CU AIChE Student Chapter Hosts 2015 Regional Conference

As the host of the 2015 AIChE Rocky Mountain Student Regional Conference, the CU AIChE student chapter was thrilled to welcome 250 conference attendees to campus this April.

11 of the 13 Rocky Mountain Region universities braved an unexpected snowstorm to attend the three-day conference. The region includes schools from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

Highlighted events included the Chem-E-Car Competition, the Chem-E-Car Poster Competition, a career fair, the Student Paper Competition, Chem-E-Jeopardy, industry-led workshops, a welcome dinner, an awards banquet, and various social activities.

Conference Chair Mari Leivan led a team of 12 student chairs and 3 advisors, with events taking place across campus in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, the Engineering Center, the Math Building, and Carlson Gym. EH&S and ChBE Safety Coordinator Ann Greco were instrumental in ensuring safe practices prevailed at the Chem-E-Car Competition, which has had some exciting safety moments at past conferences.

The CU Chem-E-Car Team not only won the Poster Competition, but also beat out 11 other registered teams to win the Chem-E-Car Competition. Their car, the Turbo Buffalizer 6000 Remix, traveled 56 ft to within 1.5 inches of the finish line. The Spirit of Competition Award was given to New Mexico State University, who in their exuberance picked up their car after its run before the finish distance could be recorded, resulting in a DQ.

Kate Sciamanna of the Colorado School of Mines was the winner of the Student Paper Competition, while Arizona State University prevailed in Chem-E Jeopardy.

Professor Alan Weimer gave the Awards Banquet keynote address titled, “We Need You!” He spoke about the need for students to be innovative, to take risks, to be ethical, to work hard, to solve major problems, and to be leaders.

“We would like to extend our thanks for the financial support and career fair participation of gold-level sponsors Chevron and ExxonMobil and silver-level sponsors AECOM, Corden Pharma, Flagship Biosciences, NREL, P&G and Shell,” said Conference Chair Leivan. “We would also like to thank all our fellow schools for making this year’s conference so much fun; our AIChE chapter is already looking forward to next year’s conference at the University of Arizona!”

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