This course will be taught primarily in person. We will have in-person group problem solving and office hours. We will make every effort to help you succeed but, as always,  the responsibility to stay atop the material will be largely up to you. Much of the course material (lectures, comprehension questions, and step-by-step instruction on solving related problems) is hosted on edX. (If you haven't received an email getting access to the course EdX, please email!)

All material is grouped by chapter in the Modules tab. You can also get to assignments from the Course Summary (below), which lists them in order of due date.

A quick overview of the activities:

• Four days a week--a mix of in-person lectures, in-person problem-solving in small groups, and pre-recorded lectures
• One day a week--pre-recorded problem-solving 
• Homework due each week is graded
• Two prelims and a final (non-cumulative). The dates will be posted when available from the university
• Participation in each lecture, problem-solving, and pre-recorded material is critical and is graded

We look forward to working and learning with you this semester. Please reach out (see "Office Hours" for contact info) if you have questions or want to talk through something in more detail. See also the "Getting Help" for more resources to tackle issues from tech to homework to stress. We're here to help make this class and this semester a success for you!

Course Prerequisites

Fluid Mechanics (can be taken simultaneously); Calculus through differential equations

Meeting Time and Details

Class meets four times a week at RR 401: Tuesdays at 10:10 AM-11:00 AM; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 11:20 AM-12:10 PM. The sessions that are synchronous and live will vary each week. When not synchronous, the videos and related work would be approximately 50 minutes. See Assignments for details. 

Textbook and Course Notes

• Datta, A.K. 2017. Heat and Mass Transfer: A Biological Context. CRC Press. I follow the textbook very closely. The textbook has additional explanations and, most importantly, problem-solving strategies throughout. Homework problems are assigned by the number from the text.

• Datta, A.K. 2022. BEE 3500 course notes. Copies of all overheads used in lectures will be available and need to be purchased. The details are being worked out.

• Both are available at Campus Store. Prior year versions should not be used.

Canvas has homework, past exams, solutions (in due time), and grade information (see "Grade" tab, above). 

For routine matters such as issues with lectures, homework, exams, re-grading, etc., please email head TA Debmalya.

However, you are most welcome to email Professor Datta for any reason, if you so desire. Professor Datta really encourages you to attend his office hours for one-on-one assistance.

Important: One of the important ways we stay in touch with you is through office hours. Thus, the professor and all TAs will keep a list of those attending their sessions. Every student will be expected to attend at least one of the office hours each week. This will count toward class participation and thus the final grade.

Contact Information	Photo	Time	Location
Ashim Datta Professor (akd1@cornell.edu)		Wednesday 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm	Upson 206
Debmalya Ghosh Head TA (dg668@cornell.edu)		Thursday 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm	Hollister 314
Rachel Havriliak UG TA (rjh342@cornell.edu)		Tuesday 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm	Hollister 314
Yichen Zhang UG TA (yz2442@cornell.edu)		Thursday 5pm - 6:30 pm	Hollister 314
Owen Farchione UG TA (of57@cornell.edu)		Wednesday 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm	Hollister 314

From medicine to food processing, from global warming to greenhouse design, from nanotechnology to weather prediction, these disciplines all have transport (movement) of energy and/or mass as one of the fundamental underlying processes.

Let us consider three examples in the biomedical context. As we breathe, oxygen diffuses through the walls of alveoli capillaries into the bloodstream. How hot or cold we feel depends on the relative rates of heat generation inside the body and heat loss from the body surface due to convection and evaporation (of sweat). In laser surgery, selected regions of tissue are destroyed using the heat from the laser. The design of a tablet for sustained release of a drug over time requires manipulation of the diffusion of the drug through the various layers of the tablet.

Since transport processes are often critical to wide-ranging practical applications, it makes sense for engineers as problem solvers to develop a working knowledge of these processes, starting with their fundamentals.

Of course, we should study these fundamentals of transport processes in our context, i.e., biology and the environment, to be most relevant. Such context can include bio-heat transfer (energy transfer in the presence of blood vessels) thermoregulation (control of body temperature), thermal therapy (heating or cooling as a medical procedure), cryobiology (behavior of cells and tissues at low temperature), global warming, pollutant transport through the soil into groundwater and dispersion of pollutants in the air.

We do not focus on these applications per se, but the underlying fundamentals that are critical to them.

Goals

Engineers are problem solvers, albeit in a quantitative way.  The eventual goal of this course is for you to be able to formulate a problem from the biological or environmental world (involving energy or mass transport) quantitatively, i.e., using equations, so that you can understand these processes more accurately and optimize them more easily.

When the course is over, you should:

• know the basic nature of the transport processes of conduction, convection, radiation, mass diffusion, dispersion, and mass convection, and the laws governing them;
• know the basic conservation equations describing these processes;
• know the properties of biomaterials that influence the rates of some of these transport processes;
• know about zero and first-order reactions (that are often present in biological and environmental processes) and how those reactions affect the conservation equations; and
• be able to formulate and solve simpler biological and environmental transport processes to obtain engineering insight into them.

The course goals are not to:

• make you an expert in any one application area — biological or environmental; this is an engineering science course, similar to statics and fluid mechanics that you have already taken that emphasizes the fundamentals as building blocks.  What you learn you can apply to many areas, but we will focus on biological and environmental applications.
• make you an expert in mathematical analysis.  The mathematical content has been truly minimized.

Remember, you are an engineer first, transport process specialist next.

Expectations

I will do my best to make everything we do in this class relate to practical applications that are relevant to what your engineering interests are.  In turn, I can assure you that the lecture topics have been carefully chosen over many years such that they are fundamental to biological engineering.  Please ask me if you do not see the relevance to practical applications.

This is a 4 credit course, letter grade only.

The assessment of your understanding of the transport processes and your ability to apply them to various practical situations will be based on the exams, homework, participation in problem-solving sessions, and participation in general (lectures, videos with questions, office hour attendance). There is also an optional small project.  The exams will consist of primarily numerical problems.  All exams are closed book.  A formula sheet is provided in all exams. A copy of this formula sheet is provided with the course notes.

In-class problem solving (2%)

Completing the in-class problem-solving worksheets will count for 2% of the total grade. You will be graded based on the efforts displayed to solve a problem. Completing the worksheet with a nonsensical solution or simply copying the solution from the slides will not be awarded any points.

Quizzes, lecture video and associated questions, and problem-solving modules in EdX platform (8%)

Tentatively, quizzes, watching the lecture videos, and answering associated questions will count for 2% and the same (videos plus questions) for problem-solving modules will count for 4%. There are also think-pair-share questions in class–these and your effort in office hours will count toward participation (1%).  Prior notification is required for absence in synchronous lectures — this includes interviews and religious occasions.  Please send an email to the head TA before the event.  I expect everyone to be in class on time. Attendance may be taken on random days.

Homework (20%)

The purpose of homework is to provide you with an opportunity to have more practice in what we do in lectures.  Homework will mostly consist of numerical problems where you can apply the material.   Homework assignments are under Assignments.  Graded homework will be returned the following Wednesdays.  Solutions will be posted on the website.  Late homework will not be accepted.   The lowest score in homework will be dropped for final grade calculations.  Any request for re-grading must be made within a week of receiving the graded homework.  Prepare a note explaining everything, with a copy of the homework/exam, and email the head TA.  The same rule applies for the exams.

Bonus (3%) Optional Project

You choose your own project. I expect you to choose a topic that you will enjoy working on.  Grades are based on the amount of effort put into the project and the quality of the final outcome (see detailed instructions on the last page of the syllabus).  Bonus points are added to individuals in a way that does not penalize those not doing the optional project. An example of a project from the past will be put on the website. The TAs and the instructor are available to help to a very limited extent due to the large class size.

General

For all exceptions, including interviews and religious occasions, the head TA needs to know before the event, barring medical emergencies and conditions (note from Cornell Health is required, when appropriate). Without prior notification or without valid reasons, no makeup can be provided.  I hope you understand why these rules are needed–we would like to spend all the time you need, but in productive ways.  The following are the specific instructions for makeup:

Online Lecture, Problem Solving Modules, and associated Quizzes

No makeup is possible for these activities. Please put these in your schedule and start early.

Homework

• • For medical reasons: Due on the first day (not first lecture) you feel better (please email the head TA as soon as possible) unless solutions have been posted; in which case, homework can no longer be accepted (your homework average will be based on the rest of the homework).

  • For non-medical reasons: Prior approval from the head TA is required. The due date does not change but email the head TA if you are out of town.

  • Makeup homework: Only when agreed upon by the head TA. Please submit on Canvas.

  • Late homework will get a zero grade.

Exam

Two weeks’ notice before the exam date noting the specific course(s) that the BEE 3500 exam conflicts with and your effort in trying to persuade the other instructor to change dates.  For medical conditions at the last minute, let the head TA know as soon as you feel better and at the earliest time that you can take the exam.

Lectures

Email the head TA if you cannot make it to an in-class problem-solving session or a lecture. Attendance is required. Filled PowerPoints are not provided; you need to get the lecture notes from your classmates.

Covid19

Because we will often be doing groupwork, to keep all of us safe, I am requiring masks for everyone. If there are medical issues related to masking, please email me asap.

Zoom recordings of lectures are not available for absences, including absences due to illness (the course does have a good chunk of recorded content but these are not intended for absences). For any illness, you are expected to keep up with course material by working with a peer in the course. Please reach out to Prof. Datta if you are not able to find a peer.

If you are a close contact with someone who is diagnosed with COVID19, even if you do not experience symptoms, I would appreciate it if you wore a mask for 5 days and tested yourself during that time.

If you have symptoms of COVID19, here is what you should do for my class:

1. Do not come to class if you have symptoms.
2. Email Prof. Datta before class starts to let me know that you are not coming and are instead seeking out an antigen test. I expect that, according to university policy and free access to tests, you will be able to take a test upon noticing symptoms and will have a result within minutes.
3. If the test is negative, I expect you to be in the next class, having caught up on material from a classmate or the shared notes page. Please wear a mask until your symptoms are gone, even if you test negative.
4. If your antigen test is positive, you must immediately upload the result to Daily Check. This action will trigger instructions and a letter of temporary accommodation. You must forward this email to me to receive accommodation. Unlike previous semesters, the system does not send it for you. Once you forward Prof. Datta the letter, we will provide guidance on how you should keep up with material for the next 5 days.

Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity (please read it here).  Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student's own work.

You are encouraged to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in the lecture and the sections with other students. You can give "consulting" help or receive "consulting" help from such students. However, this permissible cooperation should never involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in the form of an email, an email attachment file, a diskette, or a hard copy.

Should copying occur, both the student who copied work from another student and the student who gave material to be copied will automatically receive a zero for the assignment. The penalty for violation of this Code can also be extended to include failure in the course and University disciplinary action.

During examinations, you must do your own work. Talking or discussion is not permitted during the examinations, nor may you compare papers, copy from others, or collaborate in any way. Any collaborative behavior during the examinations will result in failure in the exam and may lead to failure in the course and University disciplinary action.

Help with technology

• Closed captions are available for all of the videos on EdX. You'll need to open the video in YouTube (hover over the video and click the "YouTube" logo at the bottom right) to access them. Let the head TA know if you have trouble accessing these for a particular video.

• Cornell's IT helpdesk can help troubleshoot connectivity issues, whether you are working from home or campus, via phone or email (607-255-5500, itservicedesk@cornell.edu)

• Contact the head TA if you have issues accessing the EdX site or Piazza.
  
  

Help with homework

• Complete problem-solving modules on the web

• Start as early as possible in the week

• Come to Prof. Datta’s office hours

• Come to TA office hours

• Make sure you have checked Piazza.com

• Post your question to Piazza.com

• Work in a group, if needed (we encourage working in a group, as long as you are making sure that you are contributing at about the same level)

Help with exams

• Revisit problem-solving modules on EdX

• Do as many additional problems as you can. There is no substitute for this. To make this feasible, start early and do a few problems on a regular basis. All problems in the text are from the past exams–they get added each year after the exam, so the higher numbered ones are the more recent ones. There are no preferred ones but start from the last problem of the chapter (that will be more recent and also more demanding than the very early ones).

• See a copy of a past exam on the website

• Carefully go through summary pages in your course-notes

• Read the text. For each chapter, notice the major concepts, important terminologies, map, summary (with page numbers), problem-solving discussion, and a list of descriptive questions. Use the problem-solving sections in particular as these were developed with your problem-solving in mind, i.e., when do I use which equation?

• Have group problem-solving sessions, if possible

• Any questions, email TA or Prof. Datta

Help when you miss a class or a submission

• See Makeup Policy tab, above

Help with stress

If you are experiencing undue personal or academic stress at any time during the semester or need to talk with someone about a personal problem or situation, I encourage you to seek support as soon as possible. I am available to talk with you (email me) about stresses related to your work in my class. Additionally, I can assist you in reaching out to any one of a wide range of campus resources, including:

• Your college’s Academic Advising or Student Services Office

• Cornell Learning Strategies Center at 255-6310, lsc.cornell.edu

• Cornell Health at 255-5155, http://health.cornell.edu

• Let’s Talk Drop-In Consultation and Support https://health.cornell.edu/services/counseling-psychiatry/lets-talk

• Peer Support provided by Empathy Assistance and Referral Service at 255-EARS

Help–Accommodations for students with disabilities

In compliance with the Cornell University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students with either an ongoing or short-term disability are encouraged to contact Student Disability Services (SDS) for a confidential discussion of their need for academic accommodations.  SDS is located in 420 CCC building; the phone number is 254-4545.

If things go wrong...during an exam

• Email Prof. Datta

Is it important to have taken or been currently enrolled in Fluid Mechanics?

Yes. The most important part of Fluid Mechanics that we will use is perhaps the section on the boundary layer. There are also important parallels between Fluid Mechanics and Heat and Mass Transfer (the topic of BEE 3500).

Is this course an extension of BEE 2600?

Not at all. We try to overlap some contents in core courses, so there is some material that you have seen in Thermo, BEE 2600, and BEE 1510 that you would see in this course. However, BEE 3500 is a fundamental engineering science course that is focused on one coherent subject matter of transport (heat and mass transfer) processes.

How much math?

Math is not the emphasis in this class. We will use only a tiny fraction of what you learned in the calculus courses. At the beginning of the class, I provide a primer that covers most of the simple math that is regularly used. Other than that, we use the separation of variables techniques that you did in Math 2930.

Can I take another Heat and Mass Transfer course?

Although our primary intent is to teach many of the same fundamentals, we believe learning is more effective when done in the right context. Thus, we cover heat and mass transfer in various biological (bioprocessing/biomedical/environmental) contexts and examples. We also cover some unique content that is critical to biological systems and maybe so in mechanical, chemical, and other systems. Therefore, BEE 3500 is required for all BEE majors.

Is this a biological and environmental applications course?

No, as said earlier, we are really aiming at the fundamentals through the biological/environmental applications. After this course, 4000 level courses should allow you to get into more design.

Where in the real world do I get to practice the material covered here?

These fundamentals are applicable in just about any application. You may want to consider doing the extra credit project where you would look for real-world applications beyond what is covered in this class. See also Cool Stuff on this website.