Engineering students and professionals connected at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2012 Southwest Regional Conference last month, hosted by the UH AIChE student chapter.
The event, held at UH, comprised three days of networking and learning opportunities, including a career fair, competitions and workshops covering topics in exploration and production, refining and chemicals, midstream trading, and intellectual property law.
Over 170 students from nine schools in the region attended, and approximately 60 professionals from over 30 companies engaged in the conference. The student planning committee successfully raised $25,000 for the conference, a sum generously donated by several companies in the oil and gas and engineering industries, as well as the Engineering Alumni Association. A total of $1,500 was awarded to student competitors in the Chem-E Car challenge, Jeopardy Showdown, and paper competitions, said conference chair Pengfei Xiao.
This year’s keynote address featured Dr. R. Gerald Bailey, chairman of Bailey Petroleum LLC in Houston. He discussed the future of the chemical engineering field, particularly career paths and energy policy, with an emphasis on the role of hydrocarbon engineering.
The intercollegiate Chem-E Car competition took place during the conference, in which chemical engineering student teams from the region were challenged to design and construct a size-limited car that is powered by a controlled chemical reaction. The two-part challenge included a poster competition and a performance competition. Posters were judged based on design and documentation of the car, with attention to the car’s safety aspects. The car’s performance was evaluated by its ability to travel a specified distance (between 50 and 100 feet) with a load requirement (between zero and 500 milliliters of water). Distance and load parameters were given to the teams an hour before the competition. The car that most closely met the specified distance won.
UH Chem-E car team members Joshua Dillon, An Dinh, Vincent Nguyen, William Payne, Samir Rostane and Sheli Wilson built a car that uses the catalyzed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to create oxygen, which is fed to an air motor that powers the car. The UH team placed second in the regional competition and will advance to the national competition in October, representing the region with Rice University.