make sense, then you need to take 4C3 next year.
    • Please disregard the average that Avenue calculates. Avenue doesn't do unusual grading schemes like "5 bonus marks on the midterm". Only use Avenue to check that the grades match your midterm.
    • Questions on grading? Please speak with Yasser on all questions, except 5 and 6 which were graded by Kevin.
  • A lot of positive comments regarding Monday's troubleshooting exercise. I'm glad that most of you found it a useful learning tool and in future years I will have 2 tutorials on this topic. Don't worry about the grading too much on this one; we recognize this is your first attempt at troubleshooting, and it was especially hard for the first troubleshooter in the triad. Remember what you learned today (i.e. what you wrote in the evaluation) and try to apply it in the final exam: I want to and I can!
  • The full notes for the Process troubleshooting section have been posted.
  • It is extremely important that you collect a binder from me in class on Thursday or Friday. If you fail to collect this binder before the weekend, then the troubleshooting tutorial on Monday (assignment 8) will be a failure. This binder will contain a troubleshooting exercise that you must read before the tutorial on Monday.
    • If you cannot make it to class, please come by my office anytime on Thursday or Friday.
    • Please note, this tutorial counts for 20 points of your course grade. Not showing up at the tutorial, including being late, implies a zero, but more importantly lets down 2 of your colleagues in the class, because the entire triad depends on YOU!
    • If you cannot attend, provide a written explanation to me by Friday at noon.
    • You will work with 2 other people in the class; neither of the 2 will be existing group members.
    • There is no written submission after the tutorial. Everything is done during the tutorial time. It is not possible to "make up" this tutorial, due to its interactive nature.
  • There will be class all week on 13, 15 and 16 November to cover the final topics: operability and process troubleshooting.
  • Tutorial/assignment 7 is now posted and is due on 13 November 2012 at class.
  • Important: Several announcements from other professors will be made at class on Tuesday, 13 November. Please attend if you can.
  • Slides for class on Tuesday (13 Nov) will cover small parts of the larger operability topic. I've assembled the slides I will speak on into a single PDF. Please print for class on Tuesday, or print out after class for reference.
  • Operability notes with solutions have been posted.
  • Two useful resources relating to this week's classes (week 10) and assignment 7:
  • No tutorial next Monday, 12 November: please use the 2 hours to work on your SDL projects.
  • Grades for assignment 1, 2, 3 and 4 are posted on Avenue. Please sign in to check. Assignment 5 and 6 grades will be posted soon.
  • (Partial) midterm solutions are now available. The remaining solutions were covered in class.
  • The guest lecture on Thursday, 01 November: "Introduction to Innovation and Entrepreneurship" is now available on video.
  • An import memo regarding the SDL projects and next steps. Meetings with Alicia (group A's) and myself (group B's) may be scheduled from 13:00 to 19:00, Tuesday to Friday. Book them early to ensure you get a slot that works for your group.
  • Information about the midterm on Monday has been available for some time. Please make sure you bring the necessary materials with you to the exam. There are some practice problems also available.
  • Salary figures for Chemical Engineers between age 26 and 35
  • Some hints for the assignment 5:
    • Updated: The due date is Tuesday 23 October, at class.
    • Costing should be done for 2011.
    • Cost of steam: a publication from the DOE.
    • Another good article on pricing steam
    • From the above 2 articles you will gather that steam generation is a complex "mini-plant" in its own right, usually generating it using natural gas as an energy source. So if you find an outdated steam price, ratio it against the price of natural gas to get current pricing.
    • ACO pricing is hard to come by, but ACO has similar physical properties to palmitic acid, or hexadecanoic acid. In the absence of better information, you may use this for pricing instead.
  • Update on the midterm : the midterm has been rescheduled to 29 October 2012, starting at 19:00 (please be at the venue from 18:45 onwards). It will be written in T29, room 101. As requested in the course evaluation, some practice questions have been posted.
  • Assignment 5 for Monday is posted.
  • Based on the course evaluation feedback, there is now a discussion board available on the Avenue2Learn website. Please participate!
  • As promised, an example of self-directed learning report for 4N4 produced by a group in the 2011 class. There will be a memo with an update on the next steps for the SDL project in the next few days where you will have to write an outline of your project's scope.
  • Question for class on Thursday:
Estimate the capital cost for a distillation column fabricated from 316 stainless steel, 26 trays at regular spacing of 0.6m, operating at 3.2MPa. The column height is 21.3m and diameter of 2.3m.
  • Solutions for both assignment 2 and 3 are available; see below. Paper copies will be returned in class on Thursday.
  • A reading on the Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index (CEPCI)
  • The informal course evaluation results.
  • An update regarding electronic submissions: a single Word document or PDF or Google Doc (preferred) will be accepted. Please read for more details.
  • Inflation adjustment factors for the process industries
  • 2 slides on the bare module method
  • A list of costs that should be considered
  • You will also require portions of Don Woods' book Cost Estimation for the Process Industries. This can only be downloaded from McMaster computers [30 Mb]. Please keep a copy for tutorials and use in class exercises. You do not need to print the entire book, only the parts from chapter 1. The other chapters are for reference.
  • We'd like to be clear: a spreadsheet by itself is NOT a valid assignment submission and will essentially receive a grade of zero: it's as if handing in a report to your manager with only appendices but no content. Furthermore, we are seeing groups that do not follow the requirements posted a week ago: non-native Google Docs do not show up correctly and cannot be commented on by the TAs or myself.
  • Assignment 4 is posted for Monday's tutorial.
  • A short note regarding cover letters has been posted.
  • For assignment 3, question 5: please use an MARR of 15%. The assignments are due at the start of your tutorial time slot; if handing in electronically, please make sure we get them by 17:00.
  • A memo has been posted, dated 24 September 2012. We will discuss this in class on 25 September.
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