The Stevens chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers attended the annual Mid-Atlantic Regional conference at the University of Maryland, College Park this past weekend. Nine members traveled outside the small confines of Stevens’ Hoboken campus to participate in many of the conference’s events, including the Chem-E-Car competition and professional workshops.
AIChE chapters came from all over the region; Virginia Tech, Penn State, Cooper Union, College City of New York, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University and many more joined Stevens Institute of Technology at the conference.
The Chem-E-Car competition is the highlight of the annual conference, but this year the Stevens AIChE Chem-E-Car team was unable to compete. According to the current Chem-E-Car chair Nicolas Gural, “the car’s battery only began to work a few days before the conference.” The team also recognized that the car’s weight was too much for the motors.
Although unable to compete, Stevens had many opportunities to learn from their experiences at the conference. “The team and I learned that we really need to redesign our car and battery,” Gural said. “We took pictures of other teams’ cars and battery designs to help fix our own battery issues.”
Chem-E-Car wasn’t the only event that chapters could compete in. Individuals participated in Undergraduate Research Paper and Poster competitions and winners were recognized at Saturday night’s Banquet and Awards Presentation. With projects ranging from “Catalyist Characterization of Fresh and Quenched Samples of Nan-Sized Molybdenum Disulfide for Synthesis of Higher Alcohols” to “Conversion of Triolein to Biodiesel via a Heterogeneous Acid-Catalyzed Interesterification Reaction,” it was clear that the individuals attending this conference put in many hours of hard work.
The conference also hosted several noteworthy speakers, including Deputy Secretary of Renewable Energy at the US Department of Energy Stephen Chalk and President of AIChE, Dr. Cheryl Teich. Chalk spoke at the opening ceremony and gave his advice to the audience: “As you get into a career, you want to wake up every day and do something for the betterment of the nation.” Teich, who received her Ph.D. from Stevens, echoed Chalk’s keynote address, and commended students “for taking the time to compete, network, and learn.”
Alan Rempel, newly elected president of Stevens AIChE, knew that he had to take advantage of this year’s conference. “Stevens [attended] to observe the Chem-E-Car competition and figure out how to create a bid to host the 2017 conference,” said Rempel. “We also made connections with other chapter presidents, chem-e-car projects leaders, and members of the AICHE administration.”At the conference, Alan as well as other members from the chapter attended the “Call to Host” meeting, where the chapters from the Mid-Atlantic region discussed where the upcoming conferences will be held. “Hosting the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in 2017 is a primary goal of the current e-board,” Rempel commented. “The amount of positive press Stevens got from hosting [still] significantly boosts our reputation.”
Attending the conference was very important for the executive board. The organization is dedicated to support chemical engineering students in both academic and professional settings, and “AIChE has lost a lot of its unique value” according to Rempel. He and the rest of the e-board strive to “create an identity and unite the chemical engineering department.” The revival of the chapter’s involvement in the Chem-E-Car competition has added to this initiative, yet there is much work to be done. “This club has historically been very much top-down, with the quality of the president determining the activity of the chapter,” Rempel said. “We have passed a new constitution which is more clear and fairly distributes responsibility among the board.”
Overall, the AIChE is looking for more general body involvement and members’ attendance at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference was a significant step.
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