In the 1970s, a group of chemical engineers from industry and academia, led by MIT Professor of Chemical Engineering Larry Evans, had a vision. Computer automation was being applied to other engineering disciplines – civil, mechanical, electrical – why not chemical?

They knew that the potential application of that vision was in the world of process manufacturing – energy, chemicals and other industries that manufacture and produce products from a chemical process. Their premise was that computer simulation and models could help manufacturers find ways to make products like fuel, gasoline and complex chemical components less expensively and more efficiently.

Coincidentally, in the late 1970s energy shortages and the resulting “oil shock” was causing major economic and political disruption in America and abroad. As the U.S. faced an energy crisis, MIT created an Energy Laboratory to facilitate collaboration between university and industry.

Evans saw an opportunity to apply the burgeoning computer-aided chemical engineering technology to market requirements that were being driven by the energy crisis. Supported by funding from the newly formed Department of Energy (DOE), the ASPEN (Advanced System for Process Engineering) Project was started in 1977.