Chemical Engineering Students Take Top Prize
A team of students from the UC Davis Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science won first place in the Chem-E-Car competition, one of several contests held at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers‘ (AlChE) 2015 Western Student Regional Conference.
The conference was held April 24-25, 2015 at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. This first-place victory qualifies the Aggie engineering team to move forward and compete at the upcoming AlChE Annual Meeting, taking place Nov. 8-13 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Chem-E-Car is an AlChE competition that challenges university students to design and construct a shoebox-sized car powered solely by a chemical energy source; the vehicle must safely carry a specified load over a given distance, and then stop as close to the assigned range as possible. Common power sources have included batteries, pressure systems and fuel cells. Vehicles are judged on creative design, pre-performance posters and presentation, comprehension of environmental and safety elements, and overall performance.
The UC Davis team was led by Chris O’Connor, Nick DiPressi, Amy Ly and Jordan Provost. More than 40 student engineers participated in the design and construction of their team vehicle, dubbed “Leadfoot,” which proudly displayed College of Engineering logo decals (Video). Most of the students made the trip to Pomona, where they competed against nine other teams. The specified distance was 23 meters, and the load was 366 mL of water. When the dust had settled, Leadfoot’s run of 19.54 meters came closer to the goal — by roughly 2 meters — than any other competitor.
The Aggie engineers were even more delighted by their subsequent “victory run,” when Leadfoot stopped after 23.66 meters: a mere 66 centimeters from the goal line.
Chem-E-Car, Chem-E-Jeopardy, a Student Paper Competition and numerous other activities, begin each year with multiple regional heats, all climaxing at the AlChE Annual Meeting. Aside from their mission to engage young engineers, these events are designed to increase awareness of the chemical engineering discipline among the public, educators, industry leaders and other students.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 45,000 members from more than 100 countries. The Institute’s mission includes promoting excellence in chemical engineering education and global practice; upholding and advancing the profession’s standards, ethics and diversity; stimulating collaborative efforts among industry, universities, government and professional societies; and advocating public policy that embraces sound technical and economic information that represents the interest of chemical engineers.
