The Awards Ceremony for the 2015 Student Conference in Salt Lake City acknowledged notable achievements of AIChE student members, recognizing various winners of awards, scholarships, and competitions. The master of ceremonies was Chelsea Monty, Chair of the Student Chapters Committee.
Award ceremony presenters
- Douglas Ludlow, Omega Chi Epsilon
- Amy Theis, SAChE Chair
- David Murhammer, ChemE Jeopardy Chair
- June Wispelwey, AIChE Executive Director
- Cheryl Teich, AIChE President
- Greg Stephanopolous, AIChE President-Elect
- Chelsea Monty, Chair, Student Chapters Committee
Chelsea opened the event by thanking the sponsors including Chevron, the 2015 Chem-E-Car Competition® sponsor; ExxonMobile, the ASC coach sponsor; and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the conference advisor sponsor. She also thanked the ScaleUp Sponsors. The ScaleUp program offers a sponsored membership to all undergraduate students taking any chemical engineering course. In addition, she thanked the 2014-15 Executive Student Committee, who just concluded their year of service.
International Student Chapter Leadership Development Travel Grant
Chelsea then introduced 7 international student chapter leaders who are also recipients of the International Student Chapter Leadership Development Travel Grant. These students are:
- Yörükcan Erbay, Koç University, Turkey
- Juan Perez Gonzalez, U. Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellin
- Mohamed Kotaish, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
- Tanishq Pathak,VIT University in India
- Omeir Riaz, United Arab Emirates University, UAE
- Flavio Santos Urteaga, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
AIChE's Student Paper & Design Competitions
Taking the podium next was Dr. Douglas Ludlow, professor of chemical engineering at the Missouri University of Science & Technology, and president of Omega Chi Epsilon.
He introduced the nine students whose performance at the spring regional conferences earned the opportunity to compete in this year's Student Paper Competition Finals, which will take place on Monday, November 9 from 8:30-11:30am.
- Carol Abraham, Oklahoma State University
- Alexander Golinski, University of Michigan
- Jake Gray, Washington State University
- Dyllan Rives, Auburn University
- Mark Sharp, Rowan University
- Sutinee Sujittosakul, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
- Julia Sun, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Paxton Thedford, University of Texas, Austin
Student Design Competition
Discussing the design competition, Dr. Ludlow described the 2015 competition:
This year's Design Competition challenge was titled, "Alternate Technology for Sour Water Stripping," and a team of judges selected the top solutions in both individual and team categories.
Dr. Ludlow then thanked the judges and announced the winners.
Individual
While there was no first-place winner in the individual category this year, there were two submissions earning second and third place. The A.E. Marshall Award for second place went to Kelli Hogenkamp, Trine University.
Kelli Hogenkamp, Trine University
And the Omega Chi Epsilon Award for third place went to Cale Hyzer, Michigan State University.
Cale Hyzer, Michigan State University
Team
First place in the William A. Cunningham Award Team Category went to Nathan Dierkes, Nick Johnson, and Josiah Smith of the University of Missouri. Honorable mention went to Andrew Betzen, Michael Carlson, and Clint Janzen of Kansas State University.
Nathan Dierkes, Nick Johnson, and Josiah Smith of the University of Missouri
SAchE chair Amy Theis took the stage to introduce SAchE and its mission to promote process safety education in undergraduate chemical engineering curricula globally. Each year SAchE awards prizes to those whose submissions to AIChE's Student Design Competition best apply appropriate priciples and applications of chemical process safety.
Jack Wehman SAChE Team Design Award
Ian Armstrong, University of Iowa
This year's recipients was Ian Armstrong, Austin Hangartner, and Catherine Suchanek of the University of Iowa. Ian accepted the award.
The Ted Ventrone, Ephraim Scheier & Walt Silowska Award
This year's award was presented to Jared Klein, Mai Ngo, and Coogan Thompson of Virgina Tech, who were not ableto attent the ceremony.
ChemE Jeopardy
Doctor David Murhammer, professor at the University of Iowa and chair of the ChemE Jeopardy Competition, took the stage to announce ChemE Jeopardy winners. Click on the links below to see their photos.
- First-place award - University of Maryland, College Park
- Second-place award - University of Iowa
- Third-place award - Georgia Tech
Executive Director June Wispelwey took the stage to thank volunteers who work behind the scenes to promote and ensure the value of AIChE's student awards, competitions, and scholarship programs. She also discussed AIChE's global expansion, before presenting the ScaleUP Sponsor awards.
Awards from ScaleUp sponsors
Aini Palizhati of North Carolina State University and Emmanuelle Wango of Prairie View A&M University were awarded with Chevron’s Scaleup award for their essay submissions on the key process safety issues that a chemical engineer must address in the energy industry.
Aini Palizhati of North Carolina State University
John Hursh of the University of Florida was awarded Dow’s ScaleUp award for an essay submission on how chemical engineers can contribute to renewable energy technology for space colonization.
John Hursh of The University of Florida
Aaron Linsdsey of New Mexico State University, was presented with UOP’s Scaleup award for an essay submission on the effects of recent drop in oil prices for green fuels.
Aaron Lindsey of New Mexico State University
Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology Award
This year's Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology (YCOSST) Award went to Michigan Technological University's student team for their project of developing a guide for harnessing low-grade geothermal energy from minwater for heading and cooling buildings. Edward Louie accepted the YCOSST award on behalf of the team.
Edward Louie, Michigan Tech University
This award is presented annually by AIChE's Institute for Sustainability. It recognizes the competing EPA "People, Prosperity and the Planet" P3 team whose project best employs sustainable practices, interdisciplinary collaborations, engineering principles, and youth involvement.
Cheryl then talked about how Engineers Without Borders helps build a better world through engineering projects that empower communities to meet basic human needs. She then recognized the Spring 2015 winners, Kavitha Chintam and Sarah Trossman from the University of Pittsburgh, who conducted a project on Tapagam Water Supply.
2015 President-Elect Greg Stephanopolous took the stage and quizzed students in the room as to how many working engineers they know and how AIChE can be a part of their job search.
- How many of you know a chemical engineer in a manufacturing or process industry?
- How many of you know a chemical engineer in a consulting, design, or regulatory function?
- What's the best way to look for a job?
- How many of you have jobs lined up after gradution?
2016 AIChE President, Greg Stephanopoulos
He encouraged students to use their membership in AIChE to help build their real-world network by participating in their student chapter, get involved with local sections, and meet people at this meeting and others.
Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship Awards
Greg then recognized the 15 winners of the Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship Awards. The award of $1,000 is given to chemical engineering students for their outstanding academic achievement and involvement in student chapter activities. The following students were recognized:
- William Hinker, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
- Victor Hu, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Muna Saber, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Rebecca Slotkowski, North Carolina State University
- Mariah Soyring, Rowan University
- Steven Vincent, New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Danielle Winans, Mississippi State University
- Alexander Yang, University of Virginia
- Yichao Zhang, Kansas State University
- Jonathan Brassard, Université Laval
- Lyndsay Fitzer, Drexel University
- Rahul Gupta, University of Pennsylvania
- John Jarboe, Lafayette College
- Jia Ji Lin, New York University
He also recognized the Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Academic Excellence Award, which is presented to one student in each student chapter for the highest scholastic grade point average during his or her freshman and sophomore years. This year nearly 70 students earned the prize. In addition, more than 50 Freshman Recognition Awards winners were acknowledged. Recipients of this award are individuals from a student chapter who have been most active in freshman year.
Chelsea then took the stage again to award outstanding student chapters for 2015.
Outstanding Student Chapter Advisor Award
This award recognizes an individual's outstanding service and leadership in guiding the activities of an AIChE student chapter in accordance with AIChE principles. This year's award went to Wayne Curtis from Pennsylvania State University.
Wayne Curtis, Pennsylvania State University
Outstanding Student Chapter Award
This year 16 Chapters received the Outstanding Student Chapter Award.
Bucknell University has reached the milestone of being an outstanding student chapter for five consecutive years.
- Brigham Young University
- Bucknell University (outstanding student chapter for five consecutive years)
- Georgia Institute Of Technology (outstanding student chapter for 15 consecutive years)
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- Mississippi State University (outstanding student chapter for 15 consecutive years)
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- North Carolina State University
- Oklahoma State University
- Rowan University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
- The University of Iowa
- University of Kentucky, Paducah
- University of Michigan
- University of South Florida
- University of Virginia
Mississippi State University has won Outstanding Student Chapter for 15 consecutive years
Georgia Institute of Technology, which has reached the milestone of being an outstanding student chapter for 15 consecutive years, earned a special plaque for the achievement.
See photos of all these chapters
The AIChE/CACHE Mobile Device App Competition invites undergraduate student teams to create an app for a mobile device that is deemed to be useful for an AIChE member. The app that is developed must be able to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone. Two awards of $500 are given. The first award is for the best mobile app overall, and the second is for the best mobile app specifically addressing safety. Each team receives a cash award of $500 for their student chapters. This year’s winners will be announced on Monday, November 9.