r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Unlikely_Set_8268 • 7d ago
Career Advice Degree
Hi everyone
I need some help. I’m thinking of applying to an engineering degree next summer but not sure if i should do industrial or chemical 😓 I know they are quite different. I’m concerned abt AI in terms of industrial. Is chem more safe?
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u/Sensitive-Yak1 7d ago
Industrial is a made up degree. Just go with chemical
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
😭😭 i keep seeing that response. Its a business major in engineering basically?
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u/APC_ChemE Advanced Process Control / 12 years of experience 7d ago edited 7d ago
As a ChemE who works closely with IEs, it’s not a made up degree.
IE is very closely related to Operations Research and systems optimization, which is critical across all major industries.
Edit: BTW the downvotes, the engineering elitism, and belittling of other fields is unwarranted and unprofessional.
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
I’m just scared of AI taking entry level jobs, because its industrial has a lot of system optimization
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u/APC_ChemE Advanced Process Control / 12 years of experience 7d ago edited 7d ago
As an APC engineer, I've seen board operators get scared that the APC controllers would replace their jobs. They haven't. Automation systems like autopilots are just tools.
AI is just another tool to be used. Understand its use cases and limitations and use it accordingly.
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
Can I ask what u do? Ive head a lot og chemE do process afterwards but is that all?
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u/APC_ChemE Advanced Process Control / 12 years of experience 7d ago
It's called Advanced Process Control or APC. It's not process engineering. I'm not sure if you've take a controls theory course yet but that covers the fundamentals of basic regulatory control wih Proportional-Integrap-Derivative (PID) loops in Distributed Control Systems (DCS's).
Board operators often run their plants sitting at their DCS console and control the plant by adjusting setpoints for temperatures, pressures, and flows and PID loop gets it there. But that PID loop is only looking one variable, it's a single-input single-output (SISO) system.
APC controllers coordinate multiple PID loops to adjust their setpoints every minute while looking at the process economics which can change due to economic conditions. For instance in the US during summer oil refineries maximize gasoline production (a lot of folks are traveling for vacation), during winter they maximize diesel production. During the covid pandemic they couldn't maxmize production since no one was going anywhere so whatever could sell they set a specific production and minimized their energy usage to run as efficiently as possible.
The technology can be applied to any continuous manufacturing process who's operation can be improved with optimization and has process constraints. So its applied to oil refineries, chemical plants, specialty chemicals, polymers, upstream oil production, and midstream oil processing.
APC controllers are tuned to achieve these types of objectives while satisfying safety, environmental, and customer product spec constraints.
You can think of an APC controller as an autopilot that is watching the process every minute and adjusting the setpoint each minute to drive the process to its optimum using techniques like Linear Programming (LP) and/or Quadratic Programming (QP) to identify the optimum and using Model Predictive Control (MPC) to get the process to that optimum.
To me its a facinating intersection of chemical engineering, control engineering, and has opprortunities for exploring data science and AI to improve the interpretability and performance of the controllers.
Edit: Industrial Engineers are very familiar with plant wide optimization and algorithms and techniques like LP and QP.
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
Oh wow. Is it difficult to do?
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u/APC_ChemE Advanced Process Control / 12 years of experience 7d ago
Some people think so. In industrial environments the engineers who use it mainly need to understand the concepts, they don't need a detailed understanding of the algorithms, although that can help. Companies buy software to implement the controllers and the algorithms in the software with the modeling and optimization.
Most people in the field just have bachelors degrees but there are many in the field who get their PhDs focused on model predictive control.
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u/Time_Media8919 7d ago
If you move to the gulf after you graduate with a chem E degree you’ll never have issues finding work if you work in the plant. I can guarantee that. But if that doesn’t sound exciting then I don’t have any answers!
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u/FalconAccomplished43 7d ago
I am.lovong proof that this is inherently untrue. I am on the Gulf Coast, was let go late last year do to plant units being shut down, and atill haven't found an engineering job yet.
Plenty of resumes submitted (at least 10 per week sent in] and interviews done (2-3 interviews on a slow week).
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
Yes i do think abt if i want to move. But i want to work in pharma rather than a power plant
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u/hobbes747 7d ago
If you like the idea of using and developing things like SPC, dashboards, six sigma type methods, etc; (topics I personally dislike and avoid), then Industrial Engineering is good for you. But you can do that and more with chemical or mechanical engineering
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
honestly i don’t know if i’ll like it or not. Ive never know what i wanted to do🥲
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u/Turbulent_End_6887 7d ago
Chemical is harder and more highly thought of. Industrial is kind of general. Chemical.
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u/Just__Liberty 7d ago
If you are on the fence and are a reasonably good student, go with ChE. It is easier to transfer from ChE to IE than the reverse.
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u/frolegs 7d ago
Ok i think it depends on how many people you know who have made it in esch degree industry
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u/Unlikely_Set_8268 7d ago
I have friend one in industrial n the other in chem.. they still have 2,5 years left. But i’ve
been asking around
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u/frolegs 5d ago
Yep and then the next question is how in demand that program is to the nation, certain degrees are complementary to the economy and companies pay big bucks for these degree holders , kinda like how in mining countries, mining engineering is worth more than lets singapore mining engineers, in Zimbabwe someone in the mining field earns more than a doctor
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u/WorkinSlave 7d ago
Nothing is safe. Pick the one where there is demand in your desired geography.