By Shilpan Sheth and Cory D. Jensen
This year marked the third annual AIChE/CACHE Mobile Device App Competition. Two awards were given: one for the overall best app, and a second for the best app that focuses on safety. Each winning team’s AIChE student chapter will receive an award of $500.
UC Riverside students win best app award
Jose Figueroa and Shilpan Sheth from the University of California, Riverside won the award for the best mobile device app with their creation called ThermoFun, which was written for Android devices. ThermoFun calculates thermodynamic phase and chemical equilibria. The app consists of a mobile/tablet application that can help students learn more about thermodynamics. It is designed to help solve ideal and modified Raoult’s Law problems, as well as graph phase diagrams and solve chemical equilibrium problems.
Jose Figueroa and Shilpan Sheth, University of California Riverside, "Best Mobile Device App"
Shilpan describes his experience in the competition, saying, "Prior to this summer, I had very little programming experience, having taken nothing more than an introductory C++ course. When my thermodynamics professor challenged our class to create a functional application, I was interested by the challenge, but had no idea where to start! I spent countless hours on websites like YouTube and Stack Overflow learning to piece a simple program together. Eventually through the help of online resources I was able to learn how to program in Java, create an app in Android Studio, and even create a calculator. By the end of the summer, I was able to create a high functioning calculator that performed precise phase and chemical equilibrium calculations for a variety of systems."
"Although, I have only recently started programming, I find it very enjoyable and am very passionate about it. I aim to further develop my skills and pursue a career that utilizes both chemical engineering and computer programming. As technology continues to improve, we see parallel improvements in computer-based computational ability and the growing importance of software as well as instant access to data in chemical engineering. I hope others see the importance of programming in the future of chemical engineering and use my example to know that with a little bit of effort, programming can be fun, easy, and useful.”
Rowan University students win best safety app award
Mariah Soyring and Luke Howard from Rowan University won this year for the best mobile device app with a major focus on aspects of safety. Their app, Chemical Spill, is written for Android devices. The app is designed for use in a laboratory setting and addresses the issues presented by a dangerous chemical being released into the vapor space of a hood or a room. A safe time to return to the room is calculated based on user inputs for room and spill conditions. The safe time is based on the vapor phase concentration being less than one-quarter of the lower flammability limit of each chemical. This gas phase concentration is predicted from a mass balance on the vapor phase and liquid phase of the spilled compound. In addition, the app provides safety information on the proper way to store chemicals and provides chemical properties.
Mariah Soyring, Luke Howard, Rowan University, "Best Mobile device APP with focus of safety"
Looking ahead to future competitions
The competition committee continues to look for new ways to engage more students and improve the competition. Some of the ideas currently being discussed include (1) providing for a blog and forum (i.e., BAF) to connect and inform nascent app enthusiasts, (2) creating some basic tutorial apps, (3) holding an app help session at the AIChE Annual Meeting, and (4) spreading the word about the competition through increased social media coverage.
The app competition committee holds a technical session at the Annual Meeting amd is sponsored by the Education Division. We would love to hear further feedback from students and teachers alike! If you have feedback, please leave it below in the comments section.
Shilpan Sheth is a fourth-year ChE student at the University of California, Riverside. Cory D. Jensen is a chemical engineer who works at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC.