Coming into college, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do.  In high school I really liked my math and science classes and I wanted to apply those things to solving bigger problems so I chose engineering.  Chemistry was always my favorite subject, I’ve always loved baking and mixing things together, so I decided to go with chemical engineering.

So far what I’ve learned about chemical engineering is that it’s about taking one thing and figuring out how to turn it into something else.  Whether this is through process design or research and development, there are almost endless applications of chemical engineering.

One of my favorite things about my major is the breadth of opportunities available.  Chemical engineering can be applied to almost every field, which is really good because I have no idea what I want to do when I graduate.  From the petroleum industry to cosmetics to weapons development, a huge variety of companies need chemical engineers so I can really choose any field when I graduate.

Engineers in Industry

Another really cool thing about chemical engineering here is the option of choosing an emphasis.  There are six different options within the chemical engineering department, and I am currently focusing on nanotechnology.  Basically with the substitution of a few different chemical engineering elective classes, you can get a more specialized education in a specific branch of the field while still getting all the basic classes too.  I have loved my emphasis in nanotechnology so far, and have gotten to learn a lot about it through my research (which you can read about here).

The research lab I work in

Even though I don’t know what I want to do, I really enjoy all the chemistry and chemical engineering classes I’m taking, and am really excited to start getting into upper division and specialized classes to learn about all the opportunities afforded to chemical engineers.

Lyssa Aruda-2015

Lyssa Aruda-2015
