Tip #5: Data

Data is the one of the most important part of being a chemical engineer. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of quality of data. Many data sources such as books, on the Internet or in scientific journals are inaccurate or simply wrong. This can be due to problems with experiments, errors in processing measurements, misuse of extrapolation or estimation techniques, or something as simple as a copying error. For a chemical engineer to be a responsible engineer (which they must be!) the goal is not to just get a number but get a reliable and repeatable number. Obtaining reliable physical and chemical property data requires evaluation of data. This involves expert evaluation of experimental techniques (including sample purity), consistency tests, comparisons among multiple data sets and multiple measurements for the same substance, and other factors such as trends within chemical families.

In order to be a better chemical engineer, the engineer must be responsible and make sure to get reliable data that is both accurate and repeatable.