Expectations of Skills and Knowledge in Traditional and Non-Traditional Industries for Chemical Engineering Graduates

Chemical engineering undergraduate students should have specific essential skills and technical knowledge for a successful career in the chemical engineering industry. Chemical engineering was initially applicable only in traditional chemical and manufacturing industries. However, technological advances and changing societal challenges have made expanding chemical engineering applications to other industries possible [1]. In this work, we report a more robust survey report that clarifies the ranking, differences, and similarities in the respondents' perceptions of skills and knowledge based on industry type. During the data-gathering stage of the ongoing curriculum redesigning of the Chemical Engineering program at Texas A&M University, we surveyed the program alumni to determine the importance of specific skills and technical knowledge for their career success [2]. The respondents are alumni who graduated from the undergraduate program between 1956 - 2020. We categorized respondents' industries into traditional and nontraditional chemical engineering industries. We ranked the perception of the importance of skills and knowledge for respondents from traditional and nontraditional industries. Also, we carried out a non-parametric statistical analysis to determine the similarities and differences in the perceptions. Our study shows that the skill of identifying global industry and societal issues is top-ranking for respondents in both traditional and nontraditional industries. Also, the knowledge of data science, application, design of experiments, and statistics is top-ranking for respondents from traditional and nontraditional industries. Significant trends and insights from this survey have been pivotal to the current curriculum redesign of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University. The data from our survey has effectively provided updated and robust data for informing relevant skills and knowledge required for successful chemical engineering careers. Here, we report updated insights and trends that can provide helpful references to other chemical engineering undergraduate programs.