Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Scudder, Paul

Area of Concentration

Computer Science

Abstract

Organic chemistry is traditionally taught from a “Big Data” approach, by providing students with a wide range of different mechanisms for different situations, not necessarily within one unified system. Programs that are intended to help students learn organic chemistry, as well as programs that examine mechanisms, are usually focused on large database approaches as well. Building on Evan Greenlee’s 1999 thesis, Silicon Chemist: Fuzzy System to Solve Organic Mechanisms, this work takes a different approach similar to that found in Paul Scudder’s book, Electron Flow in Organic Chemistry, as well as his Organic Chemistry lectures. A program was created that analyzes mechanisms based on 12 major pathways, rules and trends, rather than databases of molecules. By taking a set of reactants and products, SiC3 finds the path between them. Expanding on Greenlee’s original vision, a robust framework for mechanistic analysis has been created, based more closely on Scudder’s work, with a Web-based graphical interface for students to check the feasibility of mechanisms.

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