CBE students gather around the Student Chapter of the Year Certificate at the conference. It marked the third time in four years Iowa State’s chapter has received the honor
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Student Conference is in the books, and the tradition of strong recognition for Iowa State Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering students has continued.
For the third consecutive year and the fourth time in five years CBE’s chapter received the Outstanding Student Chapter Award for its high degree of activity and engagement in AIChE.
Individual students also enjoyed important recognition at the event:
- Mariella Vitelli received the Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer Scholarship Award, one of the most prestigious AIChE student scholarship honors, which carries a $1,000 scholarship
- Will Teggatz received the First Year Student Recognition Award
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Michael Galvin (left) and Aaron Bal are shown holding trophies they received for their first and second place finishes, respectively, in conference research poster competitions Eli Shopbell received the Donald F. Othmer Second Year Student Academic Excellence Award
The undergraduate research poster competitions saw strong results as well:
- Michael Galvin finished in first place in the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering category (faculty mentor Wenzhen Li)
- Aaron Bal received second place honors in the category of computing and process control (faculty mentor Luke Roling)
The Iowa State Chem-E-Car team received the AIChE Safety and Chemical Engineering Education (SAChE) award from the safety judges at the event. This marked the eighth straight year an ISU Chem-E-Car effort qualified for the national event through placing in the top three at the Midwest regional conference earlier in the year. Unfortunately, a technical issue interfered with the car’s performance in its competition runs, which measure distance traveled and the ability of the cars to stop near a finish line through chemical reactions. However, the team persevered and despite the handicap still managed a 24th place finish out of a record field of 51 cars.
ISU students also competed in the K-12 Outreach competition, presenting ink-powered boats propelled by differences in surface tension, an illustration of the Gibbs-Marangoni Effect, which deals with interaction between air bubbles, liquid and surface tension. The traditional ChemE Jeopardy student knowledge contest was co-hosted by CBE faculty member and AICHE chapter advisor Tom Mansell.
A total of 29 CBE undergraduate students took part in the conference, which was held in San Diego, California. In addition to competitions, the conference provides many social, networking opportunities and career information for students.
Iowa State’s AIChE student chapter is seeking donations for current and future endeavors through the ISU Foundation.