Week 1

Dr. Noel has been excellent in showing us Tuckman's team forming guidelines.

It was clear that we would have many trials and tribulations ahead of our group, whether it would be deadlines to hit, or progressing as a group with the same group, we had to stay together strong as a team and not give up.

Embarking on our new group together, our team was tasked upon one solitary objective; which was to retreat and perform an activity that would bring us even closer together.

From left to right: Andrew, Pi Ti, Cyane, Junheng

It was pouring outside and yet we braved the rain and took the wettest picture together. This was definitely a good point to start off our newest project based module.

Module Overview: 📝

In this module, CP5065, Introduction to Chemical Product Design (ICPD), the CDIO approach is used. It is a worldwide engineering education framework that aims to produce engineering graduates who are able Conceive -> Design -> Implement -> Operate complex value added engineering systems in a modern team-based engineering environment to create systems and products. This module teaches us how important and the reason behind documentation. It also aims to develop us, learners with an aptitude for chemical product design.

Team Formation:

1. Forming 🤝

This is the start of everything, where individuals come together as a whole for the first time to form a team and get to know one another. This is the stage that involves a period of orientation and getting acquainted. 

During this forming stage, the team discusses about the team requirements, assigns tasks, challenges, expectations and begins forming personal relationship. This is the information gathering and exploratory stage.

2. Storming 🌪

This storming stage is the most difficult stage of team formation. There will be disagreements, conflicts and even fights among team members. Individuals in the team will have different ideas and directions leading to debates and competition. This decreases the team performance and efficiency as energy is focused on unproductive activities. 

This phase may be uncomfortable and unpleasant but it will allow growth and development of the team. Members must work to overcome obstacles and accept individual differences and conflicting ideas. It is important to address the problems faced than keeping it all to ourselves, as it would lead to more long-term problems.

3. Norming 🤗

When the team get through the storming stage they then move on the norming stage, the team really begin to understand each others working habits and appreciate one another's strength. Team then starts to function and work together as a team. The roles and responsibilities becomes much more defined, expectations are set, and collaboration is in full swing.

4. Performing 💃🏼

In the performing stage,  the relationship between members also grows and members feel more comfortable asking for help, offering constructive feedback and even the hierarchy in roles are less important. This allows higher efficiency on the team performance. 

5. Adjourning 🏆

This is the final stage of team formation, adjourning. At this stage, it involves completing the task and breaking up the team. Members need time to reflect on their individual participation and growth. It is also important to recognize the growth, progress, and achievements of the group as a whole. This is the time to celebrate all that has been accomplished.

What is a Chemical Product?

A chemical product is a product that is derived and/or manufactured using chemical engineering principles. The process in which a chemical product is designed is known as chemical product design. 

Some examples of chemical engineering principles are, (rheology, energy and mass balance - Fluid Flow), (evaporation - Heat Transfer), (leaching, filtration - Mass Transfer), (blending - Mechanical Process), (instrumentation - Reaction), etc.

Chemical Product is separated into 4 sub-categories:

1. Commodities

·       Made in large quantities

·       Sold at lowest possible price

·       Traditional focus of chemical engineering

·       Made through reaction engineering and unit operation

2. Chemical Devices

·       Miniature processes which accomplish a particular chemical transformation

·       Provides convenience

Chemical devices are devices that allows us to qualify a certain process or chemical transformation. These devices may allow us to achieve better results via efficiency or even convenience us for our daily lives. These processes are often fundamental principles and concepts of physics and applied chemistry as well as chemical engineering.

3. Molecular Products

·       Possess specific chemical structure

·       Discovered through research

4. Micro-structured Products

·       Product with specific functions

Documentation📁

Why document?

A single source of truth saves time and energy. An effective documentation collects all of the must-know information about a task in a centralised and organised place.

Writing all processes is helpful for spotting bottlenecks and bloated workflows, so you can further streamline the way your team works.

It also helps to reduce duplicative work. For example, why reinvent the wheel when you can just build on the work that has already happened? With documentation, there will be a reference of past work and learn from it, instead of doing it all over again leading to same results and wasting of time.