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Pharmaceuticals

Designing & Producing Effective Medicines

In this lab, students will learn about the process of drug delivery in the body. By applying fundamentals of transport via diffusion across membranes and pharmaceutical drug encapsulation, students will design a small-scale staged release drug delivery system. Students will assess how effectively they can utilize various materials to encase differently colored tablets in water to stage their release of color in an order predetermined by the student.

Students will:
  • Analyze real-world problems and use critical thinking skills in order to solve them
  • Explore developments in drug delivery systems
  • Design and build a small-scale dual delayed drug release delivery system using material provided
  • Explain the engineering process as it pertains to their design and reflect on opportunities to improve it
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    Lab time commitment

    75-100 minutes (including 30-minute intro video)

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    Live Q&A session and wrap up with

    College Students & Professional Engineers

Join our Lab Day event!

Pharmaceuticals

Learn about Lab Days
speaker-photo
January 30, 2025
Maria E. Lopez Merino

Operations Senior Manager

Amgen

speaker-photo
Emma O'Shea

New Product Development Engineer

KLS Martin Group

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Kristine T. Budill

Director, Engineering, Architecture & Design Program and Director, Leadership Institute in Finance

School of the Holy Child

Learn more

Classroom Tools & Resources

Get access to all of the presentation materials, workbooks and resources to run the Pharmaceuticals lab in your classroom.

Lab Intro Videos

Get our engineer’s introduction to the lab topic and learn more about the lab activity.

If you've completed the lab intro, you can find additional optional lab extensions beginning at timecode 27:01.

Meet the lab intro host

Erik O. Einset
Operating Principal, Global Infrastructure Partners

Erik has over 25 years of experience in various engineering and leadership roles, including 17 years at GE in R&D, product development, process improvement, technical sales, and business management. Since 2008, he has been a member of the operations team at Global Infrastructure Partners, working on business improvement in a variety of infrastructure businesses in the energy and transportation sectors. Erik is the author of 6 patents and numerous technical publications, and holds Chemical Engineering degrees from Cornell University (BS) and the University of Minnesota (PhD).
Erik O. Einset

Operating Principal, Global Infrastructure Partners

Erik has over 25 years of experience in various engineering and leadership roles, including 17 years at GE in R&D, product development, process improvement, technical sales, and business management. Since 2008, he has been a member of the operations team at Global Infrastructure Partners, working on business improvement in a variety of infrastructure businesses in the energy and transportation sectors. Erik is the author of 6 patents and numerous technical publications, and holds Chemical Engineering degrees from Cornell University (BS) and the University of Minnesota (PhD).
Lab Day Keynote

Every Engineering Tomorrow Lab Day event ends with an inspiring keynote from an engineering expert. Watch this one from the latest Pharmaceuticals Lab Day.

Liangliang Hao

Assistant Professor
Boston University

WHY ENGINEERING TOMORROW
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Cutting-edge instruction designed by professional engineers.
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