A team of University of Houston chemical engineering students captured first place at the annual Chem-E Car Competition during the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Regional Meeting at Texas A&M University-Kingsville on March 8, beating out teams from four other schools to earn an opportunity to represent the region at the national competition this fall.
"It is exciting to see chemical and biomolecular engineering students from all levels work together as a team to design a car," said Micky Fleischer, adjunct professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. "The entire team put a lot of very good thinking together using fundamental engineering concepts, which included safety and the environment, and worked hard to achieve the objectives. They did an excellent job and becoming the number one team was a well-deserved reward."
The purpose of the event is to provide an experimental exercise for students that promotes teambuilding and regional competition. The teams are challenged to build a vehicle powered by chemical reactions that is capable of traveling a specified distance while bearing a load. Led by captain Josiah Cantu and advised by Fleischer, the UH team designed a hydrogen-powered car named "The Supercoog" that utilized the reaction between manganese dioxide and hydrogen peroxide to create oxygen. The oxygen then reacts with hydrogen emitted from two attached balloons to power the vehicle.
Each group must design the car to meet specific calibration guidelines and provide preliminary performance data as part of the competition. The UH team beat out teams from Lamar University, Texas A&M University, Texas A&M-Kingsville, and Texas Tech University.
"We are very excited to be representing the region in the national competition in Philadelphia this fall," said Cantu. "We worked hard on the vehicle design and we hope it's competitive on that level."