Chemical engineering has a profound impact on our daily lives and industries, including synthetic fibers and plastics, electronic device materials, and energy resource processing. It is linked to various fields and plays an important role in solving environmental pollution problems and developing green energy, and is systematically taught in undergraduate schools from basic subjects to advanced majors.
Chemical engineering is an important discipline that has fundamentally changed human life and industry. There is no point in asking “what if” in history, but how would our lives be different if chemical engineering did not exist? Most of the clothes we wear are made of synthetic fibers such as polyester, so without chemical engineering, we would have to make clothes only from natural fibers such as hemp, cotton, and silk. The cases for our everyday electronics would have been made of heavy metals rather than polymers or plastics, and we wouldn’t have the lightweight portability we have today. And many of the products made by processing natural gas and crude oil would likely have disappeared, so we wouldn’t have plastic bottles, asphalt, and many other chemical products around us. As you can see, chemical engineering and its products permeate every aspect of our lives, affecting things we don’t even notice. That’s why it’s hard to imagine a society without chemical engineering.
Chemical engineering has been developed in conjunction with various disciplines such as biology, electronics and electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. This has opened up endless application possibilities by developing medicines, beneficial substances, and various process innovations. Therefore, chemical engineering has been necessary in the past and will continue to be necessary in the future.
So, what do you learn in our undergraduate program, and what path will you take? Our undergraduate curriculum is designed to build a strong foundation from the ground up. In your first year, you’ll build your foundation as a science student with foundational subjects such as physics and chemistry, and in your second and third years, you’ll learn the principles of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and other core subjects of chemical engineering, and you’ll see how theory is applied in practice through undergraduate experiments. In the second half of your third year, you’ll take elective courses that prepare you for research or employment. We liken this process to building a skyscraper. Just as it’s impossible to build a skyscraper without a strong foundation, our undergraduate curriculum is designed to build a strong foundation in the lower years so that you can easily understand the applied subjects in the upper years.
After completing these undergraduate programs, you can go on to graduate school to further study your interests, or work in research institutes or related industries. After graduating from the undergraduate program, many of our students have gone on to work in large chemical and refining companies such as SK Energy and Honam Petrochemical, where they have taken on various roles such as plant management, R&D, and production process management. In the graduate school, laboratories are mainly organized according to five research areas. They are process development research, which manages the operation of chemical plants and the production process of products; nano-inorganic materials and catalytic processes research, which studies catalysts and nanomaterials that speed up reactions; semiconductor and electrochemical research, which studies fuel cells and semiconductors; biological and environmental research, which develops materials that are environmentally and biologically friendly; and organopolymer materials research, which studies organic and polymeric materials. Through these research areas, many of our seniors have made outstanding achievements in various industries and contributed to society.
Currently, our faculty’s research is also playing a major role in addressing global issues such as environmental concerns and resource depletion. Pollution caused by fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, which are becoming increasingly depleted, has become a serious problem, and chemical engineering research is actively being conducted to solve this problem. Research is being conducted to develop secondary cells such as fuel cells that do not emit pollutants, develop eco-friendly catalysts in the biological and environmental fields, and create compounds that are harmless to the human body. Internationally, the demand for eco-friendly technologies is increasing day by day, as failure to meet environmental standards can lead to economic sanctions. Therefore, research and investment are active not only in traditional chemical engineering research but also in environmental, biological, and alternative energy fields.
Our faculty is equipped with an environment where we can actively promote research for an eco-friendly society through various academic linkages and collaborations. Laboratories from various fields such as biology and environment are located within the same faculty, providing ideal conditions for collaboration and joint research. This will provide opportunities not only to further develop traditional chemical engineering research and create good chemical engineering products, but also to effectively prepare for the upcoming energy crisis and environmental issues.
As such, our faculty is an academic space that responds to today’s societal needs and is prepared to address the diverse challenges of tomorrow.
