This is a set of Chemical Engineering References I have gotten in my career.
This goes from shops, forums, websites and even social media groups.
This is a PERSONAL list that I use by myself and recommend to my students as well, please share if you also think it is valuable!
AIChe
The AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineering) is by far one of the best places to get resources and information as a chemical engineer.
You will find:
- Fellows & Communities
- Leadership Programs
- Education
- Job Search
- Networking
By the way, they also have the Chem-E-Car Contenst which is great. Check the video:
IChemE
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is pretty similar to AIChE, mostly for NON-US members.
Here, you can find lots of things related to the industry such as: Jobs, Training, Education, and the Membership!
It is a great alternative to AIChE
Scribd.com
This is for me one of the best places to get A LOT of papers, ebooks and slideshows. It is a bargain with just $8.99 USD/month.
Here, I have a list of interesting reference material for Enigneers.
I will recommend this specially if you are “open” to new forms of studying. You can get plenty of “non-conventional” resources, specially in the Engineering Section.
Check out my blog post for specifics!
Forums
I used to love forums before social media came to substitute most of them. A forum is nothing more than a set of Threads and topics organized in Q&A and “blog-post” like pages. There are some that are still active:
Facebook Groups
As stated before, Forums were replaced with Social Media Groups. The most relevant I would say are Facebook Groups. The user-to-user interaction is very efficient, besides having an admin + moderators most of the groups will be free of spam or material not related to the group.
My best pick are these:
- Chemical Engineering Group (137K Members) By far, the largest ChemEng Group in Facebook
- ChemEng Ebooks (24K members) here you can find some material, please ensure to get LEGAL and no PIRACY material!
- Chemical Engineering Era (50K Members)
- My Group! Here, I get in touch with you guys!
Note: I skipped all “jobs” related groups, but still, I will recommend you to join those!
If you want to keep reading more on Facebook Group worth your time, read this blog post
If you know Reddit, you know the drill… Just search for your favorite sub!
If you have no idea of what Reddit is, check this other post FIRST…
Reddit is essentially the nearest thing to a FORUM of those that I was talking you about! The formatting is “poor” but the content is GREAT. Check out my favorite subreddits:
AskEngineers
In AskEngineers, you can get literally a TON of questions already answered related to engineering, unfortunately for us ChemE’s, these are either Civil or Mechanical (mostly).
Still you can get plenty of other resources related to P&ID, Piping, Steel, Construction Materials, Machines, Pumps, etc..
As with any subreddit, pleas ensure to follow the guidelines, read the FAQ and avoid “obvious” questions.
ChemicalEngineering
The ChemEng Subreddit is one of my favorites for the following reasons:
- It is of chemical engineers!
- plenty of ChemE questions
- Lots of new people into ChemE!
I try to be active at least once or twice a week… Check it out! I definitively recommend any ChemE student, graduate or worker to check it out!
EngineeringStudents
If you are a student, you are most likely familiar with EngineeringStudents SubReddit.
It is mostly dedicated for STUDENTS, so please avoid asking professional questions. Unfortunately, there is plenty of “unethical practices” so I will not recommend this subreddit that much!
Still, you can get some value from it!
We already talked about Facebook and whenever talking about “professional” life: LinkedIn pops into mind!
There are some nice groups there. The best part, in my opinion, is that you can see the CV of each person! So you know who is answering, he’s expertise, and so on!
Chemical Engineering Magazine
70K members; Covers the ChemEng Magazine, but in the post/discussion section you have plenty of interesting posts related to Engineering & the Chemical Industry.
Chemical Engineering Network
12K members; As the name implies, this is a Chemical Engineering Network, but it is mostly a “general” forum for Chemical Engineers in Linkedin. There is a lot of Product/Services Pitches as well as Job Offers.
AICheE
40K members; As stated before, AIChE is a great organization to keep in touch with fellow Chemical Engineers. They constantly offer products & services of value as the group is pretty well moderated.
Worth joining and checking out some news now and then.
IChemE
58K Members; Pretty same as AIChE… Surprisingly more members in IChemE!
I haven’t been that active in this group so I can’t tell that much about it. I can imagine that the content is pretty similar to that of AIChE but in other areas (i.e. not US or Americas)
Will write an update eventually on how it goes 🙂
Amazon
Amazon.com has plenty of material and resources which are worth checking out.
This is of course one of the most “obvious” places to find resources, mostly BOOKS of authors which are recommended directly or are included in the class material & resources.
In my opinion, I will go for cheap e-books which have great ratings! They will different from the traditional books and might help you to save the class!
BTW, still will recommend Scribd.com as it is cheaper, but many times you will not find some books in that website, therefore, Amazon.com is still worth mentioning.
I hope you find value in those resources! Those are the ones I use mostly for my research on topics and what I might do in order to serve you better guys!
Let me know which one you liked the most in the comment section below: