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American Institute of Chemical Engineers

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

By Ray Ray

This weekend, Bucknell's Student Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) sent 5 students to participate and compete in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Student Conference held this year at Hampton University in southern Virginia. The three major events of this conference are the student research Paper Competition, the research Poster Competition and the ChemE Car Competition.

Bucknell students won or placed in all of the competitions among a pool of over 150 students from 16 universities. Bucknell's Renee Perry '09 took 3rd place in the Paper Competition, Ben Aldrich '11 and Janet Tesfai '10 took 1st and 2nd place respectively in the Poster Competition, and the ChemE Car Team (Eric Dybeck '11, Ben Aldrich '11, Damon Vinciguerra '11) took 1st place in their competition. Additional members of the ChemE Car Team not present at the actual competition included chemical engineers Brian Smith '09, Nick Hanes '09, Andrew Lowrie '11, Drew Hackman ‘11, Brian Priolo '11, and Drew Bundschuh '11 plus mechanical engineer Chris Shake '09.

For the paper and poster competitions, students present technical research conducted in the past year usually with a Bucknell University faculty mentor. Renee Perry (working with Prof. Erin Jablonski) presented on “Formation and Separation of Calcium Alginate Capsules in a Microfluidic Device”. Ben Aldrich (working with Prof. Wakabayashi) presented on “Solid State Fabrication of Polymer Nanocomposites”. Janet Tesfai (also working with Prof. Jablonski) presented on “Capsule Formation and Separation in a Microfluidic Device”.

The other major event, the ChemE Car Competition, was also a great success. For this event, team members design and construct a chemically powered vehicle within certain size constraints. The teams of 5 or more students are told 30 minutes before the competition the distance that the car must travel and the cargo weight that the vehicle will carry. The winner is determined for traveling closest to the specified distance. Teams compete at the regional conferences, and the top finishers at each regional conference will compete at the national conference this November in Nashville.

Bucknell won FIRST place by coming within less than 2 feet from the target finish line on a 70 ft outdoor course with their Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell Car.

Congratulations to all of our students who participated!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

By Baldrich

EWeek has come and gone, and last I checked, we’re still the champions. It feels good to be on top. Eventually I’ll get around to posting some pictures...if you have not seen the WINNING video, the link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBj3ykG7UZE

Saturday, February 21, 2009

By Baldrich

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! GOLDEN HAMMER WOOHOO! Take that Biomeds!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

By Baldrich

Wow. It’s been quite a long time since the last post. It’s spring semester now, which means the freshman are taking CHEG200 and it’s about time for EWeek! Please contact Danielle Woodhead (contacts page) if you want to get involved with the competition (movie, banner, cookie eating, art, poetry, etc.) Hopefully everyone is having a good semester so far. Explore the website; there have been a few changes here and there. More to follow soon.

Monday, December 1, 2008

By Baldrich

All—Sorry this has not been updated more recently. A lot has happened since the end of October, chiefly, an incredibly successful National Conference in Philadelphia. First and foremost, I would like to extend a huge thank you to the faculty and students involved in the conference. It truly was an incredible experience and amazing weekend.

Below is a link to a story about our ChemE Car Team, which performed amazingly, and as our President, Danielle Woodhead, who not only helped organize and manage a fantastic event, but also represent all chemical engineering undergraduate students at the Centennial Fundraising Gala, a black-tie event honoring the chief executive officers of ExxonMobil, Merck, Dupont and Dow Chemical.

http://www.bucknell.edu/x46530.xml

Below is a summary of the weekend from Professor Raymond:

This past weekend, Bucknell Unviversity's Student Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) co-hosted the National Student Conference in Philadelphia. Over 25 students participated in numerous events including the student research poster session, workshops, and the annual ChemE Car Competition. Bucknell's Juan Alberto Lopez Ruiz (MS'09), earned second place in the Environmental Division of the poster sesssion while the ChemE Car team came in sixth place. Also recieving awards at the conference were Nick Hanes ('09) who won the Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship Award, Matt Divack ('10) who won the Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Academic Excellence Award, and Damon Vinciguerra ('11) who won the Freshman Recognition Award. Additionally, student chapter president Danielle Woodhead ('09) was chosen to represent all chemical engineering undergraduate students by speaking at the Centenial Fundraising Gala, a black-tie event honoring the CEO's of ExxonMobil, Merck, Dupont, and Dow Chemical. As a co-host student chapter, along with Drexel, NJIT, and Rowan, Bucknell was responsible for organizing and running several of the weekend events attended by a total of over 1,600 undergraduate chemical engineers from across the country. Bucknell's Damon Vinciguerra ('11) designed the official conference T-shirt while most of the other Bucknell students helped plan and run various other aspects of the conference including registration, prizes for competitions, and the Student Bash.

The Student Conference was the opening event to the AIChE Centennial Annual Meeting celebrating the 100th anniversary of AIChE. Before this professional conference began, Bucknell hosted a reception for alumni, students, faculty, and friends of the Chemical Engineering Department. At the meeting this week, chemical engineering faculty and students presented a total of 22 talks and posters covering a range of topics encompassing areas such as materials science, energy, sustainability, atmospheric chemistry, and engineering education. The entire chemical engineering department faculty participated in these events, talks, and posters.

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Also, Congrats to Damon Vinciguerra for being elected/chosen/volunteering to be the new Executive Student Committee Regional Liaison. Ask him if you want to know what he does.

Last Updated:

April 20, 2008

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