ECH 1, Winter 2023

The Design of Coffee

GE Credit: Science and Engineering; Visual Literacy and Scientific Literacy (3 units)
Instructors
Prof. William Ristenpart & Prof. Tonya Kuhl
wdristenpart@ucdavis.edu, tlkuhl@ucdavis.edu
Head TA
Kristen Fawole, kfawole@ucdavis.edu

Schedule
Lecture: one hour weekly on Mondays at 3:10 – 4:00pm, in Medical Science C 180
Laboratory: 2 hours weekly, in Everson Hall room 126

Required lab manual

The Design of Coffee: An Engineering Approach, 3nd edition,
by Ristenpart & Kuhl, ISBN: 979-8474576558,
available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FSCDY18, or through Equitable Access
 IMPORTANT: Get the 3rd edition, not the 2nd edition (it is obsolete)

Office hours
Professors: by appointment
TA Office Hours: daily, see detailed schedule (page 3)

Course Objective:
This class is intended to serve as a non-mathematical introduction to how engineers approach and
solve problems, as elucidated by the process of roasting and brewing coffee. The instructors will provide
qualitative overviews of the basic principles of engineering analysis and design, and then guide the
students in corresponding laboratory experiments testing the effect of design choices on the sensory
qualities of coffee. In this manner, students will learn that even a process with only two “chemicals” –
coffee beans and water – can have tremendous variability depending on the design choices.

Grading:
Lab write-ups (Group) 35%
Design project video (Group, due 11:59pm March 22) 25%
Pre-lab quizzes (Individual, online, open book) 15%
Final exam (Individual, online, open book) 15%
Lab conduct, safety, cleanup (Individual) 10%
There are no midterms, and the final exam is multiple choice, open book, and
online. Ignore the final exam schedule posted by the registrar for this course.
Course Format:
Each week will begin with a 50-minute live in-person lecture about a different chemical engineering
principle, with a focus on how that principle is manifested in the production of coffee. We will then go
into the laboratory to perform complementary experiments to elucidate or test those engineering
principles – and then of course to taste the resulting coffee!

Page 1 of 3
 Pre-lab quizzes. Each week a short “pre-lab” reading assignment from the lab manual will be due prior
to the lab exercises (typically focusing on the key safety points and scientific ideas underlying the lab.)
There will be a short, 4 question multiple choice online quiz (via Canvas) that you must take prior to your
lab session. The online quizzes are open-book, but you are not allowed to collaborate with other students.
You are required to take the pre-lab quiz prior to the lab; there is no making up missed pre-lab quizzes
regardless of reason. Your lowest pre-lab quiz score will be dropped.
Lab Reports. The lab exercises themselves will typically be performed in groups of three students.
After the lab, each group will submit online a short lab report summarizing their qualitative and/or
quantitative findings, typically due before the next lab. Late reports lose 25% per day; your name and
student ID number must be on the report to receive credit. See the “sample lab report” and the material
in the introduction of the lab manual for advice on how to make a good lab report. Your lowest lab report
score will be dropped.
Design contest. In the final week of the course, each group will prepare their “ideal cup of coffee”
that will be judged in a blind taste testing. The winning groups from each section receive some bonus
points; the results of the contest do not otherwise directly affect your grade. Each group will prepare a
maximum 5-minute long video that describes their design decisions and results (described below in more
detail). Your group’s design project video must be submitted online by 11:59pm Wednesday of finals
week. You are encouraged to submit it earlier; late submissions won’t be accepted.
Final exam. At the end of the quarter, there will be an approximately 30 question multiple choice
online quiz that covers both the lecture material and the lab material for the course. This quiz is also
open-book (like the pre-lab quizzes), but again you are not allowed to collaborate with other students.
The final quiz will be open from Monday 8 am to Thursday 11:59 pm of finals week, and you may use any
2-hour continuous time period that is convenient for you while it is open. If you miss the final quiz, there
is no making up the quiz regardless of reason. You may ignore the final exam schedule posted by the
registrar for this course.
Safety and Lab Participation:
All labs will be conducted in the Everson Hall 126, which is a food-grade facility. Unlike most labs on
campus, you are allowed to eat or drink food within this lab. This means, however, that absolutely no
hazardous chemicals or materials are allowed inside, only food grade products. Furthermore, hygiene is
important. Everyone must wash their hands upon entering the lab, and everyone must help clean-up their
station at the end of lab. Only drink from your own cup. Lab coats and gloves are not necessary.
Since this is a lab course, your active participation in lab is important, and lab conduct is worth 10
points total for your grade. You receive one point for each scheduled lab session that you arrive to on
time and actively participate in; you also receive one point for submitting your signed safety sheet for Lab
Safety. You may miss up to two labs for any reason without penalty. The office hours (see schedule) are
intended for laboratory make-up or to finish lab exercises that you could not finish for whatever reason
during the regularly scheduled lab.
The main safety hazard in this course is the risk of burns: the coffee pots and roasters can get hot
enough to cause severe burns if contacted with bare skin. Exercise great caution around them; note that
“horseplay” or other misconduct will result in expulsion from the laboratory and almost definitely a failing
grade in the course. The other safety hazard involves fires: just like bread can catch fire in a toaster, coffee
beans can catch fire in a roaster. Never leave the roaster unattended, and pay special attention to the
instructor and TA guidelines on safe use of all equipment. If you have any safety questions, ask!
Students are expected to follow the UC Davis Code of Academic Conduct, which is described in detail
at http://sja.ucdavis.edu/files/cac.pdf. Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Please note that the $30 course material fee you pay for this course pays for supplies you use in the
lab, such as the coffee beans, paper filters, coffee bags, paper towels, soap, etc. Please be respectful of
these materials and try not to waste them. Towards that end, please feel free to bring a travel mug to lab
to take any left-over brewed coffee with you so that it doesn’t go to waste – any coffee you brew is yours
to drink!
Page 2 of 3
Coffee Design Project:
The main goal of the coffee design project is to make the best cup of coffee, using the least amount
of electrical energy. Each group will receive a score defined by the ratio
Blind Taste Test Score
Final Score =
Total Electrical Energy
This score is for the contest only, and does not directly affect your grade (except inasmuch that winning
the contest will earn you bonus points!) The group in each section that receives the highest final score
‘wins’ the design project and will receive a bonus. The inputs into the final score are defined as follows.
• The coffee will be judged in a blind taste test by a panel of your peers on a scale of -10 to
55 (where -10 is the worst cup of coffee in the history of mankind, and 55 is nirvana in a
cup.) The scores from each of the panelists will be averaged together.
• Your group must keep track of how many kilowatt-hours of electrical energy you used
during the entire process of roasting and brewing your coffee. Any piece of equipment
you plug into an outlet must be monitored using the energy meter and included.
In the final weeks of the course, your group will create a video presenting your final design, including the
process flow diagram, mass balances, energy usage and sensory impressions. Exact requirements are
described in the lab manual. The grade for your design project video is broken down as follows: technical
description of the design, 60%; quality of the video, 30%; creativity and originality of the movie and/or
design, 10%. Bonus points are available for coffee quality (taste & energy usage) if you achieve third
place or better during the design contest.

The Design of Coffee: Tentative Schedule for Winter 2023

Week Date Monday Lecture Topic Laboratory Experiment

1 9-Jan What is chemical engineering, & what does it have to do with coffee? Lab 1 - Safety Overview & Introduction to Tasting Coffee
2 16-Jan Holiday (Virtual Lecture): post harvest processing virtual lecture Lab 2 - Reverse Engineering a Drip Coffee Brewer
3 23-Jan Material Balances: An overview of making coffee Lab 3 - Process Flow Diagram and Mass Balances for Coffee
4 30-Jan Chemical Reactions: Roasting and brewing to perfection Lab 4 - The pH of Coffee and Chemical Reactions
5 6-Feb Energy Balances: What is energy, and how is it used in coffee? Lab 5 - Measuring the Energy Used to Make Coffee
6 13-Feb Mass Transfer: Extraction as the heart of coffee Lab 6 - Mass Transfer and Flux during Brewing
7 20-Feb Holiday (Virtual Lecture): coffee as a colloidal fluid virtual lecture Lab 8/9 - Pressure Driven Flow & Filtration
8 27-Feb Mass Transfer: Extraction as the heart of coffee Lab 11 - First Design Trials: Optimizing Strength & Extraction
9 6-Mar Process Design: Putting it all together Lab 12 - Second Design Trials: Scaling up to 1 Liter
10 13-Mar Course Recap and Guest Speaker Lab 14 - Design Competition and Blind Taste Panel
Finals 22-Mar Submit group video project, and take online final exam (open book, multiple choice)

Coffee Lab Schedule - Winter 2023

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

8:00 AM ECH 1Y - A01
9:00 AM TA Meeting ECH 5 - A01 ECH 1 - A03 ECH 1Y - A07
10:00 AM OH 1 ECH 1 - AU6
11:00 AM (honors, WDR/TLK) ECH 5 - A02 ECH 1 - A04 ECH 1Y - A08
12:00 PM OH 2 ECH 1Y - A02
1:00 PM ECH 5 - A03 ECH 1 - A05 ECH 1Y - A09
2:00 PM OH 3 ECH 1Y - A03
3:00 PM ECH 1 - A01 ECH 1Y - A05 OH 9
4:00 PM OH 4 ECH 1Y - A04
5:00 PM ECH 1 - A02 ECH 1Y - A06 Cleaning
6:00 PM OH 5 ECH 1Y - A10
7:00 PM OH 7 OH 8
8:00 PM Cleaning OH 7
9:00 PM Cleaning Cleaning
Cleaning

3:00 PM ECH 1 Lec ECH 5 Lec ECH 5 Lec

(Med Sci C 180) (Wellman 234) (Wellman 234)

All labs and office hours in Everson 126.

You may only attend your scheduled lab session, but you may attend any office hour

Page 3 of 3