Northeast Student Regional Conference and ChemE Car a BIG Success

2011 AIChE Northeast Student Regional Conference Host - University of Rhode Island

(Written by Robin Ng, YPAB Chair)

This year, AIChE Northeast Student Regional Conference was hosted by the Department of Chemical Engineering at University of Rhode Island on April 2^nd. The conference was held in the University's new Center for Biological and Life Sciences building on campus. It was attended by approximately 200 students from schools around the region.

In the morning, there were several activities that students could attend: the paper competition, workshops, and Chem-E car poster competition. As a young professional representative, I was asked to be one of the judges for the Chem-E car poster competition. Each participating team was judged on their design description, creativity, uniqueness of their design, safety, and overall poster presentation. A lot of attention was given to the safety of the designs. I very much enjoyed judging the posters as well as learning from the participants.

Cornell University, the winner of 2011 AIChE Northeast Student Regional Conference Chem-E Car Competition, in action during the Chem-E Car competition.

There were also two workshop presentations during the conferences: A Career Guidance in Life Sciences and Research Opportunities for Undergraduate Students. The former presentation was given by one of my contacts in the industry, Lauren Celano, who is the Co-founder and CEO of Propel Careers. This first experience with AIChE impressed Lauren. The afternoon was filled with the Chem-E Car competition (with BIG Red taking first place) followed by a Chem-E Jeopardy.

Congratulations to the URI students for their leadership and hosting of this wonderful conference! I would also like to congratulate the winners of the various competitions throughout the weekend:

ChemE Car Competition:
1^st Place: Cornell University
2^nd Place: University of Maine
3^rd Place: Clarkson University
4^th Place: University of New Hampshire
5^th Place: Northeastern University

ChemE Car Poster Competition:
1^st Place: Northeastern University
2^nd Place: Cornell University
3^rd Place: University of Maine
Most Creative Award: Clarkson University

Research Paper Competition:
1^st Place: Jean Fang (MIT)
2^nd Place: Ksenia Timachoua (MIT)
Honorable Mention: Daniel DeCiero (WPI)

ChemE Jeapardy:
1^st Place: Stony Brook
2^nd Place: WPI

Do you have experiences to share from the Northeast Student Regional Conference?